insertwackynamehere's Journal: Power Issues

For the last few months I've noticed a slight problem with my PC's power, but its just gotten worse. At first, just a few (decorative) lights on my case were dim and flickery, and then the temperature readout also started to become dim and flickery. Of course, looks aside, there was no problem and I tried to ignore it. A few weeks ago however, booting up became equivalent to starting up a car in which the engine wont turn over. The computer would power up, and restart and power up again hitting the boot process and then restart again. This would repeat a number of times until finally it would start up regulary. More recently, the computer would randomly reboot occasionally, but while annoying, it was not too common. Today it randomly rebooted 3 or 4 times.

I finally opened it up, and checked the power connections (not too thorougly I admit) and also the power switch motherboard connection. Everything seemed in order, but the problem kept occuring. I've decided on my own (and my uncle who taught me most of what I know also said separatly on the phone) that its either a connection (unlikly), the power supply itself (most likely) or flucuations in the power coming into the system.

As of now, its most likely the power supply dying or being overused. Seeing as how I haven't added new components for a year and the problems just started, it's most likely dying. Replacing my power supply, while a common procedure and not too complicated, is going to not be much fun seeing as how its tedious and I've never actually done it before (I only know from some A+ hardware books I've read).

So, if anyone reads this, wish me luck, and leave any comments pertaining to my problem if you think I've missed something or have advice. Of course, before doing this, I'm going to probably get a voltometer or whatever thier called to test if my ps is actually failing (I want confirmation before I undertake a huge procedure) so if anyone has voltometer suggestions I'd appreciate that too.