Ok, I think I'm stumped.....this is a new one. I need some help.

[flavio]

My dad called me last night having big problems with a PC I built him awhile back. Apparently while he was playing a game he heard a strange noise come from the cd drive and the system went dead. He disconnected the drive, took it out, and removed the top to find that his cd had completley shattered inside.

With the drive disconnected he tried booting up again and got nothing. After he resets the power strip he is able to get a flicker from an LED on the front but no sound of fans starting up or the hd doing anythin. Pressing the power button after that does not even give a flicker unless the power strip is reset again.

I'm wondering if maybe his power supply went out, but I don't know what that has to do with the cd shattering.

Ideas?

 

[jstultz]

Hmm...maybe his PS got a surge, and the reason why the CD broke was because the CDROM drive got a sudden burst of power and spun the CD too fast??

No idea if that's even possible, just throwing the idea out there.

 

[flavio]

I suppose that might be possible but very weird. I just hope his motherboard is ok. He's calling tonight again hoping I'll have figured something out.

Geez.

 

[socketman]

Weird... Since he has to reset the powerstrip it sounds like he has a short somewhere.

Did he smell anything wierd?

I would disconnect components one by one until it turned back on. Whichever was the last he disconnected would be the problem. If it never turns back on, the its time to RMA/replace the mobo and/or powersupply.

 

[apriest]

Oh but the real question is: what sort of access time did he get with that CD-ROM before the end?! He might have set a new record--180x or something!!!

 

[flavio]

So anyone think it would be a bad idea to have him purchase a new power supply first?

 

[CubicZirconia]

So anyone think it would be a bad idea to have him purchase a new power supply first?

Seems like a logical first step. If that doesn't fix it, then other components are dead. At that point I'd began swapping parts until you find the clupirt(s). I don't understand how the cd could have been shattered though. If it was a power spike it must have really hit his pc hard.

 

[MrDudeMan]

holy sh!t dude that sucks but its insane.

i dont know why all of you guys are like pretending to give him helpful advice that he obviously already knows.

"maybe something inside the computer is dead"

wow, what a conclusion



sorry man this one is obviously its-only-happened-to-you-so-figure-it-out type of thing hehe

as for the CD shattering, obviously something was very wrong with the power supply and the capacitor probably discharged every bit of juice into your stuff. undoubtedly, it is all fried

i would hope for the best and definitely expect the worse.

 

[CubicZirconia]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
holy sh!t dude that sucks but its insane.

i dont know why all of you guys are like pretending to give him helpful advice that he obviously already knows.

"maybe something inside the computer is dead"

wow, what a conclusion



sorry man this one is obviously its-only-happened-to-you-so-figure-it-out type of thing hehe

as for the CD shattering, obviously something was very wrong with the power supply and the capacitor probably discharged every bit of juice into your stuff. undoubtedly, it is all fried

i would hope for the best and definitely expect the worse.

First, I thought my response was perfectly valid. I believe this because I don't think there really is any better course of action. If there were magical words that would make everything right again, I'd tell him those. Second, I find it funny that your criticism is directed toward giving obvious and therefore unnecessary advice. Yet, in your own post y ou state:

obviously something was very wrong with the power supply

Hmmmm.....

Note: I'm not trying to be a jerk here and if I'm coming off that way I apologize. You probably have a point about people posting unnessary info at times (I'm as guilty as anyone else). I just found your own post kind of funny with that in mind. Continue discussing flavio's problem now...

 

[Chadder007]

Have him disconnect all the drives and take the cards out except for the video card and leave the RAM.....see if it even posts....if it does plug one thing back in at a time and boot it up each time.

 

[MrDudeMan]

i was saying the obvious because he already knew. i was saying he obviously knew something was wrong with the power supply...

 

[flavio]

Well, I talked to him tonight and there's a little revision to the story. I guess when the cd shattered the computer was still running. He was able to eject it and shut down. Then he took out the drive, removed the top, and cleaned out the rest of the little pieces. He put it back in and couldn't get it to power up. Then he removed it once again and tried powering up and still got nothing except that little LED flash.

I think this sounds promising for the rest of the system. I told him to disconnect everything and start connecting it one piece at a time.

 

[flavio]

Bump for revised input.

 

[teddymines]

Wow, I've never heard of a CD shattering like that. Maybe when it shattered, the drive somehow shorted and grenaded the PSU, and possibly other peripherals. Can you try another PSU? I'd strip it as suggested by others and start from a bare system to try to POST.

 

[HokieESM]

It would be VERY difficult to spin a CD up fast enough to shatter it--we've spun CDs up to 15,000 rpm in the lab with no ill effects (they make GREAT tachometers with a dot on them ).

My GUESS: I bet the CD actually jammed and STOPPED spinning. DC motors, under a "stall" load just draw more and more current (like short). Eventually, it might have developed enough load to shatter the CD... but only after drawing some serious current--which might have damaged the power supply. But that's just my guess.

Anyhow, I hope the damage is repairable, and that you get out of it as cheaply as possible. Best of luck!

 

[paralazarguer]

It's very common for CDs to shatter in 52x drives. Microsoft had to recall a set of flight sim CDs because they would shatter due to high RPMs. It sounds like the system was still functional after the CD shattered. The problem started after he opened his system wearing wool socks on shag carepting and started to touch things. Have him re-seat everything. Since he was able to power down after the CD shattered it is not a power supply issue. Something has come unseated or disconnected.