Urgent Help Needed
 

Hi guys,

Need some help asap.

Just plugged my computer in at home. When I plugged it in, there was a loud crackling noise and then smoke pissed out the back of the stack.

Obviously, i've blown somethin but I need to know asap whether my hard drive and other components are safe. Has anyone ever had this happen to them????

Cheers for your help guys

In a bit

Ash x

id say just open the thing and see what u finds...

Well that doesn't sound real good...

Are you on a different computer right now or is that one still functioning?

If it's not functioning, I'd say your hard drive might be in trouble...

:(

Re: Urgent Help Needed
 

sounds like your power supply has blown.

Does any power get to the motherboard, i.e. are any lights lit on the front, or does it try to boot up if you try to switch back on?

if it has blown the smoke will be from this, rather than any componants, although depending on the quality of the psu (power supply unit) your drives etc should be ok. You may want to check the header on the mobo (motherboard) where the psu plugs in....this may have fried meaning you'll need a new mobo, but usually it's ok.

have you got the pc plugged into a surge protected supply such as an adapter....'dirty' power from overused power sources having too many amps drawn from them can cause this, since cheap psu cant regulate the rails (rails are another name for the different voltages sent to different conectors on harddrives etc) to componants properly so they draw too much power and hence the psu will blow.

Cheers guys,

I'm hoping its what Shanks says. There must be somthin in there that will blow before any of the other stuff is affected. No power at all is getting to the unit. No lights. Nothing. Just the sweet smell of burnt metal/plastic/whatever.

Shanks - I plugged it into a block of 4 that had 'surge protected' written on it but you never know whether there's any truth in that. Seem to remember when I bought the comp my mate said turn on the monitor first and then the actual computer. But thats what I did and then........well you know the story.

At uni now on another computer tryin to get someone to look at the knackered one. What a complete fucker. Really needed it today cos i'm writing up some results.

Hope it ay gonna be spensive cos I got no dollar. What with christmas comin up I cant afford to spend so many hundred quid on a new comp.

Will keep y'all updated.

Latas
Ash

turning on the monitor first makes no difference. These days monitors plug directly into the mains, and dont get power from the psu.... unless you've got an ancient pc.

as you say, the pc is getting no power, I guarantee it's the psu. decent ones can be picked up from around 60 to 80 quid, such as Enermax, Tagan or Antec.

imo dont go for bottom end psu's, such as Qtec or generic unbranded ones, as it's the main component in a Pc and needs to be reliable.

Cool. Cheers mate. Does that poss mean that my hard drive and all my files are ok?

Ash

if it happend as soon as you switched the Pc on, the drives should be ok, my only concern would be the mobo, since that has much of the voltages running through it. Did you check the main connector on the mobo that the psu plugs into? if that looks ok with no burnt parts, then you should'nt have a problem.

I've known and seen several psu's blow with smoke bellowing out the back, and the rest of the system is ok.

Ay checked anything. I'm not gonna even try to understand where all the important bits are. Gonna find someone else to do it.

Latas
Ash

I smoked a PS a couple of months ago, and it didn't effect the other componets. I have a raid board w/2-HD's and a ATI 9700 pro VC which has a seperate power lead, and everything was allright.

Most, (not all) surge protectors will only take so many hits before they lose there ability to protect your system. I used to buy a new one every 8-12 months, but I changed to a whole house system offered by my local power company which they gurantee, and even offer replacement costs of certain items, somthing you might want to check into. It cost me an extra $7.00 dollars a month, which adds up to the price of a decent SP if you swap them out on a yearly basis.