It went with a bang...

[Taffycat]

Hubby's computer went out with a bang this evening... literally. We were both doing our thing, I was gaming, whilst he was browsing, when there was an almighty bang and flash, accompanied by an unpleasant aroma of burning.

We quickly unplugged everything and took the cpu into the kitchen, just in case it was going to smoulder. What a pong! Dreadful.

We took a look inside, but there was no actual sign of burnt bits, although the power unit was certainly very warm. The smell was emanating from there too, so I'm guessing that it overheated.

The computer was ageing - just over 7 years old. It had been my old Vista PC. We have been intending to replace it ever since the beginning of the year... but as sometimes happens, other things tended to get in the way, and we kept putting it off. Ho hum...

I always used to let that computer run 24/7 - crunching. For some months I've not done that, due to a few odd noises that suggested it wouldn't be a good idea. Phew! It has kind of impressed upon us that it might not be such a good idea to leave PCs running unattended, such as overnight - or if one leaves the house. It could so easily have ended-up causing a fire, rather than just a nasty stench.

Oh well... RIP old faithful.

 

[V_R]

Sounds like the PSU crapped out. If your lucky it wont have taken anything else with it.... But its very possible.

Unlucky.

 

[muckshifter]

Sounds like the PSU crapped out. If your lucky it wont have taken anything else with it.... But its very possible.

I concur ... PSUs used to do that very often.

If you can, before buying a complete new system, replace PSU with a known working unit.

Hope you have a good outcome!



Just as a side note: when doing your annual clean out of dust-bunnies, put the vacuum cleaner on blow, and give the PSU some TLC.

 

[nivrip]

Yup, you get attached to old PCs. I had an old Medion which was over 10 years old and was used only for crunching eventually.

However, when it finally gave up the ghost I felt quite sad about it. Don't know why, it was just lumps of metal and wiring.

 

[Taffycat]

Thanks V_R, Mucks and Niv

I've been giving it some thought and it might well be a good idea to buy a PSU and see what happens. I guess the worst that could happen, is that other components are "fried" so that the PC is beyond saving. If that is so, then it still wouldn't hurt to have a spare PSU kicking around, in case of future failures.

Then there's Plan B ... namely, the thoughts that have also been going through my mind... I'm thinking I could extract the hard disk and maybe try it in a caddy - or something(?) (I also want to try this with the other old XP PC that is lying around here dead.)

As you might have gathered, right now, this room is looking like a computer graveyard!

Must now focus on getting a replacement.

 

[muckshifter]

or, you could just "hang" the drive out of your working PC to check it.

It is as simple as it sounds, but a bit tiresome to write up an explanation as to how ...


if a new PSU "fixes" the problem, ignore what I said.

 

[Ian]

Oh bugger . I really hope the rest of the system is ok TC. Happened to me a few times over the years - all of the "cheapie" PSUs I bought have gone that way, plus one high end one (Tagan I think). From what I remember, I can't recall any resulting hardware damage.

edit: Nope, not a Tagan after all, a Xilence!: https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/always-buy-good-power-supply-t3592717.html

 

[floppybootstomp]

Good luck with the repair or replacement TC. I never leave any electrical appliances on that don't need to be on when I'm asleep or out of my home, too risky.

In all the time I've messed with 'puters I've had 4 or 5 Antec PSU's die on me and one Tagan. Interestingly, I still have several Jeantech PSU's that must all be at least 12 years old that are still OK. And they were cheapies. Sold by... PC World

 

[Taffycat]

Which PSU brands are considered best these days, if I might ask, please guys? Would they be the "usual suspects" for example, Corsair, Seasonic...? As I mentioned, it really wouldn't hurt to have a spare one kicking around.

Also - and apologies if this is a bit of a daft question... but do they all basically fit most systems?

Oh and thank you Flopps - I was still in the reply-window when you posted

 

[exmoor]

I have ocz in my nova tech li LAN case

 

[floppybootstomp]

OCZ went bust last year unfortunately, which is a shame cos they made fine PSU's.

Their SSD assets were bought by Toshiba and they still trade under the OCZ name but now only make SSD's.

I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to which are the best PSU's, mostly as I haven't had to buy one for years now since buying only Corsair PSU's, Oh hang on, I did buy a 500W one when I put a decent video card into my media machine between 4 and 8 months ago, and it was... a Corsair

Seasonic have always been good and I hear good things about Be Quiet PSU's but other than that - I know not

 

[V_R]

Corsair, Seasonic, Be Quite, Superflower all off the top of my head. All good reliable brands.

 

[bootneck02]

Sorry to hear of the demise of your old PC TC. I have not got a PSU but should you need it I do have Intel Core 2 E6600 2.4 GHz complete with fan boxed which I could send you should you need it.

 

[muckshifter]

the 'cheapest' PSUs from PC World are ... wait for it ... Corsairs'.

