Power Supply Problem

[SmarSquid]

This is my first-time building a system.

Antec SLK1650 retail case with 350 watt power supply.

Here is a list of everything plugged into the motherboard:
Shuttle AN35N-Ultra motherboard
Athlon AMD XP 2500 1.83 Ghz CPU
1 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 AGP video card
2 hard disk drives (1 Maxtor & 1 Western Digital)
Memorex 48MAXX 148AJ CD-RW drive.
HP DVD300I DVD+RW drive
3 cooling fans (front/side/rear).

Running Windows XP Professional.

I was getting "SCSI Command Aborted" and "Power Calibration Error" messages
in Nero when trying to burn DVD or CD on one of my two drives. Built-in XP
burning software reported errors as well. Someone suggested that my power
supply wasn't robust enough and that I should unplug a peripheral. Sure
enough, if I unplug my CD-RW I can get the DVD+R to burn just fine. Plug the
CD-RW back in and wham! the problem returns like clockwork.

My setup is very basic, and I find it really hard to believe that I am
pushing or exceeding the limits of a 350-watt power supply. Not to mention,
I was getting the burning error messges when I had only one cooling fan
running (before installation of the two auxilary fans).

Another possibly-related problem is this: if I try to connect one or both of
my two auxilary fans directly to the motherboard with those 3-pin
connectors, I cannot get power to the motherboard. I hit the switch and the
power comes on and quickly shuts down. If, however, I connect the fan to a
4-pin connector directly to the power supply and NOT to the motherboard
itself, the fans work fine and I can get power to the motherboard.

Please advise. Is my power supply inherently the issue or am I maybe dealing
with a defective one? Is it something else entirely?

 

[Matt]

if I unplug my CD-RW I can get the DVD+R to burn just fine. Plug the
CD-RW back in and wham! the problem returns like clockwork.

And can we assume that the CD-RW motor was not running during failure?
Does the CD-RW housing feel hot? I can't believe that the CD-RW circuit
board would use much power.

My setup is very basic, and I find it really hard to believe that I am
pushing or exceeding the limits of a 350-watt power supply.

I tend to agree. I believe your graphics card doesn't have a fan, so I
guess it doesn't use much power. I would guess you have a good 50W to
spare. It would be good to add up the power specs of your components to
be sure. Try something like this: http://takaman.jp/D/?english Also
amd.com has some literature on calculating power requirements.

Do you have the IDE jumpers set correctly on your optical drives?

 

[SmarSquid]

Actually, my video card does run its own fan. Also, I forgot to mention that
I have a Promise PCI IDE controller installed. Connected to it are one of my
2 hard drives (the other hard drive is connected to the primary onboard IDE
channel) and the CD-RW. The CD-RW is set as master of channel 2 on the PCI
controller. My DVD+RW is connected as master on the secondary onboard IDE
channel. Did you give any consideration to what I said in my original post
about the PC not powering up if I connect the 2 auxilary fans directly to
the motherboard (instead I have to connect the extra fans to the 4-pin
connectors directly to the power supply). A couple of other things, too -
the power supply has a 4-pin connection that matches a 12v female port on
the motherboard. Currently it is not connected; I'm not sure what it does.
Also, from the power supply is a black and blue wired pair that goes to a
3-pin connector of some sort. Don't know what this is supposed to be for
either.

 

[Matt]

Actually, my video card does run its own fan.

Okay, well anyway I've seen a couple models of ATI 9600 that don't have
fans, which means the graphics chip doesn't use a lot of power.

the power supply has a 4-pin connection that matches a 12v female port on
the motherboard. Currently it is not connected; I'm not sure what it does.

That is probably the source of at least one of your problems. That
should be connected. See the ATX12V spec or so at www.formfactors.org

 

[Matt]

Also, from the power supply is a black and blue wired pair that goes to a
3-pin connector of some sort. Don't know what this is supposed to be for
either.

I believe that is for using the motherboard to control the fan speed of
the power supply. Look in your mobo manual for a "system fan header" or
so. Find the specs and manual for your PS at www.antec.com. If you
have fans besides the one(s) included in the case purchase, I doubt that
you will need them.

 

[SmarSquid]

Well, I plugged in the secondary 4-pin 12v connector from the power supply
to the motherboard, and moved the CD-RW from slave on the secondary onboard
IDE channel to master on the secondary IDE channel on the PCI controller
card. I can now connect my two extra fans directly to the motherboard with
no problems, and the CD-RW and DVD+RW drives seem to be performing without
the SCSI Command Aborted or Power Calibration Error messages from Nero.

Howver, my DVD+RW is giving me attitude with my CD-RW disks. Nero will
report the CD-RW as a blank rewriteable disk before I burn. After I burn a
test CD-RW disk with the DVD+RW drive and then go to erase it, Nero and the
DVD+RW drive reports the disk as being "CD read only" and therefore not
erasable. The CD-RW drive will erase the disk just fine. I'm not sure, then,
if this is still a power issue. I guess I will unplug a few things and see
if that changes the behavior of Nero and my DVD+RW when trying to erase
CD-RW disks. true, I can avoid the problem by using the DVD drive for
writing to DVD only, but I'd prefer to have the flexibility.

 

[Dave C.]

Howver, my DVD+RW is giving me attitude with my CD-RW disks. Nero will

report the CD-RW as a blank rewriteable disk before I burn. After I burn a
test CD-RW disk with the DVD+RW drive and then go to erase it, Nero and the
DVD+RW drive reports the disk as being "CD read only" and therefore not
erasable. The CD-RW drive will erase the disk just fine. I'm not sure, then,
if this is still a power issue. I guess I will unplug a few things and see
if that changes the behavior of Nero and my DVD+RW when trying to erase
CD-RW disks. true, I can avoid the problem by using the DVD drive for
writing to DVD only, but I'd prefer to have the flexibility.

It's your brand of media. Switch to a different brand. Try several until
you find a brand that is compatible with your DVD burner. -Dave

 

[Matt]

moved the CD-RW from slave on the secondary onboard
IDE channel to master on the secondary IDE channel on the PCI controller
card.

Not clear why you are using an add-on IDE controller.

 

[SmarSquid]

I've been conditioned to believe that I can get better paging file
performance by placing it on a hard drive connected to a separate controller
from the system hard disk. That's why I put it in my system. Plus, the card
was a carryover from my old system, which had no onboard ATA133 support. I
stuck the CD-RW on that IDE controller just to see if it helped produce
different outcomes regarding the burning errors. The controller card may not
help at all in reality, but I don't think it's detrimental anyway.