So, whats the damage?

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2 Feb 2007
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Have just been building a new computer, but experianced somewhat of a failure. To cut a long story short, a friend of mine, whilst the computer was running, plugged in a legacy connector into a sata hard drive which was already already plugged in using a sata connector.

As soon as it was plugged in the computer shorted and switched off.

The computer (as to be expected) now wont boot, it trys to (the green motherboard light comes on and the cpu fan starts spinning, but it wont go any further, no output at all).

The sata hard drive was plugged into the motherboard through the sata data lead at the time it happened.

Even without the hard drive, the computer wont boot.

I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas as to whether it is likely that the psu is broken or the motherboard. The psu is a "winpower atx-450 watt"

As i said, the green motherboard led comes on, but nothing else. Interestingly enough, when i pressed the reset button, the fan actually started spinning quicker, when i was trying to get it to boot.

Any help gratefully recieved :(
 
u said as soon as he plugged it in the comp shorted and turned off :S

im guessing when the comp was turned on you'r m8 plugged in the ide cables.... while you also had the sata cables connected before booting up?

it sounds like you'r mainboard might of got No disguised swearing! over tho dont take my word for it im a bit drunk at the moment :) im sure other guys will be able to help better :)
 
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PSU got a funny smell? also, you should probably punch him in the ovaries :p
if it shorted then it 'should' have protected your components, it put my money on PSU, now go break his ;)
 
Heh, i would love to. The worst thing is, he offered to pay for the damage, but i'd feel incredibly guilty making him pay, as id hate to be charged if it were the other way round for, potentially, a whole new computer

Thanks for the help anyway, ill try a new psu and if theres no luck, ill send the motherboard back.

Andy
 
metalheadandy said:
Bought a new psu, and it hasnt helped, so its the mobo. Do you think that the Ram/graphics card/ harddrive may also have been fried? :(

did you check to see if the PSU had that acrid electrical smell, because if not it might be just the mobo alone thats gone, and it 'shouldn't' have gone further than the mobo... least it didn't on mine, only problem was the PSU. like i said...broke any mirrors recently ;)
 
Thats somewhat comforting to know, dante6491. What did you do to kill the computer? Did you have to chuck the harddrive out after?

I can get a new motherboard pretty soon, i was more concerned that the short would effect the graphics card and ram, cause being a student on £25 a week i really dont have the money to replace that much.

Thanks, Andy
 
Just finished replacing parts in mine after a little 'fry up'. Ended up having to replace the motherboard, dvd writer and hard drive. My first assumption was the PSU so I now also have a new one of those :rolleyes:
 
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