Fried Processor, Probable cause PSU Overload

[shortgoat]

I just recently inherited a computer from a lady i know, and it was
better than my older PC. When i got it the HD was corrupted, but
everything else seemed to work fine. It came with a DVD ROM drive and
I installed a CDR/RW/Rewriteable drive. I also took out the old
corrupted 40 gig HD and replaced it with an 80 gig Seagate that i had
lying around. It has an AMD Athlon processor, a NVIDIA GeForce Tornado
32 MB Graphics Card, and a Soundblaster AWE32 Soundcard. It also
included a 56K Generic Modem, and Generic Ethernet Ports. The MoBo is
a Mainboard K7AMA and it has 4 USB ports, 2 front 2 back. The PSU when
i recieved it was a 400 Watt Future Power Supply.

The reason for my last statement is because shortly after recieving it,
the 400 Watt PSU started to emit a loud high frequency squealing, and i
replaced it with an older 235 Watt AOpen PSU. After doing this it ran
fine for about 2 weeks, i installed, and played games which ran fine.
The night before the incident which I am about to explain, i updated my
Direct X Drivers to Direct X 9.0c. Upon completing the update i
restarted my PC and everything ran just fine, i could even play games
which it wasnt letting me play before (because direct X was out of
date.) the day after updating my DX, i went to turn my computer on.
Everything booted up just fine, and i was going to a game which i have
played many a time before, (even before updating the DX) when i got
the game started, my PC speakers started to beep loudly, then my entire
computer shut off. I didnt know what had happened, and i went to turn
it back on, but it smelled like something was burning, i did not see
any smoke however. I quickly removed the case, and narrowed it down to
the power supply. This I removed, and opened up, to find that it was
full of dust. I decided not to use this and pulled the origonal 400
watt PSU out of the closet, installed it, and tried to turn my computer
on. I am sure that everything was connected correctly because i
checked it all. when i pressed the power button, all of the fans came
on, and the harddrive would spin breifly, but the moniter would read NO
SIGNAL. I am sure that the moniter works because i've hooked it up to
my old computer. I tried stripping it down to the bare basics, video
card, and processor. However the moniter still read no signal. i took
out and reseated the video card and the processor, and i even tried
replacing the video card with an older one, but still the moniter read
NO SIGNAL. It seems to me that the problem lies in the processor,
which unfortunately for me, is bad news. I have a tight, and nonsteady
budget being a high school student, with no job. is my processor
doomed, or might it be my MoBo.....AM I JUST SOL? Anyones help would
be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

 

[David Maynard]

I just recently inherited a computer from a lady i know, and it was
better than my older PC. When i got it the HD was corrupted, but
everything else seemed to work fine. It came with a DVD ROM drive and
I installed a CDR/RW/Rewriteable drive. I also took out the old
corrupted 40 gig HD and replaced it with an 80 gig Seagate that i had
lying around. It has an AMD Athlon processor, a NVIDIA GeForce Tornado
32 MB Graphics Card, and a Soundblaster AWE32 Soundcard. It also
included a 56K Generic Modem, and Generic Ethernet Ports. The MoBo is
a Mainboard K7AMA and it has 4 USB ports, 2 front 2 back. The PSU when
i recieved it was a 400 Watt Future Power Supply.

The reason for my last statement is because shortly after recieving it,
the 400 Watt PSU started to emit a loud high frequency squealing, and i
replaced it with an older 235 Watt AOpen PSU. After doing this it ran
fine for about 2 weeks, i installed, and played games which ran fine.
The night before the incident which I am about to explain, i updated my
Direct X Drivers to Direct X 9.0c. Upon completing the update i
restarted my PC and everything ran just fine, i could even play games
which it wasnt letting me play before (because direct X was out of
date.) the day after updating my DX, i went to turn my computer on.
Everything booted up just fine, and i was going to a game which i have
played many a time before, (even before updating the DX) when i got
the game started, my PC speakers started to beep loudly, then my entire
computer shut off. I didnt know what had happened, and i went to turn
it back on, but it smelled like something was burning, i did not see
any smoke however. I quickly removed the case, and narrowed it down to
the power supply. This I removed, and opened up, to find that it was
full of dust. I decided not to use this and pulled the origonal 400
watt PSU out of the closet, installed it, and tried to turn my computer
on. I am sure that everything was connected correctly because i
checked it all. when i pressed the power button, all of the fans came
on, and the harddrive would spin breifly, but the moniter would read NO
SIGNAL. I am sure that the moniter works because i've hooked it up to
my old computer. I tried stripping it down to the bare basics, video
card, and processor. However the moniter still read no signal. i took
out and reseated the video card and the processor, and i even tried
replacing the video card with an older one, but still the moniter read
NO SIGNAL. It seems to me that the problem lies in the processor,
which unfortunately for me, is bad news. I have a tight, and nonsteady
budget being a high school student, with no job. is my processor
doomed, or might it be my MoBo.....AM I JUST SOL? Anyones help would
be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

Look at the large cylindrical capacitors around the CPU socket and see if
any are bulged, or have leaked. If so then they're bad.

Was the CPU heatsink fan running?

 

[Mxsmanic]

The reason for my last statement is because shortly after recieving it,
the 400 Watt PSU started to emit a loud high frequency squealing, and i
replaced it with an older 235 Watt AOpen PSU.

Why would you replace a 400-watt PSU with another, older PSU that has
barely over half the capacity??

It seems to me that the problem lies in the processor,
which unfortunately for me, is bad news. I have a tight, and nonsteady
budget being a high school student, with no job.

It's cheaper to buy a power supply than it is to buy a new processor or
motherboard, although it's perhaps a bit late to try that now.

