Think it was just my power supply that went?

[csaag]

Came downstairs this morning to turn on the PC.
Turned on the power strip & hit the power button on the PC.
I immediately saw a flash from the back of the PC (it seemed near the top of the machine where the PSU is located) accompanied by a sizzling/crackling sound. The PC never went on. ie. it didn't seem to start powering up.

I figure the PSU went but am wondering how to tell if it shorted out anything else. After I got home today I pulled the PSU and took a look inside the PC. I didn't see any popped chips or anything that looked burned.

I'm hoping no juice at all went to any of the components & it's just the PSU. but are there any guidlines/tips to assessing the damage?
I'm debating buying another PSU vs just getting a whole new system.
thanks

[TaoTeWingChun]

Hi csaag,

If you can spend the $10US and buy yourself a PSU tester, a link can be foud at the COMPUSA website here:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=317139&pfp=cat3

This little tool will help you decide between a replacement $50 PSU or a $500+ computer.

Let us know how you make out, ok?

Cheers!

TTWC

[Shocker Milwaukee]

Definitely the flux capacitor.
Go directly to the nearest Radio Shack for a replacement, but do not exceed 88 mph.

[csaag]

I pulled the PSU and plugged it in, the fan didn't even startup when I tried to turn it on.
I can't see any vsible signs of damage anywhere in the PC so I'm going to try a replacement PSU
thanks

[redwudz]

A ATX power supply won't turn on without the signal from the motherboard. You can jump the proper pins on the ATX power connector and it will turn on. But if it smells burnt, trash it.

If you're lucky the PS didn't take anything with it. I would just get a replacement PS and install it. A lot easier than trying to test it. If the computer still won't come on, then there may be further damage.

The main thing to check visibly on the motherboard is in the general area where the ATX connector plugs in. Any burnt areas on the surface of the MB are bad news. But you may be lucky.

[QuaiBoy]

I've been fixing/building computers for well over a decade, past few years just for friends and family. Had a new one the other day (my mother-in-laws computer, of all places). Thought it was the PS, turns out that the computer would power on when the hard drive was disconnected. Yikes!
Took the hard drive out and put it in several different external USB2 boxes to see if I could get it powered, nothing. Figured, what the hell do I have to lose... she really wanted the data, and it's not my drive. Took the circuit board off of a nearly identical drive (different f/w revision) and swapped it with the dead drive. Got all the data off of it.
Moral of the story: disconnect all peripherals except for the motherboard and see if the machine powers up. I've had optical drives and case fans short out plenty of times as well.

Best of Luck,
-Evan-

[csaag]

I picked up a 350w PSU from Mad Dog because of a sale.
I installed it, reconnected the leads to all the devices, said a prayer & turned it on.

Everything went on (CPU fans etc) it powered up & stopped at a prompt saying it couldn't read the OS

I rebooted & entered the setup screen. The IDE primary master readout said 'NONE' which explains why it couldn't find the OS.
I have a 2nd hard disk as a slave(as well as a DVD-ROM & a DVD writer).
They were all recognized under the setup screen.

The pin connector to the primary disk was in firm. The connector to the MB had to be otherwise it shouldn't have seen the slave disk.

The BIOS has an 'Auto-Detect HDD' option, but it didn't find it.
If I change the access mode to 'CHS' the BIOS will allow me to enter # cylinders etc, but the manual says this is for disks of 528 MB or less.
This disk is a 40GB Maxtor

My system is a ABIT KR7A-133 running Win Xp Pro w an Athlon 1600+

So am I missing something or did the primary disk go?

[redwudz]

Good so far. BIOS may not see the drive if the partition is damaged. You can try booting from the OS disc and see if the boot drive is recognized there.

Set the OS to it as first boot device. Works better if you temporarily unplug the second drive. (You run the risk of accidentally formating it as it's sometimes hard to tell one from the other.)

(I'm assuming you have stuff you want to save on the slave drive, otherwise I would just use it for the new boot and replace it with a new drive.)

If no go, you could try a W98 startup floppy. Set the BIOS to boot from a floppy. This sometimes works if the OS disc can't see the boot drive.

Last chance, Switch the cables to the drives, setting them properly to master and slave. You can just restart to BIOS for this and see if they have switched places. This rules out a motherboard or cable problem.

If still no, the drive is probably bad.

Usually if the PS takes out one drive, the others are suspect. Monitor them after you get everything going. But you might have lucked out.

[csaag]

Well I'd like to save the data on the disk,
I have a backup but there's a lot of shareware programs I've downloaded and use.
thanks

EDIT: I pulled out my Win XP Pro install disk, & disconnected the good drive. Windows couldn't detect any hard drives. The 2nd disk is used for video captures but I'll probably try installing Windows on it just to test the rest of the system. If all works, I'll pick up another smaller disk, wipe the big one, & run windows from the new one.

[redwudz]

That's probably the best thing to do. If everything works OK, you can always mess with the old drive later and maybe get it going.

BTW, could you hear it spin up? If not, that's a sure sign it's dead.

[csaag]

Nope, no spin up sound.

I had bought Win XP Pro.
Does anyone know if I can simply buy a new disk & reinstall it?
I'm wondering about when I registerd it previously if they'll allow me to install it again. Do I need to call Microsoft to get another product key?

[handyguy]

Id get a new computer or mainboard because I wouldn't trust the mainboard with any more HDs.

[Shard92]

Be aware with a surge like that as was said above the rest of the system is suspect. However if you do want to run the old system you should be able to use your old disk and number. Depending on what version it is ( oem or retail ) you may have to call microsoft to activate windows but if you explain what happened they are usually pretty good about that.

Good luck