computer won't post

[slightlyhuman]

have a compaq(3-4 years old) that stopped clearing the cmos check. it turns on but doesn't beep/show bios.

i figured it was the video card so i threw a PCI one in there, no go. well i figured i would take everything apart piece by piece(dust/clean and such) and then try one thing at a time. well after having my dust grabber in there cleaning and what not i plugged the psu back up and one piece of ram. no devices were installed. as soon as i plugged in the ac cord in the psu slot, it had a LOUD crack/pop/pop noise. i immediately yanked it out and noticed the smoke/smell of a burnt psu. well i figured i'll try it once more, same outcome.

i'm going to let it sit for a bit and maybe try it again. in the mean time i'm going to order a cheap psu off of newegg.

what could make the psu do that after it was running power through it prior to me taking everything apart and dusting it?




update 10/27:


got the new psu in. besides the fact that it doesn't fit the case(i'll just get another one) everything seems to power up fine... i can't get it to post though. the cpu fan is turning and the heatsink gets hot so i assume the mobo/cpu are working. both the keyboard and mouse lights flash on when i turn the pc on but just a blank screen.

i've tried clearing the cmos and holding insert down and still can't get it to post. it has integrated video so i put a pci vid card in there and the same thing, no post.


any idea?

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

#1 has a blown PSU. Why do you keep plugging it in?? I hope your doing this outside of the house.
A new POS PSU may not save the day because other hardware could have been killed.

#2 probably has a bad motherboard. Read this page then inspect http://www.badcaps.net/ident/


...Galvanized

 

[dBTelos]

Agreed, I wouldn't be doing that with a generic POS PSU. Flaming PSU? Very possible Might want to buy a quality PSU over a cheapo.

-dB

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Originally posted by: dBTelos
Agreed, I wouldn't be doing that with a generic POS PSU. Flaming PSU? Very possible Might want to buy a quality PSU over a cheapo.

-dB

Reread the OP. He's dealing with 4~7yo Compaq units. A spare PSU is never a bad idea, even a POS PSU, just for diagnostics I doubt #2 can be saved w/o a recap...but even that is a guess. #1 might boot with a new PSU but no gar-oon-tee that the rest of the system is OK.

 

[acegazda]

A question: if the power supply simply short circuited and somehow damaged the rest of the components could you tell? If so how? My guess is this is not a case of a blown up psu (illustrated here ) yet at least. If there is no way to tell, you may be out of luck and have to get a whole new system or at least a MoBo. If it was a high profile psu mfg, then you could prolly get them to replace the system for you. I heard of someone getting seasonic to replace their rig after a psu of theirs blew up taking the rest of the pc with it. Anyway, good luck!

EDIT: If it helps your cause, I had a 10yr old dell xps that ran perfectly untill 3 yrs ago on a pentium cpu, then suddenly, it stopped working. I almost immediatly determined it a psu problem and sure enough, when I opened up the psu, the capacitors were bulging like crazy and a little disfigured. Just a thought.

 

[slightlyhuman]

Originally posted by: GalvanizedYankee
#1 has a blown PSU. Why do you keep plugging it in?? I hope your doing this outside of the house.
A new POS PSU may not save the day because other hardware could have been killed.

#2 probably has a bad motherboard. Read this page then inspect http://www.badcaps.net/ident/


...Galvanized

ordered new psu for problem 1, will try next week.

reinstalled windows on number 2, working fine.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Yeah... once a PSU pops loudly and smells bad it usually isn't a good idea to keep plugging it in

 

[slightlyhuman]

ttt

 

[slightlyhuman]

ttt

 

[Gautama2]

If only if only. If luck wasn't on your side, we'd have a new message on ATOT saying that your currently in your hospital bed after 7 hours of facial reconstruciton surgery because you plugged the already exploding psu back in, JUST TO SEE IF IT WOULD BE DIFFERENT!

 

[slightlyhuman]

Originally posted by: Gautama2
If only if only. If luck wasn't on your side, we'd have a new message on ATOT saying that your currently in your hospital bed after 7 hours of facial reconstruciton surgery because you plugged the already exploding psu back in, JUST TO SEE IF IT WOULD BE DIFFERENT!

curiosity killed the smurf, no?

 

[slightlyhuman]

still got no idea

 

[stu1811]

mobo=fubar