Power Supply

[Not Known]

Hi,

A neighbour has bought his PC to me as he thought he had a virus. The
machine had been in his van for 3 weeks. I explained before touching the PC
that dampness from the van may have damaged it. I started to connect it up
to my monitor and as soon as I put the power cable in 'BANG'. I was glad I
did this in front of him!

Anyway, I have taken a power supply from an old machine of mine and
connected it up to the m/b etc. When I push the power button, within about
3 seconds, the compaq splash screen comes on screen and then 2 seconds later
disappears. The monitor light then goes from green to orange, indicating I
assume that no signal is being sent from the bas unit to monitor.

I reckon the BANG has damaged the m/b, but the only reason I doubt this is
that the compaq splash screen comes on for a second or two. Could that be
normal behaviour?

Any input appreciated

Thanks

Paul

 

[Christo]

Hi,

A neighbour has bought his PC to me as he thought he had a virus. The
machine had been in his van for 3 weeks. I explained before touching the
PC that dampness from the van may have damaged it. I started to connect
it up to my monitor and as soon as I put the power cable in 'BANG'. I was
glad I did this in front of him!

Anyway, I have taken a power supply from an old machine of mine and
connected it up to the m/b etc. When I push the power button, within
about 3 seconds, the compaq splash screen comes on screen and then 2
seconds later disappears. The monitor light then goes from green to
orange, indicating I assume that no signal is being sent from the bas unit
to monitor.

I reckon the BANG has damaged the m/b, but the only reason I doubt this is
that the compaq splash screen comes on for a second or two. Could that be
normal behaviour?

Any input appreciated

Thanks

Paul

You never specified the PSU rating so....


This could indicate that the power supply you are using isn't powerful
enough to support all the components on the board, I.E video card.

although it could be something entirely different, just a possibility to
consider.

seen as you say "From an old machine" the PSU is most liekly not able to
meet the requirements of the system.

You might try a bigger PSU, 400Watt is the norm really these days

however most systems will run on 350Watt PSU's as long as they are of high
quality and relatively new

300W PSU's are generally used in Mini systems

as for lower 250Watt PSU's they are used in shuttle or barebones systems but
even now these are beggining to use 300Watt

Try a 400 Watt PSU if you can

 

[Apollo]

Hi,

A neighbour has bought his PC to me as he thought he had a virus. The
machine had been in his van for 3 weeks. I explained before touching
the PC that dampness from the van may have damaged it. I started to
connect it up to my monitor and as soon as I put the power cable in
'BANG'. I was glad I did this in front of him!

If you had left the pc in a nice warm house for a few hours / overnight
you probably wouldn't have damaged his property by powering it up damp!

A few weeks in a slightly damp environment won't have damaged the PC,
but your actions have probably caused a very large amount of damage.
Either own up now or hope he never asks anyone with a decent amount of
PC hardware knowledge.

Anyhows, you live and learn.

 

[Not Known]

You never specified the PSU rating so....


This could indicate that the power supply you are using isn't powerful
enough to support all the components on the board, I.E video card.

although it could be something entirely different, just a possibility to
consider.

seen as you say "From an old machine" the PSU is most liekly not able to
meet the requirements of the system.

You might try a bigger PSU, 400Watt is the norm really these days

however most systems will run on 350Watt PSU's as long as they are of high
quality and relatively new

300W PSU's are generally used in Mini systems

as for lower 250Watt PSU's they are used in shuttle or barebones systems
but even now these are beggining to use 300Watt

Try a 400 Watt PSU if you can

Thanks for your help guys, I kind of knew afterwards that maybe I should
have left it overnight to dry out a bit. I was hasty as I wanted to start
it in front of him rather than him leaving and then for me to possibly have
problems when he left.

Anyway like you say you live and learn.

However, the old psu is max output 145W and the new power supply is 235W.
We're not talking about brand new kit here.

Taking this into account, the newer pwer supply should be sufficient.

I would have thought that if the m/b was fried, I wouldn't even get the
spalsh screen. Would I be right in assuming this or is the splash screen of
no relavence to the state of the motherboard. I basically need to work out
whether to m/b is beyond repair or not.

Thanks

 

[kony]

Hi,

A neighbour has bought his PC to me as he thought he had a virus. The
machine had been in his van for 3 weeks. I explained before touching the PC
that dampness from the van may have damaged it. I started to connect it up
to my monitor and as soon as I put the power cable in 'BANG'. I was glad I
did this in front of him!

Knowing ahead of time that there was a potential for
dampness, wouldn't it have been prudent to open the case,
let it sit to dehumidify for a time before trying it? In my
mind you caused the system damage, _IF_ it actually was
related to moisture which it likely wasn't, since machine
wasn't working properly prior to this.

Anyway, I have taken a power supply from an old machine of mine and
connected it up to the m/b etc. When I push the power button, within about
3 seconds, the compaq splash screen comes on screen and then 2 seconds later
disappears. The monitor light then goes from green to orange, indicating I
assume that no signal is being sent from the bas unit to monitor.

Yes, no signal to monitor.

I reckon the BANG has damaged the m/b, but the only reason I doubt this is
that the compaq splash screen comes on for a second or two. Could that be
normal behaviour?

The machine could be shutting off for several reasons, like
a short somewhere, heatsink not making contact with CPU, or
something as simple as the CPU heatsink fan not turning.
Beyond clearing CMOS the next course (assuming replacement
power supply is known good, adequate) is swapping in/out
parts to determine where the fault lies.