MX Linux Forum

I've been having some issues with my 15 year old Acer desktop hanging during boot up. After some troubleshooting, some of the users on the Software forum suggested that the power supply might be going bad and suggested that I replace it. I measured the power being drawn by the computer during operation and it came out to be about 100 watts. The computer has two Crucial 250 Gb SSDs, a 3.5" floppy drive, and a DVD drive installed. There are also two older HDDs that are still in the machine but not connected, just in case I need them for something in the future.

There are a lot of inexpensive power supplies on Amazon, but I would rather spend some extra cash and get one of higher quality. Can someone recommend a power supply that will fit my computer, and has the necessary power connectors? A photo of the computer is shown below.

Thanks in advance.

Is this the machine? And just for giggles... there is no DVD in that drive ? ( I have seen VERY long posts with some dvd drives that have a dvd in them.)

Here is the machine info from my original post. It is the same as you posted above.

achine: Type: Desktop System: Acer product: Veriton M265 v: P01-A1 serial: <filter> Chassis:
type: 3 serial: <filter>
Mobo: Acer model: EG31M v: P01-A1 serial: <filter> BIOS: ACER v: P01-A1
date: 11/10/2009

I checked the DVD drive and there is no disk in it.

The psu in the image looks like it's the standard size, so either of these would be a good buy:
https://www.canadacomputers.com/en/powe ... abu-4.html

or
https://www.canadacomputers.com/en/powe ... 00111.html

Search your local market for them so that you don't get hit with import duties.

@Falcon Thanks for the pic !

Any chance you can get a close-up pic of the capacitors that are positioned at the lower-left of the heat-sink fan (as shown in your pic). It looks like there are 3 just above the PCI-Express slot. The first one looks like it may be bulging (looks like there's a coil to the right of it), and the one below that looks like it has some nasty brown coloration on the top (maybe it has bulged and leaked?).

Also, what's the date on the PSU? And, what is it's Wattage rating? 500 Watts?

Are you sure that the heat sink and fan are still securely mounted on the CPU? (does it jiggle or move a bit if you apply a TINY bit of rotational force? It shouldn't!).

And, is that a floppy in there (attached with the large ribbon cable)???

Would love to hear that it is, and that it works!!!

I tried getting some photos of the caps in question, but I couldn't get the camera to focus and they came out very blurry. However, you're 100% correct that they look bad. The tops of the two caps that you mentioned are bulged slightly outward and one does look like it was leaking. There is also a third cap that you couldn't see that has a bulging top. It's over by the blue connector on the right of the fan unit.

I checked the heat sink mounting and it is solid.

There is no date on the power supply label, but the output is rated at 250 watts.

And yes, the floppy drive does work...or at least it did the last time I used it several years ago.

I used to be an electronics technician before I was promoted to engineer, so this should give me a chance to practice my old trade. (LOL).

I'm wondering if I should replace these three capacitors and see if these will fix the issue before I move on to replacing the PSU.

Falcon wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2025 1:44 pm I tried getting some photos of the caps in question, but I couldn't get the camera to focus and they came out very blurry. However, you're 100% correct that they look bad. The tops of the two caps that you mentioned are bulged slightly outward and one does look like it was leaking. There is also a third cap that you couldn't see that has a bulging top. It's over by the blue connector on the right of the fan unit.

I checked the heat sink mounting and it is solid.

There is no date on the power supply label, but the output is rated at 250 watts.

And yes, the floppy drive does work...or at least it did the last time I used it several years ago.

I used to be an electronics technician before I was promoted to engineer, so this should give me a chance to practice my old trade. (LOL).

I'm wondering if I should replace these three capacitors and see if these will fix the issue before I move on to replacing the PSU.

250 watts is probably enough: does'n look like you have much in there besides the drives and your DVI (?) graphics card. Anyway, the likeliest culprit IS usually the PSU, and it's gotta be old!

Not sure what those caps (on the left are for), though it looks like a classic Inductor/Coil-Mosfet-Caps configuration. And, it looks like there are more caps to the right of the bulging/leaking ones, so they may also be for the same circuit. In any event, those bulging caps may not be causing the problem. I have worked on boards that have a number of bulging caps, and the board worked anyway. It all depends what exactly they are for, and if there are enough redundancies in the circuit. Blah, blah, blah...

