Power outage, now my computer is broken.

UncleWai

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2001
5,701
68
91
Apparently there was a power outage. My computer was on 24/7.
Right now, it will boot up for 10 seconds, then the screen will black out.
I tried:
switching another video card
pulling out hdds and other pci cards

So it's left with motherboard, psu, or ram?

What would the cause of this problem?

Thanks
 

LordPhoenix

Golden Member
Jul 1, 2004
1,341
0
0
Did you use a power surge?

Try using a voltage meter thing for the mobo + psu, ask a friend to use the ram in his system.
 

UncleWai

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2001
5,701
68
91
I did use a power surge, by triplite or something like that.

The motherboard will function for about 10 secs, I can see there's no voltage problem.
I don't really have time to troubleshoot.
My quarter long project is due in two days and I have school + work.

school starts,
hope someone can help.
Thanks
 

edelbrock

Member
Nov 12, 2004
140
0
0
How far does it get into the boot process? Does Windoes actually start loading and then the screen blanks?
 

NautikaL 8

Senior member
Nov 27, 2004
551
3
81
try a different power supply...

it probably screwed it up...my best guess is its causing voltages to go all over the place, either causing instability, or causing the trip mechanism to activate..shutting off your system. many psu's have a "trip mechanism" (its not realla a mechanism but whatever) so that when voltages get way out of spec things shut off.
 

Gnoad

Senior member
Apr 30, 2004
229
0
0
I guaruntee its the PSU. Happend twice to me before under the exact same conditions with similar problems.
 

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,665
21
81
Originally posted by: Gnoad
I guaruntee its the PSU. Happend twice to me before under the exact same conditions with similar problems.

I am a believer =)
 

UncleWai

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2001
5,701
68
91
Hmm.. My brother jacked the remaining PSU I have.
I got fed up and went to frys and got a sempron/ecs mb combo.
so should i try the motherboard instead?

Also, my computer doesn't shut down. Everything still powers on, except I got a black screen.

It's irrelevant to winows because it happens the same after 2 seconds i got into bios.
 

UncleWai

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2001
5,701
68
91
oh damn, i took out my bro's psu since he's not at home.
apparently it's not my PSU problem.
Now I have to reassembled my brother's computer :(
 

Gomce

Senior member
Dec 4, 2000
812
0
76
try this
while booting, start hitting the "insert" key lots of times
it should bring up the default bios
maybe only the bios was messed up
 

Rhin0

Senior member
Nov 15, 2004
967
0
0
Just take out your harddrive and slave it on your brothers computer

finish your work, then figure it out
 

cheesehead

Lifer
Aug 11, 2000
10,079
0
0
Does'nt Triplite have a 5,000$ warranty on whatever is connected to it? Like, for example, your computer?
 

UncleWai

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2001
5,701
68
91
Okay, after I tried any parts possible, I realize it's my LCD monitor (AG Nevo S17) that's gone bad.
What a waste of effort.

Thanks everyone anyway.
 

Infohawk

Lifer
Jan 12, 2002
17,844
1
0
That sucks. :( Doesn't a powerstrip protect from power surges? How does this happen from the power simply going out?
 

UncleWai

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2001
5,701
68
91
Well, the good thing is that the monitor has a three years warranty, the bad thing is I have to pay for shipping. I am wondering if Tripplite will reimburse my shipping loss?

I am pretty sure I shut down the LCD monitor, but since it has an external adapter which is on 24/7, may be that caused the problem?

p.s. my grammar is very poor because I am really really angry atm.