 

[spodosaurus]

I just recently inherited a computer from a lady i know,

Why was she giving away a computer? Broken maybe?

and it was
better than my older PC. When i got it the HD was corrupted,

What do you mean by "currupted"? Do you meant he data was corrupted, or
do you mean the hard drive was broken?

The reason for my last statement is because shortly after recieving it,
the 400 Watt PSU started to emit a loud high frequency squealing, and i
replaced it with an older 235 Watt AOpen PSU.

Likely under powered.

I didnt know what had happened, and i went to turn
it back on, but it smelled like something was burning, i did not see
any smoke however. I quickly removed the case, and narrowed it down to
the power supply. This I removed, and opened up, to find that it was
full of dust.

You should have cleaned it beforehand. PSUs sometimes take other
components with them when they die.

I decided not to use this and pulled the origonal 400
watt PSU out of the closet, installed it, and tried to turn my computer
on. I am sure that everything was connected correctly because i
checked it all. when i pressed the power button, all of the fans came
on, and the harddrive would spin breifly, but the moniter would read NO
SIGNAL.

I'd expect to not have a working motherboard anymore.

I am sure that the moniter works because i've hooked it up to
my old computer. I tried stripping it down to the bare basics, video
card, and processor. However the moniter still read no signal. i took
out and reseated the video card and the processor, and i even tried
replacing the video card with an older one, but still the moniter read
NO SIGNAL. It seems to me that the problem lies in the processor,
which unfortunately for me, is bad news.

No, it sounds more like a dead motherboard.

I have a tight, and nonsteady
budget being a high school student, with no job. is my processor
doomed, or might it be my MoBo.....AM I JUST SOL? Anyones help would
be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[Ken]

I just recently inherited a computer from a lady i know, and it was
better than my older PC. When i got it the HD was corrupted, but
everything else seemed to work fine. It came with a DVD ROM drive and
I installed a CDR/RW/Rewriteable drive. I also took out the old
corrupted 40 gig HD and replaced it with an 80 gig Seagate that i had
lying around. It has an AMD Athlon processor, a NVIDIA GeForce Tornado
32 MB Graphics Card, and a Soundblaster AWE32 Soundcard. It also
included a 56K Generic Modem, and Generic Ethernet Ports. The MoBo is
a Mainboard K7AMA and it has 4 USB ports, 2 front 2 back. The PSU when
i recieved it was a 400 Watt Future Power Supply.

The reason for my last statement is because shortly after recieving it,
the 400 Watt PSU started to emit a loud high frequency squealing, and i
replaced it with an older 235 Watt AOpen PSU. After doing this it ran
fine for about 2 weeks, i installed, and played games which ran fine.
The night before the incident which I am about to explain, i updated my
Direct X Drivers to Direct X 9.0c. Upon completing the update i
restarted my PC and everything ran just fine, i could even play games
which it wasnt letting me play before (because direct X was out of
date.) the day after updating my DX, i went to turn my computer on.
Everything booted up just fine, and i was going to a game which i have
played many a time before, (even before updating the DX) when i got
the game started, my PC speakers started to beep loudly, then my entire
computer shut off. I didnt know what had happened, and i went to turn
it back on, but it smelled like something was burning, i did not see
any smoke however. I quickly removed the case, and narrowed it down to
the power supply. This I removed, and opened up, to find that it was
full of dust. I decided not to use this and pulled the origonal 400
watt PSU out of the closet, installed it, and tried to turn my computer
on. I am sure that everything was connected correctly because i
checked it all. when i pressed the power button, all of the fans came
on, and the harddrive would spin breifly, but the moniter would read NO
SIGNAL. I am sure that the moniter works because i've hooked it up to
my old computer. I tried stripping it down to the bare basics, video
card, and processor. However the moniter still read no signal. i took
out and reseated the video card and the processor, and i even tried
replacing the video card with an older one, but still the moniter read
NO SIGNAL. It seems to me that the problem lies in the processor,
which unfortunately for me, is bad news. I have a tight, and nonsteady
budget being a high school student, with no job. is my processor
doomed, or might it be my MoBo.....AM I JUST SOL? Anyones help would
be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

I agree with David, "my PC speakers started to beep loudly" sounds like
the processor was getting too hot and giving an error code. It could be
lots of things, but I think your processor is gone, and if the fan is
failing, that could well be the reason. Like others have suggested,
check out the less expensive options and hope for the best. Good luck.

 

[shortgoat]

yes, heatsink fan runs and was running at the time, there are no
bulging or fried capacitators that i can see

 

[w_tom]

Start the process of identifying what is and is not
defective. To avoid chasing ghost failures, first verify power
supply 'system'. Fans can spin, lights illuminate, and still
the power supply 'system' can be defective. Fastest way to
accomplish this (only two minutes) is to use a 3.5 digit
multimeter. Readings that will be more important to your
problem are +5VSB when system is not powered on, 3.3, 5, and
12 volts when power is suppose to be on, the Power On signal
voltage, and Power Good signal voltage. All voltages must
appear in upper 3/4 limits of chart provided in second of two
procedures: "Computer doesnt start at all" in
alt.comp.hardware on 10 Jan 2004 at
http://tinyurl.com/2t69q and
"I think my power supply is dead" in alt.comp.hardware on 5
Feb 2004 at
http://tinyurl.com/yvbw9

Once the power supply 'system' has been verified (only
numbers can provide a verification), then move on to other
usual suspects. But if the PSU 'system' (it is more than just
a PSU) is not verified, then other strange problems may simply
confuse you. Get the so inexpensive and essential tool - a
3.5 digit multimeter - and start working through the list of
usual suspects. Top of that list is the entire power supply
'system'. Verified in but minutes.