What is to the left of the problematic caps? Are those USB ports (on the rear)? Maybe that circuit is for the rear USB ports, or maybe for the PCI-Express card?

Anyway, IMHO, and as others have indicated, I would start with a known good PSU.

The best would be if you could get a loaner, or swap a known good PSU from a working machine, before purchasing a new one, just to make sure that it is the PSU. Then again, they are not so expensive, and maybe it would be good to have a new one, anyway-- especially if you have older hardware around, and may need a new one for another machine.

You mentioned a 2015 rig, and that's also getting on in years, so maybe get a new PSU, just in case?

Anyway, glad to hear you have the Electrical background

Just after I wrote my last post, I thought, "Oh, No! What if the guy electrocutes himself? Can someone sue me? "

Anyway, take necessary precautions, as I'm sure you will

FYI: Going down for halt (now).

Will check this thread tomorrow.

Keep lookin' up

Don't worry, I won't sue you. My widow might, but I won't. (LOL)

I think that I'll pick up a new PSU and install it. I don't think that it can hurt anything. If it solves the problem, then I'll move on to fixing the bad caps.

I have an Acer Aspire TC220
I also had problems with booting up / hanging for 39 secs to a minute
I also checked PS etc etc
It turned out that it was my bootloader which had dozenS of boot-entries from previous installed distros
Using < efibootmgr -v > showed me which ones and using < efibootmgr -b **** -B > removed the unwanted
After that I had no problems anymore
Whatver your problem is, --- > Good luck

Tony45,

This is food for thought.

well spotted by operadude

According to my eyesight the cards appear to be dusty......and dust leads to excessive heat and often makes a system slower.
Especially the lowest card in the photo

speaking of dust....you can buy a cable that is narrow that replaces the wide ribbon cable going to floppy.
https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/22d838 ... 3b70e.jpeg

Falcon wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2025 6:35 pm Don't worry, I won't sue you. My widow might, but I won't. (LOL)

I think that I'll pick up a new PSU and install it. I don't think that it can hurt anything. If it solves the problem, then I'll move on to fixing the bad caps.

Sounds like a plan

BTW: Regarding your statement above, "My widow...":

Seems like a logical conundrum, but explains why nobody believes me when I say, 'I see dead people.'

Oh, and super-thanks to @ghunter for the wicked-cool cable

Falcon, please let us know what happens, and good luck!

Before I go crazy here with this, I'll just ask the question, cuz' I like to understand things. Why would a failing power supply cause the computer to hang at the Acer BIOS screen when the computer is first powered up, but after shutting it off and then powering up again, the bootup sequence works fine, even if I shut down and restart time and time again. It only seems to happen once on a cold start.

I probably should have included this information in the original post, but I had already explained it in the first thread in the Software forum and I neglected to reiterate it again here.

Because it may need a boot / reboot sequence to produce the voltages array required by the motherboard and peripherals. It's only going to get worse. It's like a car where the starter motor is going bad --- the first few times you might have to turn the key or press the start button twice to get the engine to fire, then it become three times, then four, then it becomes random, and finally it won't start at all. The problem is that as it deteriorates, it may also produce power spikes that can fry your motherboard.

Falcon wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2025 8:48 am Before I go crazy here with this, I'll just ask the question, cuz' I like to understand things. Why would a failing power supply cause the computer to hang at the Acer BIOS screen when the computer is first powered up, but after shutting it off and then powering up again, the bootup sequence works fine, even if I shut down and restart time and time again. It only seems to happen once on a cold start.

I probably should have included this information in the original post, but I had already explained it in the first thread in the Software forum and I neglected to reiterate it again here.

No problemo, boss

No skin off my teeth to hear more questions!

It really is above my pay-grade to answer your question, since I do not have a degree in electrical engineering!

Having said that, IMHO, these "power" issues sometimes do reflect something not up to snuff in the PSU. It might be that one of the PSU components is starting to go; maybe some of the circuitry, including the traces on the PSU board, solder joints, etc. are not perfect, and need extra "juice" to work properly. I really am spit-balling here, but I have seen wonky PSUs, that are not dead, just "mostly dead" (for extra-credit, name that movie!).

