PC will not boot, PS Failure ?

**mhubbard24** · May 12th, 2007, 09:26 PM

Well I am a Network tech not a PC tech and it may show here......

I leave my pc on almost all the time, well I woke up this morning and that familiar noise I hear every morning wasn't there, my pc was silent. I disconnected the PS from the motherboard just for fun and still no power. The LAN light lights up though but no fans try to power or anything. Obviously it sounds like a PS so I go to Best Buy and purchase a Dynex 500W ATX PS. (My original PS was 420) I plug everything in checked my connections, plug it in and hit the power button. I see fans start to spin and for a seconf I thought all was well, then everything stopped, and a loud pop, then smoke....lol.

System Specs:

Custom build unit MSI MS6570 Mobo, AMD CPU 2600+
3 hard Drives, 1 DVD Burner
Nvidis GeFroce 4 Video 256MB
2 case fans

Incase you are wondering I did ensure the switch on the back of the PS was set at 115 for US....

I am kind of afraid to do much else here like try another PS. Doesn't seem possible to me that an issue with my mobo or cpu could make a PS pop and smoke like that but like I said I am not a PC tech. Possibly a bad PS from Best Buy? It looks like a standard ATX PS. Motherboard issue? CPU? I am kind of stumped here now and hopefully someone here can point me in the right direction....

Thanks!

**mhubbard24** · May 12th, 2007, 09:44 PM

Well right before I put the new power supply in I took the fan off of the top of the heat sink to clean some of the dust off of the top of the heat sink. Not sure what this has to do with anything but could.

What potential damage could this have caused? I can handle losing it all except my hard drives. I hope they are ok at least to get the data off anyways....

**Ferrit** · May 12th, 2007, 10:01 PM

I suspect the motherboard blew out and then shorted the new psu.
Seen that a few times. Likely the drives are fine so connect them to another working system and check em

**mhubbard24** · May 12th, 2007, 10:08 PM

Originally Posted by Ferrit

I suspect the motherboard blew out and then shorted the new psu.
Seen that a few times. Likely the drives are fine so connect them to another working system and check em

So you are saying that my mobo possibly went bad to begin with and killed both power supplies? Makes sense I guess....

So what should be next? Risk another power supply? Buy a new mobo, cpu or both?

**Ferrit** · May 12th, 2007, 10:36 PM

Certainly that would be my guess from the info supplied. I would inspect the capacitors as OMG said looking for anything bulgeing or leaking

**mhubbard24** · May 12th, 2007, 11:12 PM

No bulging or leaking and I do know what to look for. Also, the integrated ethernet LAN activity light blinks when I put the dead PS back in. I assume this could be a good sign the mobo is ok?

**NooNoo** · May 13th, 2007, 04:00 AM

Originally Posted by mhubbard24

No bulging or leaking and I do know what to look for. Also, the integrated ethernet LAN activity light blinks when I put the dead PS back in. I assume this could be a good sign the mobo is ok?

No... you are a network tech, you know the link light is a function of the power coming down the ethernet cable, not of the motherboard or the power supply.

Either you plugged in that psu wrongly and shorted something or your motherboard has a dead short on the motherboard somewhere.

**mhubbard24** · May 13th, 2007, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by OMGmissinglink

You removed your fan or both Heatsink/Fan "esp", removing your heatsink and an inproperly reinstall could cause your processor overheat and blowout, meaning could cause the pop sound you've discribed. Suggestion= you reintall a known functioning XP processor - install using artec silver thermal compound.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...,751531,00.asp

No I did not take the heatsink off, I simply unscrewed the fan off of the top of it. Anyways I just checked it and the heatsink is securely fastened. I actually never physically oueched the heatsink just the fan. I blew the dust off is all...

The pop clearly came from the PS.... There is a big chunk of plastic just rattling around inside the PS...it is yellow I can see it through the grill...

Unless someone disagrees...I have another PS at my office that is good but useless for the most part for me since it is 300 watts. I will try it and see what happens. I will not hook anything up to it than necessary. Just enough to see it boot....

If that fails then I am off to buy a new mobo/cpu too... needed a reason to upgrade anyways...

**NooNoo** · May 13th, 2007, 10:45 AM

It is possible that the replacement psu did pop of it's own accord... so yah go ahead with the 300w... just video and ram hooked up.

**mhubbard24** · May 13th, 2007, 12:26 PM

Thanks noonoo..... Will give it a shot.

If that blows the PS up...then we know it is mobo...

Sooo.... when I buy a replacement mobo/cpu combo or whatever I do, will it be safe to use my components? Memory, vid card, sound card, hdd's, etc.

I guess the tricky part would be to test all of these components, would not want to test anything in a new mobo unless you said it was safe...

Thanks

**NooNoo** · May 13th, 2007, 01:06 PM

Impossible to say what damage has been caused. For the most part, stuff just don't work... unless you get unlucky. Processors can blow motherboards, but cards usually just don't work.

**MobilePCPhysician** · May 13th, 2007, 01:44 PM

when you try that processor, don't plug in the hard drives, dvd, etc. Also remove any cards not necessary, ie. modem, lan, etc. Just enough to see if the mobo will boot.

**mhubbard24** · May 14th, 2007, 10:29 AM

Results of my findings:

Took all 3 hard drives out first thing and plugged them in a working pc....they seem to be working just fine as I was able to browse data, open files, etc.

Put memory in a working pc..also worked just fine.

Video Card same thing all is well.

Put spare working PS in my system...nothing at all.

For fun and risky too I might add....I put my "bad" PS in a working PC. Came up just fine except for one thing...the PS fan was not turning.

So now it is down to the replacing the mobo and cpu as it is time for an upgrade. I really am not able to test the cpu since I dont have another system to put it in. My gut says the mobo is gone, and the cpu is just fine.

As far as what happened I assume the fan stopped, the PS overheated and shut itself off..... So how did that damage my motherboard? Maybe the new PS from Best Buy damaged it? I know it was hooked up right since the plugs really only go in a certain way especially.... I remember double checking and making sure all connections were tight.

I appreciate all the responses in helping me solve my problems..

**NooNoo** · May 14th, 2007, 11:12 AM

The fan might have stopped because of a large surge... that would have been transferred to the mobo and killed it.

**mhubbard24** · May 16th, 2007, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by OMGmissinglink

PSU fan does not work replace PSU, what I'd suggest is removing the MB out of your case and set it on an insolated area, remove the heatsink off the processor, clean the bottom of your heatsink and apply artic silver as posted instructions-even though you say you've just removed your fan, any heatsink movement can dislodge the thermal compound between the heatsink and processor this can cause your processor to overheat! MSI boards rarely blow all thougth a possibility.

Now proceeding through the process's suggested using minimum componets, MB, processor, ram, PSU on insulated area you can test your system.

Ok will give that a shot. You seem pretty convinced that I dislodged the heatsink judging from this post and others before. I really don't think this is the case but will follow your advice anyways as this is pretty quick and easy to do. I also ordered a new socket a mobo to test with. Dirt cheap, so I can test the cpu on it as well.

I had a buddy test the power leads from the power supply while hooked into the mobo. According to him, the PSU sends power to the mobo, but the mobo never reports back that all is ok....

Thanks again for all the help.