Help, PC just died.

steadynedy · 11 Oct 2012 at 19:25

Hey guys,

Literally just went to power on my computer - there was a popping noise and a brief burnt/smokey/plastic smell.

Now the machine will not even power on. It's completely dead. I tried swapping cables and testing the socket was working but it's the machine that is the problem.

Had a look inside and couldn't see any obvious damage on any components but I'm no expert. There is a display on the motherboard that usually shows a couple of digits re bios info but that too is dead.

What possible causes am I looking at here? Blown pcu, motherboard etc

The machine is rather old; an oc q660 CPU, 4gb ram, hd5850 GPu on an abit ip35pro board. Psu is a corsair tx 650

Machine was running fine yesterday.

Where to start?

Many thanks

getcarter · 11 Oct 2012 at 19:32

Blown PSU or motherboard are the most likely culprits.

Lemin · 11 Oct 2012 at 23:48

Test the psu...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXgQSokF4

steadynedy · 13 Oct 2012 at 08:25

Thanks guys, will have a play around with a spare PSU and see what happens.

Took the opportunity to buy a new machine too so will have an old system to experiment on.

BluSky · 13 Oct 2012 at 10:12

Google the PSU paperclip test. That will tell you if your play is still working or not

Wolfie1990 · 15 Oct 2012 at 13:44

Psu or motherboard issue here

Akagi · 15 Oct 2012 at 14:40

I suspect the above poster is going for 250 posts... Are you wolfie..?

Try the paperclip trick on the PSU, and other than that all I can suggest is that you test as many components individually as you can. If you have a mate with a compatible motherboard, sweet talk him into letting you plug all your hardware into it.