Major problem, power supply related?

[tehnovus]

Hey guys,
About ten minutes ago, I was cleaning out my computer. I placed everything back in it's proper place, and closed the case, and looked forward to a long night of playing Guild Wars. However, after ten minutes of idle web browsing, my computer made a very high pitched squeaking sound, and *poof*...completely gone. On occasion, when I hit the power button, it makes the sound and attempts to boot for a second, only to die again. If anyone can give me some input on how to fix this, it'd be greatly appriciated.

My computer consists of:

AMD A64 3200+, TT K8 SilentBoost
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
GeForce 6800 w/ NV Silencer 5
1GB Corsair ValueSelect CAS 2.5
TT TWV 480W Power Supply
80GB SATA HDD

...anything else you guys need, let me know. Thanks in advance.

 

[Harvey]

A high pitched squeaking sound could be a cooling fan rubbing on something. If so, that would stop your computer pretty quickly if something was overheating.

Did you try listing for the sound with the case cover off to determine what was making the noise?

 

[tehnovus]

Yes, I double-checked for such errors on my part. The system refuses to even start now, however, all of my USB devices (one had an LED on it) stay "lit" and the total watts viewer that came with the power supply reads as "10" currently, which is normal.

Any other ideas are greatly appriciated!

 

[Harvey]

I didn't ask if you checked for errors. I asked if you'd tried to find out what component was making the noise.

 

[krcat1]

How are the cables in your machine?

Check the wires around you HS and other fans. The whine could be a fan that was trying to kick into highgear due to high temps.

There is always the chance that when you where cleaning the machine, you damaged the MB.

I has similiar symptoms with my machine when I had a bad MB.

 

[speedyduck]

Try the usual routine. Unplug everything (HD, Floppy, CD roms etc) from motherboard leaving only the video card and see if it starts up.
If it does, add the items one by one until it dies again to isolate the cause.
If it does not start up, check if anything metal part of the mb is touching the case etc. Also check the motherboard to look for damage, esp check the caps of capacitors for any bulging or rupture (very common cause of mb failure)

Good luck

 

[tehnovus]

Thanks for the constructive suggestions, everyone.
I checked everything one by one already... nothing. No signs of power going in to the computer at all.
Voltimeter reads as .047 volts on everything... guessing it's dead?

 

[Harvey]

You could have a short somewhere. Did you remove the motherboard? If so, check to see there are shorts between one of the mounting studs and the case, especially if it uses metal support standoffs. Also, try re-inserting all your plug-in cards and your RAM.

 

[tehnovus]

I placed the motherboard on a box and tested it from there with only the video card, RAM, cpu/heatsink. When I press the power button, the cpu fan just spins a little, not even one revolution, then stops. Removed the RAM one by one, same thing happened.

 

[impudence]

That sounds like what happened to me a while back. I swapped motherboards and about ten minutes after starting up a high piched shrilling started and poof! computer gone. When I tried start it again it would just squeal for a sec and shut off. The high pitched noise was my mobo alarm for overheating. It turned out I hadn't fully engaged one of the clips on the heatsink and it had slipped off just a tiny bit.

 

[tehnovus]

By process of elimination, I realized that it was not my motherboard squeaking... but my 6800. I wasn't aware a temp alarm existed on it. The motherboard/cpu, RAM, and everything else runs perfectly without the video card in, no squealing whatsoever.