PC crash - blows e-board fuse

  • Thread starter Thread starter TerryD
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TerryD

The use of XP and Office 2003 has started to cause my PC
to crash. The fuse of the power board is blown and needs
to be reset. I am running a 733mz machine with 40Gig and
380meg of RAM.

Have run Nortons and some Adware files have been
quarantined.

There is no common action or program whhch seems to cause
this, ie. it could be in Outlook or Excel, makes no diff.
 
There is no way that software, any software, can cause an increase in system
current draw and cause a system fuse to blow.

I suggest that you have a hardware problems that is blowing the fuse, and
you are trying to associate it with something you are doing with software.

Look to your hardware for a resolution to your problem!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
Technically a virus could do something like this by affecting the
hardware at a low level or even through the drivers. Some viruses can
take advantage of "overclocking" the system from within Windows. This
could be increasing voltage, it could be increasing the hard disk speed,
or a ton of different things. This would be a very complex virus, but
there are a few like this out there.
 
Crusty said:
There is no way that software, any software, can cause an increase in system
current draw and cause a system fuse to blow.
Click to expand...

Not entirely true. I can see the CPU temp go up about 5-10°C on my
Athlon CPUs when I run Prime95, a FP-intensive app.

But, if running some app blows a PS fuse, then your PS is either
dying or just inadequate for the hardware it powers.
 
No way that software can cause a fuse to blow - as was
properly posted earlier. Those who suggest otherwise are
using classic junk science reasoning. In classic junk science
tradition, they don't provide numbers. Numbers such as what
is the maximum current draw by a computer. And what is the
current rating of the fuse. Fuses are typically 1.5 or 2
times larger than the maximum current draw of a power supply.
And power supplies are typically rated far larger than the
maximum power draw of a system.

Does a CPU get hotter under certain programs? Yes.
Provided on hardware would be numbers for maximum current
draw. Computer system typically draws less than half the
power supply rating. CPU may only increase that power
consumption 10% or 20% to cause a temporary higher
temperature.

No way that software changes hard disk speed. This idea
means the poster has no idea how a computer works. No way
that voltage inside the machine is being increased by
software. Again, insufficient basic knowledge. No way a
computer consuming just over 1 amp will suddenly draw 15 or 20
amps for many minutes.

In the meantime, a properly constructed power supply must
also have overpower protection. If computer draws too much
power, then power supply protects itself by shutting down.
Just another reason why fuse could not blow due to software.

Too many basic electrical concepts were violated by other
replies in this discussion. One must first learn basic
electrical principles before posting technical answers. Too
many posters here do not even have basic electrical knowledge
which is why they 'feel' software can blow a fuse. Classic
junk science reasoning was posted. Software did not blow that
fuse. Just too many reasons why that is not even remotely
possible.
 
I agree with parts of this post, but there are a few flaws. I have only
heard about the hard disk speeding up and do somewhat doubt the
possibility. The only way I could see that happening is you overwrote
the firmware on the drive since I don't think increasing voltages
supplied would do this. It IS, however, possible to raise voltages or
change clock speeds of hardware from within Windows. There are many
tweaking/overclocking software programs that can do this at the hardware
level. There are viruses that can act in the same way. It is also
possible to flash different BIOSes and Firmwares from within Windows, so
why not a virus that is able to do the same thing (could just corrupt
things or change parts of it)? I do agree that there are different
methods of protection on a computer and the power supply that should
prevent things like this from happening.

I would just like to know exactly what is an e-board? Is this the Power
Supply? Is this the motherboard? This is the key part that is missing.
I think they are talking about their power supply, but it almost
sounds like a Mac thing.
 
If software can manipulate power supply voltages, then
please define which wire from motherboard to power supply
carries that command or controls that function? ATX power
supply wires are standard and well defined by Intel specs.
There is no wire to control voltage. There is one wire to
tell power supply to turn off and on. That's it.

Total confusion between the power supply and special voltage
regulator adjacent to the CPU is causing all this
speculation. There is no hardware to permit software to
manipulate power supply voltages.
 
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