Well, if it's not one thing it's another. Let me start, and bear with me if this gets long.
A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine started having intermittent problems with his PC that I built him several years ago. I can't remember all the specs off the top of my head but it was like a 1.2GHz Athlon, MSI mobo (I think), etc... The problem he is having is that the PC didn't want to turn on sometimes when he would press the power button. He would have to press it numerous times to get power. Even once it would boot, it would sometimes just reset itself. Then one day, no matter how many times he would press the power button it wouldn't cut on. We bring it over to my place, and I put in a new Antec Smart Power 350W PSU. Boots up on the first try, and he hasn't had any problems since. Great, problems solved! Wrong.
He calls me tonight to tell me that he cut the PC on, heard the fans spin up, the BIOS info popped up on the screen, it started booting, then...... POP!! No video signal, no fans spinning, no power, nothing except for a burning smell and some smoke coming from the PC. He was in a hurry (was actually just going to retrieve his e-ticket in an email for a plane he had to catch tonight) so he called me on the way to the airport. I don't have any other specifics as far as any other symptoms.
I'll be going over to his place tomorrow or later this week to take a look at it. I'd like to at least have an answer for him when he gets back in town. So my questions to you guys is.... what happenend?! Could it have been the mobo going bad all along, and maybe that was a capacitor popping on the motherboard? Do they make a loud pop? He said it was extremely loud. In fact, his wife heard it two rooms away. If it was the PSU, it was a new one from ZipZoomFly that we used, so does anyone have any experience with their return policy? What would be the best way to go about troubleshooting this? I'm thinking of pulling an old 300W out of one of my systems and seeing what happens. I just hope if it was the PSU that it didn't take anything else out with it.
This whole thing is just ironic.... a couple of weeks ago someone posted a message about hearing Antec was having problems with their PSUs exploding. How I hope that isn't true....because I just built several systems using the exact same PSU that I put in his. :disgust: Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
Tom
A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine started having intermittent problems with his PC that I built him several years ago. I can't remember all the specs off the top of my head but it was like a 1.2GHz Athlon, MSI mobo (I think), etc... The problem he is having is that the PC didn't want to turn on sometimes when he would press the power button. He would have to press it numerous times to get power. Even once it would boot, it would sometimes just reset itself. Then one day, no matter how many times he would press the power button it wouldn't cut on. We bring it over to my place, and I put in a new Antec Smart Power 350W PSU. Boots up on the first try, and he hasn't had any problems since. Great, problems solved! Wrong.
He calls me tonight to tell me that he cut the PC on, heard the fans spin up, the BIOS info popped up on the screen, it started booting, then...... POP!! No video signal, no fans spinning, no power, nothing except for a burning smell and some smoke coming from the PC. He was in a hurry (was actually just going to retrieve his e-ticket in an email for a plane he had to catch tonight) so he called me on the way to the airport. I don't have any other specifics as far as any other symptoms.
I'll be going over to his place tomorrow or later this week to take a look at it. I'd like to at least have an answer for him when he gets back in town. So my questions to you guys is.... what happenend?! Could it have been the mobo going bad all along, and maybe that was a capacitor popping on the motherboard? Do they make a loud pop? He said it was extremely loud. In fact, his wife heard it two rooms away. If it was the PSU, it was a new one from ZipZoomFly that we used, so does anyone have any experience with their return policy? What would be the best way to go about troubleshooting this? I'm thinking of pulling an old 300W out of one of my systems and seeing what happens. I just hope if it was the PSU that it didn't take anything else out with it.
This whole thing is just ironic.... a couple of weeks ago someone posted a message about hearing Antec was having problems with their PSUs exploding. How I hope that isn't true....because I just built several systems using the exact same PSU that I put in his. :disgust: Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
Tom