Re: OT: PC burn out.

[<unixman@charter.net>]

Hi NZG,

If you didn't smell or see any smoke, and there are no visible signs of burns, why are you assuming that your CPU+Motherboard are "burned" out ? More than likely, you have a bad power supply. 

Have you tried plugging your PC into another electrical outlet? 

Do you have a surge protector and or UPS Battery Backup System in front on your PC ?

If so, I'd say a power surge is probably unlikely to kill a CPU & Motherboard, unless possibly you had a bad electrical storm w/lightning. 

What is the wattage of the Power supply, and how many peripherals are on the PC? 

If you are able to power it on, you should hook up a simple multi-meter, set it to 20 V DC, connect the leads to a free molex power supply connector: 

  - red 2 red 
  - black 2 black

Should get a reading of 5V 

  -red 2 yellow 
  -black 2 black 

Should get a reading of 12v 

If you are getting anything that is 15% above or below the 5V or 12V, (> 5.25 or < 4.25) OR (>13.8 or < 10.2) try replacing the power supply first. (It will be cheaper than replacing the motherboard & CPU also) 

If you replace the power supply, might want to get a power supply with a higher wattage rating. 

To test your any Intel Based Motherboard, and CPU (AMD incl.) you can download the free eval version of "Tuff Test Pro Lite" that has no time limit or restrictions for use. 

http://www.tufftest.com/tt01-lite.htm

This diagnostics program runs from a boot floppy, that bypasses any OS, and runs in its own self-proprietary OS(written is assembler), and communicates directly to the PC hardware. So it doesn't have to go thru the layers of the Operating System(any OS) to get feedback form the hardware. 

I've used this utility for the last 6 years or so, on many many Intel based boxes, only time it doesn't work properly is when CPU has really been damaged. 

HTH, 

Roger H. 

============================================================
From: NZG <ngustavson@emacinc.com>
Date: 2005/09/28 Wed PM 03:14:59 CDT
To: silug-discuss@silug.org
Subject: OT: PC burn out.

The other night my home PC died.
Specifically, my processor fan gave out while I was in the other room and it 
overheated. (I left it for a few hours)

Now, when I plug the power supply into the little 12V power jack next to the 
CPU, the power supply won't turn on. In fact it appears to be shorting 
internally because once I attempt it the power supply won't come back alive 
util it has power removed from it, is unplugged from the header, and sits a 
second.

This happens regardless of whether the processor is installed or not.

The neither the processor nor the motherboard show any visable damage and they 
don't smell like they've been burned.

Given these clues I have concluded that at least my motherboard is fried.
My processor may or may not be fried, I'm not real sure how to check this 
short of putting it into a known good motherboard and seeing what it does.

I have ordered a replacement motherboard from newegg(and am wondering why I 
ever went with micro ATX) and am debating whether to order a new processor 
(AMD 2600)or to risk putting the potentially blown processor into the new 
motherboard and try it out.

What do you think?


thx,
NZG.


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