Help me...

[Sam443]

Ok heres the story. I have an AMD Athlon 550 processor, 128 meg ram, ATX MB,
and it seems like my power supply burnt out. For the past few days, I've
smelt a burnt electricity smell from my computer. I have a 250 watt power
supply in there, and according to the company, that's enough. From what I've
heard, a 300 watt P/S is needed for the Athlons. Anyway, this morning, when
I turned on my computer, smoke came out of the P/S fan and it has a really
bad burning smell. Nothing came on. No indicator lights, no fans, nothing!!!
I went to the store and purchased a 300 Watt P/S and replaced it. I'm still
haveing the same problem. Absolutely nothing is coming on. I've seen a lot
of mobo, processor and ram problems and I've never seen anything like this.
Could the mobo and/or processor have burned out with the P/S? Do you think
one of the power protection guys like this will help?
http://www.volumebuy.com/linktodept...&mscssid=DE1BQDRUJ6SR2LN400J74EKH8W0UEV14

 

[interchange]

Is your computer hooked up to a surge protector? Any electrical signal that could fry a motherboard should be blocked by a surge protector (provided everything is hooked up properly). If it's not just a wimpy power strip, it should come with a lifetime warantee. If you can track that down, then bitch to that company for their failure.

Otherwise, your computer may still be under warantee. Power supplies aren't usually heavy on that department, but if you contact the company that produced the power supply you *may* get somewhere.

Try switching around sockets, checking power headers, etc. If nothing turns on, you may be in trouble. Unless some severe heat resulted (the computer should shut itself off in that case), I doubt a surge would get past the motherboard.

For an Athlon, I'd go with a name-brand waranteed 250W PS over a 300W PS. Especially with older systems, Athlons have been known to be picky (both processors and motherboards). A 250W PS should be fine for most users. If you can find it, AMD has a recommended power supply list on their site.