I plugged a little three outlet wall surge protector into a 220w outlet, then plugged in cpu, heard loud pop and burnt smell. It was only plugged in for a second or two. How can I tell if it fried the motherboard? Or if the power supply is even cooked? If the motherboard is gone, is the memory or video card also gone?
2006-10-02 20:36:07 · 4 answers · asked by Carson H 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
I plugged a little three outlet wall surge protector into a 220w outlet, then plugged in cpu, heard loud pop and burnt smell. It was only plugged in for a second or two. How can I tell if it fried the motherboard? Or if the power supply is even cooked? If the motherboard is gone, is the memory or video card also gone? The smell was coming only from the power supply as far as i could tell. And there are no signs on MB of being toasted, there is some yellow puddy looking stuff all over inside of P/S. Not sure if that is normal, havent really looked that closely inside the P/S before?
2006-10-02 20:53:56 · update #1
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/
2006-10-02 20:43:27 · answer #1 · answered by Ken s 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Assume your power supply is dead and arrange a proper funeral for it. Say a few words, and then go buy another one.
Your motherboard may or may not be okay, depending on what kind of board it is. Some models can withstand this kinda thing.. others can't. Depending on what happened with the surge, your motherboard may have conducted the surge to other components. This can affect ram, cards, cpus, etc.
The best way to test it is by taking the parts out and putting them in a working computer. Piece by piece until you know by process of elimination which ones are shot. Have your working computer's motherboard manual handy in case the system emits POST Beeps. These will tell you if something is wrong and needs adjusting, or if something the system needs to power up properly is missing.
I recommend letting a technician do this for you. A small business techie will usually let you watch if he/she doesn't have many other customers to deal with.
Consider any warranty you had with the computer totally void since you have opened the computer's case.
If you have home & contents insurance you may be able to claim for the power surge if it can be proven as a fault with the house wiring that is not your fault. This can vary depending on your policy.
2006-10-02 21:46:39 · answer #2 · answered by Sierra 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That doesn't sound good at all. Something is definitely fried, and badly. Your only hope that it was the power supply which got burnt, and not one of the more expensive components. If you do the smell test, where does it come from?
What you need now is another power supply which is 100% reliable (and appropriate for your MB) and start testing othe components ONE BY ONE. Beware that the new systems require a lot of power which the old power supplies (ATX v1.0) isn't capable of providing. You need ATX v2.0 or higher with one of those 24-pin main power connector. Do not use a 20pin->24pin converter.
2006-10-02 20:44:51 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is a fuse inside the power supply. If you know how to work on electronics you should start there.
Considering what you just did I would have to advise you to never work on electronics or electricity.
2006-10-02 21:03:36 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