 

[Taffycat]

I appreciate your replies guys, thank you all. It's always good to know whether one is thinking along the "right" lines or not. Corsair seems like a good choice then

Bootneck, many thanks for your very kind offer. I am hopeful that nothing else "fried"... because the power unit that blew yesterday, was only a few years old, so possibly, it had built-in overvoltage protection. (Really not sure about that... but I've been reading about it, so live in hope lol. Ever the optimist eh?)

 

[Ian]

Corsair seem to be quite decent with their warranties too - I had a USB drive fail and they replaced it years after without quibble .

 

[Taffycat]

That is good to know Ian, I think it helps to generate confidence when a company is prepared to back-up their product like that.

Meanwhile, we decided to get an off-the-shelf replacement PC, to fill the gap left by the old one.

The choices aren't great locally, but at least it was quicker than it would have been to wait for a new one to be built, etc. (Still planning on getting one, btw, because my Novatech has some "quirks" that can be a tad annoying... however, I digress.)

So, our local store had an HP on sale, reduced by £100 to £449. (Yeah I know, a self-build would have been better value, etc., but that isn't possible right now.)

So briefly, what's on-board:

Processor: Intel Core i5-4460S (2.9 GHz, 3.4 GHz with TurboBoost, 6 MB cache)

RAM: 8 GB DDR3

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 705

Storage: 2 TB HDD, 7200 rpm

Motherboard: Intel Z87

USB: USB 3.0 x 4
USB 2.0 x 2

DVD/RW and 6-in-1 Memory Card Reader

Full specs here: http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...0-319na-desktop-pc-10016083-pdt.html#longDesc

Within half an hour I'd unboxed it and set it up. Hubby was very chuffed to get back online again - the computer is pretty much his main hobby, particularly as he is not overly mobile these days.

So what do I think about Windows 8.1...? Well so far it's okay-ish; it was certainly easy to set-up, and some aspects are pretty intuitive. I'm not actively looking for negatives, but it does feel unnecessarily "fussy" (such as having to position the mouse in a certain way, just to gain access to settings. etc. What the heck was wrong with just clicking the darned start button for all that?)

This morning I was not too impressed to find I'd been locked out of the darned thing when I booted it up. It kept saying that "Your password is incorrect..." oh no it *$?<€^%* isn't! But could I persuade Windows that it was actually correct...? No I could not! (At which point, "booting-up" suddenly took on a whole new meaning... but I resisted the temptation, truly I did lol.)

It wouldn't even allow me to get in using the suggested over-ride key combos, which I turned-up after a bit of Googling. The only consolation was to learn that I was not alone. This appears to be a fairly common problem amongst some users.

In the end, there was no choice other than to re-set my microsoft pw. (A bit awkward for anyone who might not have access to another PC or smartphone - they might be few in number these days, but even so...)

Oh well, it will be interesting to see whether I'm allowed to get in tomorrow, or whether I'll need to go through another password re-set.

Anyone got some Doc Martins that I could borrow please...? Just kidding.

 

[muckshifter]

well, they ain't too much wrong with your new PC, TC ... nothing an upgrade to Win7 wouldn't cure.

Not sure why you have a password, unless it's a Win8 problem. The only passwords I've ever set, were with my Linux excursions.

 

[floppybootstomp]

TC, if ever you manage to get into your computer again (sorry, but Currys? I have them marked as Spam with Mailwasher) have a look at this thread here https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/make-windows-8-look-like-windows-7-a-t4062731.html and consider installing Classic Shell.

On my 'test bed' install of Win 8 I use it and V_R likes it.

The specs for the new PC are certainly ok but.... Win 8?

Ok, hush ma mouth, I best utter not another peep

Good luck

 

[Taffycat]

Yeah... I'll admit that Windows 8 wasn't my OS of choice, but Currys are inflexible on that one and, if I'm honest, the curious side of my nature kind of kicked-in. (They - Currys - are even offering lessons on how to use Win8! Er, thanks, but no thanks. I'd rather find out things for myself - the advice on here is pretty hard to beat, I've found.)

Glad to hear that you think the specs aren't too bad Mucks. That's encouraging.

Oh, and I keep saying "I" or "me" when speaking about the PC... but that is only because hubby is not very tech-minded where PCs are concerned. He can happily surf around, but usually leaves the "other stuff" to me lol.

Anyway - yes, it did let me in today - hooray! But this is the first PC that I've ever password protected. It insisted on me entering my MS login details in order to proceed with the set-up. So I did, but wasn't happy about it. I'm hoping that I can cancel it at some point.

One thing I've already done, is to create a desktop "Godmode" folder... it saves me having to hunt around for commonplace settings, etc.

Thank you for the Classic Shell suggestion Flopps, I remember reading V_R's comments about it in another thread, so will look into that. Thanks also for the linky, which I'll look at a little later (got to go out shortly.)