Something got fried...

wyrd

wyrd

wyrd

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Joined
21 May 2010
Posts
171
Evening, fellas.

So, my Mum asked me to take a look at her PC because it has refused to work since a power surge a couple of nights ago.

The spec:
CPU: Intel E2180
Mobo: DFI Infinity P965-S Dark
Ram: 2x1GB Corsair xms2
Gfx: nvidia 8400GS
PSU: Corsair CX430

I switched the PSU to a 470W Coolermaster that had been bundled with her case. Then, when I hit the power button, the fans (case and CPU cooler) spun for about 2 seconds then stopped. That was it, completely dead again. Would this indicate that the Corsair PSU is dead but something else (motherboard?) has also been affected?

I must admit I am a little ignorant about this sort of thing, so please excuse what may be a silly question; which components can be damaged by a power surge? Is it literally everything or can I rule some things out straight away? I have no replacement parts to test with so it's a bit of a nightmare.

Thanks for listening!

Jon
 
Could be anything tbh.

All you can do is try and swap out components (if you have spares available) and go one by one, see if it works. Any surge/PSU failure could take one or all of your components out. Does not mean however it has, nor that it was a surge that did it.

Can you be sure it wasn't just the PSU going Kaput?

I have seen dodgy PSU's take out motherboards a few times, and some of them have made the RAM a bit jippy. Basically i think you need to test bits one by one until you get to a conclusion.

Start by unplugging any non-essential parts, i.e hardrives, network adaptors, dvd drives, and GPU (if you have onboard graphics). Running it barebones will help reduce your search

EDIT: just re-read, shame no components :/
 
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The first thing I would do is test the voltages from the PSU - you should test the 3.3v (orange), 5v (red) and 12v (yellow) wires. In a worst case scenario, the voltages should not be more than 10% of the expected voltage - for reliability, you should allow no more than 5%.

3.3v: 3.14 - 3.47v
5v: 4.76 - 5.25v
12v: 11.43 - 12.60v
 
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Cheers guys,

I don't know whether the Corsair PSU is dead or not, but I know the Coolermaster one works so something inside has definitely gone. My gut feeling was the motherboard aswell, vectisitch. I just don't want to buy a new one only to find it was the CPU, or RAM, or gfx etc. that was the problem!

Excuse my ignorance (again), but how would I go about testing the voltages of the (Corsair) PSU, darael?
 
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