| Robert Meckley on Wed, 3 May 2000 16:59:56 -0400 (EDT) |
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N-Trophy, At 06:37 PM 5/2/00 -0400, you wrote: i lost a computer at the begining of the year. and tonight i come home and i hit the power. Nada. i switch to a different socket(different surge protector). *BLAM* sparks and that acidic electrical fire smell. well there goes my athlon system. the mb is toast. not a clue about anything else. but i'm not expecting much. looks like i'm going to have to dish out another 800 or so. Anyone got any ways for me to find out what component killed it(i'm betting on the PS) I'm ticked and i wana vent at some company. There have already been some very fine posts to your problem, but I want to add one small point based on my own experience. Even though you have a dead system, you may not have to lay out $800+ to fix your machine. But whether or not you do, depends on locating the bad component. (Let's assume its only one, but it may be more.) You are quite right in assuming that you may have a bad power supply or motherboard, but this covers a lot of territory. In terms of cost, we still may be speaking of a repair costing somewhere between $20 and $800. Using the repairman's basic principle of testing one thing at a time, I think this is what you have to do. (I won't comment on testing the wall socket except to say that this was very good advice.) (1) Test your power supply. Unfortunately, you can not do this in the machine you have. Some power supplies will not test out unless that are properly loaded by the MB. Hence you will need to put your power supply in another machine and then fire it up. If it fires up, turn it off and remove it. You have a good power supply. If not, try replacing the power supply in your system. This may be all that's wrong. (2) If the power supply tested O.K., you now have to start testing the MB circuitry. Now keep in mind that this includes, along with all the on-board circuitry, the memory modules, expansion cards, CPU, and on some boards, a replaceable cache. If any one thing has shorted out, theoretically, that could result in a dead system. (3) Starting with the expansion cards, remove one at a time and after each, try to fire up the system. (Important detail - first unplug, remove, plug, then try to fire.) If the system is still dead after all cards are removed, try removing the memory modules. (4) If the system is still dead, try replacing the CPU with one out of a working machine. (Finding one that fits your board or any at all may be a problem, I know. If this is not a practical option, then simple buy a new MB with a processor already installed. That will be your cheapest option since you won't know for sure whether its your MB or CPU that is causing the problem.) (5) If your CPU has tested out, then simply buy another MB for your processor and reverse the above process. Your repair will then be a lot less than the $800 + you are now contemplating. Good luck in fixing your problem. It may be a lot of work, but in the end you will learn a lot about your machine and you won't have to lay out big bucks. RMeckley ______________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group - http://plug.nothinbut.net Announcements - http://lists.nothinbut.net/mail/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion - http://lists.nothinbut.net/mail/listinfo/plug
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