PSU Issues? Help Me Trouble Shoot.

[Vermillion]

First, my desktop's relevant specs:

MOBO: Intel DP43TF
RAM: 6 GB DDR2
HD: 2 x 1TB, 1 500 GB.
Blu-Ray Reader/Writer.
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.8 GHz.

--

A while ago, I replaced my PSU. The older PSU was a cheap one that I got as a "gift" from the store when I purchased my case. It was terrible, didn't supply the right amount of energy to my hardware and therefore started to die (according to a friend of mine, anyways).

I really know nothing about PSUs so I beg you please to not be too technical with this. I will describe the problems I have been having lately and I really would appreciate any help to troubleshoot this.

So I replaced my silly old PSU for this one:

* Thermaltake TR2 600W.

It essentially fixed most of the issues I had before but I have been experiencing two particular things that make me suspect it is not working properly:

* My computer has randomly shut itself off a few times with no warning and with no apparent reason at all. The problem hasn't spread to other hardware but it is weird enough to have your computer shut down on you when you are using it normally and when nothing is seemingly wrong.
* I can't charge iDevices on my computer. When I connect my iPod Touch 4G, it says "The device doesn't support charging", when I connect my friend's iPhone 3G, the battery iCon in iTunes just shows an almost empty battery with no Charging or Charged icon. It's just plain weird. I have tried with different USB ports and it's the same problem. I have two iPod cables. Most of the time, neither of them seem to charge the iDevices and sometimes just one of those cables seem to work properly. Leaves me dumbfounded.

What could be wrong? Is it possible my issue can kill my hard drives? I have had enough hard drives dying on me causing endless nights of saving the data. I really, really need a new lifestyle instead of saving data every other week.

[zelkea]

Hey Vermillion,

Hhhmmm not to sure about the random powering off issue. Has there been any common factors when when you system decided to power off on you? Like both times were you doing a particular action?

As far as charging your devices, I had a similar problem but it was with my cord. Does the same cord power your devices on another computer?

In regards to your power supply you can use this calculator to determine if you have lack of power issue. http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html

I have never heard of a lack of power killing a hard drive and I have been in the industry for a while. If you are spending a lot of time backup your software and it would be worth 55 bucks a year to stop you might want to look into services like carbonite or mozy online backup service.

Zelkea

[loosinmycool]

Vermillion - I would check out the USB ports on the Mother Board. look at the 4 contacts inside the USB sockets on the PC. See if any are Bent out of place, that migh be your problem. If they are bent, 1) power off your PC before you attampt to 'straighten' them. 2) make sure they are not contacting each other or the Metal side of the socket, 3) if they are bent, -after you have ensured 2) above - abandon that particular socket for ever.- you are unlikely to get it re-usable