Power Supply Upgrade

When adding power-hungry cards such as a GPU, check the power supply capacity. While researching a GPU upgrade, the desired GPU performance would require more power than the existing power supply. This PC is a ATX size.

The specifications of the existing power supply should be on a label. Open the PC case and read the label.
Determine what size power supply will be needed (add up motherboard, disk drives, existing peripherals, and new card) to find the required wattage. Research power supplies to find a power supply unit (PSU) size which will fit inside the PC case.
Measure, measure, measure. The existing power supply was about 5 1/2" long.
As the new power supply likely has a fan, carefully determine the fan position and if it will work with your PC case.

Old power supply length


Old power supply width



A Cougar DX500 was chosen as the new power supply. This new power supply has the same width and is about 1 1/2" longer. The power supply fan exits out the back of the unit, near the power cord.

Cougar DX500 power supply


Next, locate the motherboard connector. The existing motherboard connector was 24 pins. The new power supply is a 20 + 4 pin connector. This means the main connector is 20 pins with an additional 4 pin connector.

Mother board connector in top right corner (near the arrow)



If adding a GPU, the card will typically take additional power from a 4 pin power supply connector. Carefully determine what power is needed by the new card, and what is provided by the new power supply unit.

Old 24 pin connector beside new 20 + 4 pin connector



Remove old power supply and carefully install new power supply. Routing power cables may be tricky, so take your time.

New power supply installed, with old power supply in picture


Power on the new power supply and test the PC.

Windows 10 System Repair Disc

Microsoft Windows 10 continues the functionality of creating a System Repair Disc. This can help recover your system if it will not boot. This is easy and quick.

Open the Control Panel.
In the Control Panel search box, search for "backup" and choose Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Create a system repair disc

Select the DVD drive and press Create disc





Label the disc and put the disc in a safe place where it can be quickly found, if needed.

Upgrade Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 With Custom .iso

Last summer, summer 2015, an older Microsoft Windows 8.1 machine was receiving the mild prompts to upgrade to Microsoft Windows 10. The prompts stopped, and upon investigation the upgrade process would not allow the typical Windows 10 in-place upgrade. The upgrade process consisted of burning a custom .iso CD. Upon booting the .iso CD, it instructed to restart into Windows 8.1 then insert the .iso CD. Upon doing this, the upgrade process started from the CD.

An upgrade tip for multi-monitor users is to go to just one monitor during the upgrade. The monitor settings can be changed after the upgrade completes.

After the Windows 10 upgrade, several small annoyances included changing previous file type and program associations. For example, the previous graphic file program was changed. Text files and Open Document file associations were changed. Also, Microsoft Edge web browser took over .pdf files.
Another annoyance is the preferred placement for Task Manager had been on monitor two. Now the Task Manager always starts on monitor one, without remembering where it was the last time it ran.
Also, a few printer settings did not transfer correctly.

The PC is running local logon accounts (not on the Microsoft network) and the privacy-leaking options have been turned off. Overall, I am pleased with the upgrade to Windows 10.