COMPUTER HELP NEEDED

[Freeker]

Lately its been harder and harder to turn it on, takes longer each time and the power supply was intermitently making a lot of noises. So I woke up today to find my computer off after I left it on all night. Tried to turn it on nothing, fliped the switch on the back off and on, hit the power button and it came on for a split second and stopped. Did that a couple of times then tried hooking Dave's power supply into my computer. It turned on but a strong burning smell started so we shut it off. Can anyone offer any advice.

[Paan]

Funny... just two days ago I had a burning smell coming from mine, then I could not turn it on. I had to get the power supply changed, and got a more powerful one than before. Solved the problem.

[Freeker]

So i put in another power supply, this time no smell. it turns on, well the fans anyway, doesn't boot at all however. SO now I'm thinking MoBo.

Andre where are you when i need you?

[boiler]

Sounds like the fan in your power supply is kaput. They're cheap. If you aren't scared to take things apart with a screw driver it's a fairly simple D.I.Y job. Don't mark my words though, I'm not really qualified, just have experience with fans failing. Maybe you're whole power supply is screwed.

[Freeker]

Ya I'd say my PSU is toast but I tried too different power supplies

1st one = turned on burning platic smell started

2nd one - Just turns on the fans, no lights no boot up

[boiler]

SO now I'm thinking MoBo.

Maybe.

Again changing the fan on the chip sometimes solves a lot of problems.

Maybe also try flipping the jooberwocky switch to accelerate and replace the thing a ma jig with a wathchya callit. (sorry my computer hardware knowledge is limited to fans)

[AdamH]

The sequence of things makes me think the faulty power supply shorted your mobo and you should look for a new computer now.

[d_rawk]

I'm with One and a hair. Have you physically inspected the mobo? I had a power suppy fail (rolling power outages in Quebec) and it blew a capacitor on the mobo. The damage was visible by dark browning on the cap head. The strong burning smell suggests that something else was probably affected, definately.

And I just want to clarify the following, because I think FreekerByTheSpeaker is a decent chap, and would hate to see him die with a screwdriver in his hand. Ok, I'd hate to see him die period.

Sounds like the fan in your power supply is kaput. They're cheap. If you aren't scared to take things apart with a screw driver it's a fairly simple D.I.Y job.

Again changing the fan on the chip sometimes solves a lot of problems.

Note that - if I understand him correctly - he was talking about the fan on the chip (second quote), not the fan in the power supply (first quote).

Please don't take your power supply apart.

[bouche]

No beeps eh? If you get beeps, you can at least figure out what they mean.

but, if you're powersupply was pooched, I think it can let too much into your mobo and kill a few things. Maybe you even had a power surge that affected your PS and motherboard.

You can get a new mobo pretty cheap, if you can find one that matches your gear. I would just hope that nothing else (like vid card and ram) got fried.

[Booche]

The sequence of things makes me think the faulty power supply shorted your mobo

I think he may be right. The only two times I have dealt with that odour you speak of, were mobo related. One time, my RAM was fried as well and the other time it was a clients and his sound card went along with the board.

Sprint was able to tell us that it was our board and RAM, which was visible. If you have DDR ram, which I believe you do, I havent dealt with that stuff to know for sure what to look for.

Edit to add: There is a very strong chance your chip is also fried. Sorry bud.

Edited September 30, 2006 by Guest
Freeker likes my balls.

[CyberHippie]

I concur, your power supply was dead. Sounds like the one you used wasn't right and fried your mobo. Look up your mother board specs and see what type of power supply is required and make sure your are using something within the parameters, if you are and the cpu won't start up, I'd say she's shot.

The first time one of my computers wouldn't start up I nearly shat myself because I don't back up nearly enough. Luckily once I replaced the power supply everything was fine. Incidently I think replacing a cpu's power supply is one of the easiest computery tasks going. Sounds a lot harder than it is.

Good luck dude.

[Douglas]

This advice is too little too late for you, but not for others....if your computer is not powering on as per the norm, or (especially) if you smell something burning, do not try "harder" to turn your computer on. Leave it off. Have someone check it...most likely the power supply is the issue, which for most standard PC's is about $40. If you let it continue, your PC can overheat, thereby frying the motherboard (much like letting the coolant in your engine run out and frying your engine....$10 vs. $1000).

Sometimes, it's even something as simple as dust build-up on the fan in the powersupply. If the fan stops working and the power still goes, heat heat heat.

P.S/ - this might be a stupid question, but are you sure that the power supply you first replaced it with (when it was booting, but had a burning smell) had the same voltage as your original?

[Freeker]

Ya I'm fucked. Sitting here at OEm right now as they install my new processor and MoBo. What a shitty day.

[Jared]

get a new comptuer

[headymamamyrna]

Just listen to Douglas!

[Douglas]

Ya I'm fucked. Sitting here at OEm right now as they install my new processor and MoBo. What a shitty day.

That sucks, dude. Sorry to hear it. If I can do anything to help still, let me know. I may not the quickest to respond to computerhelpneeded (SugarMegs and Velvet can attest to that), but I do my best.