Like I said before, it may not be the PSU at all, and for that matter, not the "bad" caps, either!

I worked on a friend's computer that was periodically, and unexpectedly, re-booting. He thought it was the PSU, because there was obviously a "power" issue (powering-off). This actually proved to be a VERY TRICKY fault, that took me many hours to diagnose properly. The problem turned-out to be a wonky power-switch cable: the thin wires that connect the power switch to the power-header on the MOBO

I returned the fixed computer with my report, starting from "presenting problem", and concluding with "recommendations". The whole report was 5 pages long! Oh, I also advised him to buy a replacement PSU, which was not a standard ATX form factor, but a proprietary small-form-factor from Dell, but which could be purchased on Amazon. I recommended a new PSU as a backup to his aging (10 years?) PSU, which I had dismantled and thoroughly cleaned anyway, just for the fun of it.

Long story short: it may not be the PSU; or, you may have multiple faults/issues.

If it were I, I would probably buy a new PSU, just in case; I'm also a bit of a hardware junky.

Anyway, please let us know how it goes!

@j2mcgreg

@Falcon His answer sounds highly plausible to me

Well, I guess I'll have to do it. Replacing the PSU is not an easy task because some of the wiring to the drives runs UNDER the MB, I have to practically disassemble the entire computer. I guess if I'm going to replace the caps, I could do that at the same time. I hope that the caps have capacity values and voltages printed on them. I can't really tell until I get the MB out so that I can see them from different angles.

Falcon wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2025 10:18 am Well, I guess I'll have to do it. Replacing the PSU is not an easy task because some of the wiring to the drives runs UNDER the MB, I have to practically disassemble the entire computer. I guess if I'm going to replace the caps, I could do that at the same time. I hope that the caps have capacity values and voltages printed on them. I can't really tell until I get the MB out so that I can see them from different angles.

While you're at it, clean off as much dust as possible (compressed air, or heavy breathing-- yeah, I'm in love with my hardware ).

CRITICALLY, only do ONE change at a time, and test.

I would start with replacing the PSU, test to see if you pass the P.O.S.T. (Power-On-Self-Test-- basically, see if it boots-up). If yes, then fix the rest later.



BTW: If you have never replaced capacitors before, I would definitely watch some YouTube tutorials. Not only are the correct voltages and capacity values important, but also the ORIENTATION, i.e., where the positive and negative legs go. Lots of short videos on YT

Oh, yeah, and easy-does-it with the soldering iron! I have learned the hard way by burning tracks, damaging other nearby components, etc. You will definitely want to practice on a spare board. A lot of the YT videos make it look easy, but it's not soooo easy. Also, make sure you have good solder, solder wick (to clear-up remaining solder, re-do the joint, etc.). You should get all of these tips from a decent YT video on the subject.

Let us know how it goes

Okay, I finally got around to getting the computer fixed. Since there were three capacitors that appeared to be leaking, as evidenced by the bulging tops and brown stains, I disassembled the computer and took out the three bad caps. All of them were 1800 ufd at 6.3 volts and they were the only three caps of this type on the board. After hearing that Japanese capacitors are the best, I looked around in eBay and found some that at least had Japanese names. I replaced the three caps and then was thinking of replacing the power supply also, but the way that Acer ran some of the wiring, I would have had to almost completely disassemble the case to get it all out, so I decided to just put everything back together and see if everything still worked as it had before I went any further. Upon turning on the computer, it went directly to the MX Linux boot menu, without hanging as it had before. Over the next couple of days, I tried the cold start again a number of times and it still works as it should. So it looks like the capacitors were the source of the problem and it was an easy fix. I didn't need the power supply after all, but I still have it in case the one in this computer or my other desktop die at some point.

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions and insights into this that allowed me to get the computer working again.

Good job! and glad to hear it is resolved.

@Falcon

So, it wasn't the PSU

Don't you just LOVE those tricky problems

I am so glad to hear that you persisted and fixed it!

Good On You

Oh, yeah, and also good on you for now having a back-up PSU, just in case (pun intended).

"Oh, just one more thing" (said in the voice and manner of Columbo)....

Thanks for the kudos.