dead pc?

id_wright

id_wright

id_wright

Associate
Joined
29 Nov 2004
Posts
64
ok, so i was using my computer earlier this afternoon and it suddenly switched off. i left the room, then came back in a couple of minutes later and noticed a burning smell. i hadn't noticed this before, but the power led was still lit, so i switched the computer off and unplugged it. the back of the power supply was extremely hot, so i left the whole thing alone for a few hours to cool off. i tried booting it up again later, but nothing happened apart from the power led coming on.
so... i'm guessing something fried. any way of finding out what so i can hopefully just replace that part? are my hard disks still likely to be functioning, or will i have lost all of my stuff? ditto for memory, graphics card, sound card, cd and dvd drives etc?
many thanks

AMD Athlon XP 2400+
Asrock K7VM2
2x256mb PC2100
HIS IceQ 9800 Pro
2x80Gb WD hard disks
 
id_wright said:
...
the back of the power supply was extremely hot
...
Click to expand...


sounds like a blown psu at first glance. If the psu is gone, there's a reasonable chance other components have died in sympathy. sorry. :(
 
It sounds like it's the PSU that's faulty, especially when you mention it was extremely hot. You could try the old 'sniff test' - burnt components usually have an easily recognisable smell, and it should be possible to identify which one has blown. Check everything for visible signs of damage, i.e. blackened areas or burnt chips.

If the PSU has blown, it may be a symptom rather than the cause, so check that nothing is shorting out. If you do try a new PSU, only connect the bare minimum - don't bother connecting the drives or sound card and see if it will boot at all.

Actually, on second thoughts you could try that with your current PSU, remove everything but the processor, one stick of ram and the video card, and see if you can get it to boot.
 
ok, thanks for the replies.
i've had a good look inside - nothing looks burnt, melted or otherwise damaged and the burnt smell definitely comes from the power supply.
trying to boot it up with just the graphics card and memory connected produces the same as yesterday - fans don't spool up, nothing happens except the power led lighting up - wasn't keen to keep it going for long in case there was power going to an uncooled cpu.
so, am thinking of buying a replacement power supply to see if anything is still alive - what would be a good one to go for? the current one is 400W, but i'd like to buy something a bit more powerful in case i then need to go and replace the rest of the system - probably 450 or 500W. plus, i'd like it to be as quiet as possible, but i'm on a very tight budget.
thanks again
 
I have one of those 520W Corsairs, and it's very quiet. Might be a bit pricey, but it should last you through some future upgrades.

There's an OCZ 600W on special offer this week, don't really know anything about them but it's £15 cheaper than the Corsair, so might be worth a look...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom