Thunderstorms and Cheap PSU's Rant

lee87

lee87

lee87

Permabanned
Joined
31 Jul 2005
Posts
2,592
Just a bit of a rant and a warning to other users who use generic/cheap psu's.

Last week we had a huge thunderstorm and my mum was using the family pc which has a 400W generic psu.
The storm passed and there didn't seem to be any problems, but when we restarted it we were getting a FDC failure error at bios or sometimes crashing at the auto detecting hard disk/cd drive screen.
I found out the FDC failure was a mobo problem so I ordered a new one. When it arrived I set it up and it now got to the windows loading screen, but then there was a BSOD with a UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error. I tried formatting but it didn't make a difference, I got a very old 10gb hdd out and it worked fine on it, I used speedfan to analyse the broken HDD and found the Seek Time Performance and Power Cycle Count were below average nearing critical and it had 2 bad sectors.
I was using the 10gb hdd for a day without problems and then it started crashing on the bios screen again or not booting at all. When it did load up again I ran memtest and found the RAM had a load of errors.
Also the DVD RW is making wierd noises and sometimes the tray won't open.

This is the most annoying problem i've had as I now have to replace every component in the PC. :mad:

I was using my pc at the time which has a Antec 400W psu and that is working fine after the storm. I'm never getting a cheap psu again. The strange thing is, the generic psu seems to be working fine still. :confused:
 
Terribly unlucky,is it an old machine? i managed to rma a hd from a pb from a shop that went under shortly after that was 2 years old,got a new one promptly,kudos to samsung.
The mobo may have a 3yr warranty,dvdrw may have one year,but with prices now its best to get a new one.You could always stick every duff part back in and claim on insurance.
 
luminous said:
Terribly unlucky,is it an old machine? i managed to rma a hd from a pb from a shop that went under shortly after that was 2 years old,got a new one promptly,kudos to samsung.
The mobo may have a 3yr warranty,dvdrw may have one year,but with prices now its best to get a new one.You could always stick every duff part back in and claim on insurance.
Click to expand...
I built the machine about 2 years ago with a Socket A 2300+, but upgraded it to a AthlonXP 3000+ about 6 months ago (from another machine I had). I don't think I have the warranty as I binned all the boxes and lost the receipts.

I might just leave it and not build another pc (just yet) and let my family use my gaming machine. I will probably wait for the prices of skt 939 chips to fall before building another one.
 
I'd thought the majority of people switch off and unplug all unnessary electrical items?

Although a UPS would probably help unless direct sub station strike or something.
 
Make sure you have as much info as possible to back up your insurance claim if you go down that route. I claimed for a lightning damaged pc - and it took 6 months of arguing (and 100s of phone calls) before i finally saw anything for the claim They tried to assuse me of defrauding them just because the pc weas self built from unusual components. Saying that - i have heard of other people who have had no trouble at all and a very generous settlement.

Marc
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom