Troubleshooting Question

olds

Elite Member
Mar 3, 2000
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My desktop is sitting in an entertainment center and hooked to my 5.1 system and plasma TV. While streaming music, it shut off and I could smell something burning. I unplugged everything. I checked all out and it all works but the desktop.

In the top of the lid (HTPC Case) is a burned spot that rubs off easily. There are also black trails that look like fine spider webs on some components. I see no exploded or leaking capacitors or other components.

PSU (Corsair HX520) would not come on. Thinking something might be shorting it, I unplugged everything and took it out of the case. It still won't come on. Should it work out of the case?

TIA

Completely missed this:

powerissue.jpg
 
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olds

Elite Member
Mar 3, 2000
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Doesn't come on connected to mobo, with or without a molex hooked up to a hdd.
Doesn't come on with the green and black wires shorted with or without a molex hooked up to a hdd.
 

olds

Elite Member
Mar 3, 2000
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Ya. Really don't want to start throwing parts at it. It's about 3 years old. Might as well build another.
Thanks all.
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,570
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Hate to inform you, but if your rig is Intel-based, and "only" 3 years old, then it might be worth your while to get a new PSU for it, instead of replacing the whole thing. Reason being, AMD's recent CPU/APU uArch has been very disappointing, and Intel hasn't given us much in the way of performance gains the last few years. (On the order of LESS than 10% / year.) So a "new" rig won't be that much faster than your current ("3 year old") rig, most likely. Unless you move up to an 8-core Haswell-E model (which is a $1000 CPU, btw.)

Edit: Then again, if all you need is a minor browsing and media-playback device, then check out the Tronsmart Ara X5 TV box. It's an Intel Cherry Trail CPU, that handles 1080P H.265 decoding (as well as H.264), comes with 64-bit Win10 Home, and is $150 at Geekbuying.com. It uses 15W.
 
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olds

Elite Member
Mar 3, 2000
50,111
774
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Hate to inform you, but if your rig is Intel-based, and "only" 3 years old, then it might be worth your while to get a new PSU for it, instead of replacing the whole thing. Reason being, AMD's recent CPU/APU uArch has been very disappointing, and Intel hasn't given us much in the way of performance gains the last few years. (On the order of LESS than 10% / year.) So a "new" rig won't be that much faster than your current ("3 year old") rig, most likely. Unless you move up to an 8-core Haswell-E model (which is a $1000 CPU, btw.)

Edit: Then again, if all you need is a minor browsing and media-playback device, then check out the Tronsmart Ara X5 TV box. It's an Intel Cherry Trail CPU, that handles 1080P H.265 decoding (as well as H.264), comes with 64-bit Win10 Home, and is $150 at Geekbuying.com. It uses 15W.

Good points. It is intel (i7-3770 Ivy Bridge/LGA1155). My concern is that I may replace the psu and find the mobo is toast too. Then replace the mobo and find the video card is toast. Or replace the psu and it frys because the mobo is bad. Back in the day I had extra parts I could use to swap pieces out and test. I don't any more.

The PC is used for gaming on my plasma TV and watching Blu Rays.

Just looked up my order history on New Egg: 12/31/2012.
 
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squirrel dog

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
5,564
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91
my power supply died a smelly death bout 6 months ago , it took the mobo with it , that I was able to get repaired under gigabytes warranty service . Only took them 4 weeks to get it back .
 

MrTeal

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
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If you remove the cable with that plug on it from the power supply, will it turn on now with the green wire shorted?
 

olds

Elite Member
Mar 3, 2000
50,111
774
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Went out and bought a new psu.
Everything powers on now but I have no video signal from the on board or discrete video.
I am using the hard drive I took out when I put the last ssd in. It was the C drive and still has all the files on it.
Guessing mobo is dead though cpu fan comes on.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,570
10,205
126
OOPS
1 week old SSD.

powerissue.jpg

Hmm. Now that's not a good sign. If you had shown me that, I probably would have changed my recommendation to "junk everything and start over". I guess that's the wisest move at this point.

If the Intel CPU is still within the 3-year warranty, you might consider RMAing, and then selling off, the CPU.

Edit: That SATA power wire only has 4 wires. It appears to be missing a +3.3V wire. What PSU is that that doesn't run the +3.3V out to the SATA power connector? That's highly non-standard. Unless, that's a Molex-to-SATA power adapter. (I use those too, in a pinch.)
 
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squirrel dog

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
5,564
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91
when my pwr supply died , I replaced it with a spare on hand . The cpu and other fans would spin up , but no video out .