After replacing the HDD that was showing excessive re-allotted sectors with another of equal size and cloning my Windows disk image to it, I also got a bigger HDD to replace it.
I decided to go with a fresh install of Windows on the new HDD but the optical drive had a hard time reading the Microsoft install disk...kept getting 'can not copy file xxxxx.dll, Abort?'...So I figured I had a bad CD/DVD (they deteriorate over time) so I ordered a new optical drive/DVD burner.
While waiting, I tried a slipstreamed Windows install CD with all the service packs installed...It worked fine on two other PCs. So now I'm congratulating myself on diagnosing the problem correctly...
Wrong! The PC needed cleaning so while I had it apart I noticed that one of the two PSU's fans wasn't spinning...Not a big deal, plain bearings, they get hot and eventually seize, I have several spare fans to replace a burned-out fan.
When I took the PSU apart I found the problem...Not the optical drive, but the capacitors in the PSU...
First pic shows the bad power supply unit with red lines pointing to the burst-open caps leaking electrolite (the brown slime)...
Second pic is the other half of the dual-PSU setup, all caps look good, none bulged, no leakage.
So, with a new DVD burner on the way, I had to go back to
www.newegg.com and order a new PSU. Until then, I'm running this PC on one 300w PSU, barely enough to power the three HDDs, the optical drive, the disk drive, the GPU, about six cooling fans as well as the NIC and sound card. It's barely enough.
10 - 12 year old PC that I built when I was Beta testing games, O/S's, drivers, etc. Surprising that it has all lasted this long...
