PC fried - Power supply, or mobo?

wenchkilla

So I brought my PC to a LAN party, something I've done a million times, and when I tried to turn it on, it wouldn't. Then there was that delicious "electronic burning smell". This did not surprise me, as my power supply has been emitting some sort of strange electronic noise lately.

So, nothing will turn on, but the power light on the motherboard is green. Is the power supply fried, or the motherboard, or both?

I do not have another PC or spare parts to test components individually.

matt has a problem

No way to tell until you start replacing things. The fact that you continued using it after the PSU started acting up means there's a good chance everything in the box is now crispy.

Barrakketh

Disconnect the PSU, remove it from the case, open it and don't touch anything on the inside. Look around for something like a burst/leaking capacitor; you'll probably notice some fluid around the bottom of it as well and it'll look like a light oil, though it may be dried.

Using your PC even though you knew it was making unusual noises was pretty dumb, especially if you were reasonably sure it was the PSU of all things.

wenchkilla

Yeah it was kinda like a high pitched whining... lesson learned I guess.

I was worried that there's no way to tell on the components. I'll try opening up the PSU and check it out.

Is there any chance it ruined the hard disk too? I'd really like to retain some of those files

SoCo_and_Lime

wenchkilla wrote: »

Yeah it was kinda like a high pitched whining... lesson learned I guess.

I was worried that there's no way to tell on the components. I'll try opening up the PSU and check it out.

Is there any chance it ruined the hard disk too? I'd really like to retain some of those files

I highly doubt you fried the HD. As Maths said, there's no way to tell until you start testing parts.

Nathrak

It's probably the psu, same thing happened to me a few weeks ago(wouldn't power on but light on mobo would stay on) but I was outside so I don't know if there was any noise/smell when it died. I tested my psu by taking it out and connecting the green and a black wire on the main motherboard power connector while having a few fans connected. You can look here for more info on a simple test for a power supply. Just disconnect it from anything important but have a few fans connected as I read some psu's need a minimum power draw to activate.