Computer went kaput

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Xenocide

Hello everyone,

I'm having alittle computer trouble and I was hoping this forum could
help me out, anywho here it goes;

Yesterday when I turned on my computer I heard something of a poping
sound and then smelled smoke. So I turned off my computer, waited a
minute or two, held my breath turned back on my computer and...
nothing. LED's on the case don't light up, video card fan doesn't
spin, and the hard drive doesn't make it's usually chattering sound.

What it does do:
-CPU and Power Supply fans are on.
-Red light on the motherboard lights up (located near the CPU, no idea
what that light does).

I should probably also mention that at first I though it might just be
the monitor, so I tried to hook it up to my other computer and when I
went to plug it in, when the jack touched the metal on the back there
was sparks. Regardless to say I didn't finish pluging it in.

So, I figured maybe the monitor fried my video card some how, so I
replaced the video card, hooked up a differant monitor and still
nothing.

Does anyone know how to pin-point my problem? At this point I'm
thinking motherboard and/or CPU.
 
On 26 May 2005 15:32:26 -0400 If I have seen farther it is because I
have stood on the shoulder of giants
Hello everyone,

I'm having alittle computer trouble and I was hoping this forum could
help me out, anywho here it goes;

Yesterday when I turned on my computer I heard something of a poping
sound and then smelled smoke. So I turned off my computer, waited a
minute or two, held my breath turned back on my computer and...
nothing. LED's on the case don't light up, video card fan doesn't
spin, and the hard drive doesn't make it's usually chattering sound.

What it does do:
-CPU and Power Supply fans are on.
-Red light on the motherboard lights up (located near the CPU, no idea
what that light does).

I should probably also mention that at first I though it might just be
the monitor, so I tried to hook it up to my other computer and when I
went to plug it in, when the jack touched the metal on the back there
was sparks. Regardless to say I didn't finish pluging it in.

So, I figured maybe the monitor fried my video card some how, so I
replaced the video card, hooked up a differant monitor and still
nothing.

Does anyone know how to pin-point my problem? At this point I'm
thinking motherboard and/or CPU.
Click to expand...

Popping usually means a capacitor has blown in my experience.Could be
on the mother board or the P/S.See if you can see any heat damage on
any components but unplug the mains before looking.
HTH :)
 
I checked for heat damaged, and I didn't find any- Though inside the
power supply it looks like a capasitor leaked something, I dunno it
could just be glue holding it in place or something, but its partly
covering a resistor and none of the other capasitors have the junk on
them. Could that be it?
 
Xenocide said:
Yesterday when I turned on my computer I heard something
of a poping sound and then smelled smoke. So I turned
off my computer, waited a minute or two, held my breath
turned back on my computer and... nothing. LED's on the
case don't light up, video card fan doesn't spin, and
the hard drive doesn't make it's usually chattering sound.
Click to expand...
-CPU and Power Supply fans are on.
-Red light on the motherboard lights up
Click to expand...
I should probably also mention that at first I though it
might just be the monitor, so I tried to hook it up to
my other computer and when I went to plug it in, when
the jack touched the metal on the back there was sparks.
Regardless to say I didn't finish pluging it in.

So, I figured maybe the monitor fried my video card
Click to expand...

A popping sound can be caused by a fuse blowing quickly and not just a
shorted or overheated electrolytic capacitor. But fuses don't stink
when they fail (unless the glass cracks), unlike capacitors, wires,
transistors, diodes, circuit boards... And while a fuse is meant to
protect components, it's often too slow for this.

Look for obvious damage, such as brown marks on the motherboard power
connector, scorch marks anywhere, bulging or oozing capacitors (metal
cylinders covered with shrink wrap).

I believe your power supply is no longer putting out +5V (video card's
fan may use this voltage) and perhaps +3.3V too, but it's possible the
motherboard or a plug-in card has failed. You can test a supply with
either an unneeded motherboard (unneeded because a bad supply can ruin
it), $10 power supply tester (not very accurate but at least tells you
if all the voltages are at least halfway right), or a voltage meter and
a paperclip. The latter is usually best. Bend the paperclip so it
connects pin 14 (green wire) to pin 13 or 15 (both black). This should
cause the fan to run. Measure voltage between any black wire and
either red wire for +5V, orange for +3.3V or yellow for +12V. The
voltages may be off by 10% without a load, and a load is needed for
some supplies to run at all. An unneeded hard drive may provide a
sufficient load.

The sparks at the monitor plug could have been static electricity, and
they shouldn't have caused any harm, provided they were between the
metal outer shells of the connectors (grounds) and not any of the pins.
Never plug or unplug anything unless all the equipment is fully turned
off, meaning the AC cords must be unplugged first. You may be able to
partially test the monitor by itself by pressing its menu button to
bring up the menu. Most monitors will go into suspend mode if they
receive no video signal for more than a few seconds, but some will
display "No signal" on the screen.
 
You undoubtedly burned out your power supply unit. Replace it with a GOOD
quality one. Your motherboard may, or may not, have fried along with it.
 
I checked for heat damaged, and I didn't find any- Though inside the
power supply it looks like a capasitor leaked something, I dunno it
could just be glue holding it in place or something, but its partly
covering a resistor and none of the other capasitors have the junk on
them. Could that be it?
Click to expand...

your PS is bad...
replace it.
hopefully nothing else has died
 
Well, as I said I cannot see any scorches or any other burn marks,
except the one capasitor in the power supply seams like it oozed
something (though it's a yellowish soild now).

If I hooked up another power supply to my computer could it cause more
damage, or could it damage the new power supply?
 
Most problems don't even leave useful visual indications.
Many even confuse the glue used to hold that capacitor during
assembly with some kind of damage. Without identifying a
specific part as damaged, your observations provide few useful
facts.

Break the problem down into parts. One part that causes
everything else to look bad is the power supply 'system'. No,
not just a power supply. And this is why the ubiquitous 3.5
digit multimeter is so essential. Spinning fans and lights do
not say a power supply is working. Without numbers, you don't
know what is and is not working.

For you, the red, orange, yellow, green, gray, and purple
wire voltages are essential. Numbers both before and and
during a pressing of the power switch. Those voltages appear
in the upper 3/4 limits of the chart in second posts. Also
post those numbers since numbers tell the technically
knowledgeable specific facts about your machine:
"Computer doesnt start at all" in alt.comp.hardware on 10
Jan 2004 at
http://tinyurl.com/2t69q
"I think my power supply is dead" in alt.comp.hardware on 5
Feb 2004 at
http://www.tinyurl.com/2musa

Pictures that demonstrate what must be done are in:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5102-10586-5566528.html
www.ochardware.com/articles/psuvolt/psuvolt.html

First establish integrity of the power supply system. Get
that meter - a tool even sold in Sears, Walmart, Home Depot,
Lowes, and Radio Shack because the tool is as important as a
screwdriver.

Once we have established power supply 'system' integrity,
only then are we ready to suspect or confirm other system
parts.

Meanwhile, waste no time with swapping parts. In but 2
minutes, the meter tells us far more useful facts. Writing
numbers for each color wire will take longest. No one can say
with certainly that your power supply is bad. It is only a
reasonable speculation. But long before swapping parts, the
answer is obtained in but 2 minutes. The power supply system
involves more than just a power supply.
 
Stick your bugle inside the "turned off" box and find out what went
bang, or use a length of plastic tubing, the smell will be strongest
where the item went pop, it will still be there.
 
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