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My computer is dead.
RT800
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I woke up this morning to find that my computer room had no power. The rest of the house was fine and there had been no bad weather so the cause is unknown.
I flipped the circuit breakers on and off to restore power, which fixed everything but the computer. It continues to behave as if it's unplugged when I press the power button. No lights, no noise, nothing. It was fine last night.
I checked both the wall outlet and surge protector to make sure they're working and they are. I also checked inside the CPU tower for loose or burnt wires but I didn't see or smell anything.
I figure the problem must be either the motherboard or the power supply but I'm not sure which. I'm hoping it's the power supply since the thought of having to replace the motherboard makes me feel really really tired.
I was hoping someone here might know how I can pinpoint the problem for sure.
I flipped the circuit breakers on and off to restore power, which fixed everything but the computer. It continues to behave as if it's unplugged when I press the power button. No lights, no noise, nothing. It was fine last night.
I checked both the wall outlet and surge protector to make sure they're working and they are. I also checked inside the CPU tower for loose or burnt wires but I didn't see or smell anything.
I figure the problem must be either the motherboard or the power supply but I'm not sure which. I'm hoping it's the power supply since the thought of having to replace the motherboard makes me feel really really tired.
I was hoping someone here might know how I can pinpoint the problem for sure.
RT800 on
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Start taking things out, find the failure point. If you think it's the power supply, find another power supply, hook it up. Stripping it down to motherboard+CPU+Memory is another option, if you know you have a good supply, and it doesn't boot in that configuration, you've narrowed it down to those three possible points.
Basically you unplug the PSU from motherboard and use a paperclip to connect the green wire with a black wire and if it works it will spin up. Probably unplug hard drives first so they're not flipped on and off a bunch if it does work.
When I had a similar problem happen myself, it was just the PSU, and nothing else in the computer was affected. Similarly, I read about somebody whose machine got zapped during a lightning storm, and when they replaced the PSU everything was fine again. So no need to get depressed about it just yet. PSUs are also some of the cheapest parts to replace in a machine (at least if you're mostly just checking if that's the problem they are), so if it turns out that's all it is, you're not even out much dough after this incident.
Still a mystery as to what caused the failure in the first place though.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
It really should be. Unless you have a VERY powerhungry computer, 750 should do fine.
EDIT: And yeah, Paladin's probably right. Better the PSU goes than the motherboard and everything attached to it.
Though let me tell you there's nothing quite as shocking as hearing POPOPOP-PO-POP and then having your computer shut down.
but boy was I glad I only needed to switch out my PSU instead of all of my hardware.