Power Supply upgrade on Pavilion M8307C

[cryppie]

All modern browsers I have tried (Chrome, Edge, Firefox)  have become so demanding of power that I am experiencing performance latency related to "very High" power consumption.  I would like to upgrade the OEM power supply and was hoping to be able to use at least a 600W PSU.  I can't find any upgrade path or part numbers related to this.

[Grzwacz]

Greetings,

Welcome to the forum.

I am not a HP employee.

I cannot find your product using Pavilion M8307C. Check this site (Link) for tips on locating the product number.

Power supply problems can cause all kind of strange stuff. The typical symptoms of an overwhelmed power supply usually cause and may not be limited to: POST failure, possible system hanging when the system is stressed, and possible abrupt system shutdowns.

Your problem could be caused by other hardware limitations due to the age of your PC or it may be time to back up data and refresh the operating system.

Regards

[cryppie]

It is an HP Pavilion M8000 series P/N KC878AA#ABA.  Symptoms are locking up ONLY when there is significant browser activity (any browser) where the number of threads have increased substantially.  Never locks up under any other circumstances.  They only diagnostic I can correlate to this is extremely high power usage by the browser apps.  CPU temps are in normal range and memory usage also normal even though the memory usage increases the more you are using the browser.

[Grzwacz]

Hi Cryppie,

This (Link) lists the specs for your PC.

This PC was released for sale in 2007. 

The components used in this PC are around 12 years old.

HP shows 3 GB of RAM and a slow, platter HDD installed at the factory. I am using 5 GB of RAM while I compose this message.

I think you may need more than just a power supply upgrade to fix the problem.

You should be able to add 1 GB of RAM and possibly use a SATA SSD to improve PC performance. You may be limited to SATA  2.0 but a SSD will improve storage responsiveness compared to a platter HDD.

Regards

[cryppie]

Thanks for the link.  I am aware of the age of this box but it still screams along with EVERYTHING except the latest iterations of browser programs.  I monitor and log all the performance factors continually and never exceed 75% of memory or CPU utilization (and only on one or two of the four CPU's).  Disk sometimes pegs at 100% but the common denominator with the lockups is browser threads increasing into the mid to high teens and power usage by the browsers hitting, and staying at "very high".  

[Grzwacz]

Hi,

You're very welcome.

You should replace the power supply if it is original, it's 12 years old.

Measure the existing power supply. It should be an ATX PSU with standard 150 mm width, 86 mm height, and typically 140 mm depth. Or 5.9 inches, 3.9 inches, 5.5 inches respectively.

Shop power supplies. Find some you like. Read some reviews.

Verify the measurements of the new power supply match your current power supply dimensions.

EVGA, Corsair (Link to a Corsair PSU), Antec, Thermaltake and others make reliable power supplies.

Regards

[cryppie]

Thanks so much!

[Grzwacz · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You're very welcome.

Regards