Today i had my case open and looking at my power supply thinking of doing an upgrade. I wasnt paying looking at what i was doing and touched the power supply with a pen and all sparks flew. I was wonderin if it i could have done only damage to the supply or my board to. I also am wondering if i can put a regular 500 watt or 600 watt power supply in my pc. i have a hp and didnt know if i could do that kind of upgrade, all of my older computers have been custom built. Any suggestion will help
2007-02-07 15:34:01 · 3 answers · asked by Bigz 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
The reason for the bigger power supply is im planning on getting a new video card, taking my 1gb of ram up to 4gb, a 2nd hd, and upgrading to vista...and im gonna have to buy one anyway...
2007-02-07 15:55:05 · update #1
Hopefully nothing shorted out. Were you able to start up again. Well go to Cnet and pcworld on articles on upgrading to a bigger power supply. And see if you really need one too. Cnet is better as they have a nice video on changing power suppy on your computer. Anyway, You can always put a bigger PS in, but do you need it. One URL below to compute your PS needs. You have to have a high speed video board to put some watts on board. But it will help you figure it out. IF you have not yet done so, you have one year from purchase to buy HP insurance. That way if you screw it up whether your fault of not they will fix it for you. You can spill coffee on it and they will fix it for you. AND the insurance is cheaper than the computer store and better. At Circuit City if you spill coffee on your computer you are out of luck big time, if you have CC insurance. So register your computer with HP if you have not done so, on another computer, buy the insurance and see what happens.
http://www.cnet.com/
http://www.pcworld.com/
http://www.journeysystems.com/power_supply_calculator.php
2007-02-07 15:37:01 · answer #1 · answered by Big C 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Very unlikely you did damage to board from what you did. Now the power supply you're thinking replacing is good. Especially if you are thinking of upgrading or adding new components. 500-600 should be fine
2007-02-07 15:47:39 · answer #2 · answered by brilcream 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well don't stick pens in your PSU ya proabbly only fried the psu not the mobo but it would be more likley if the pc was running when it happened but probably not you would need a new psu if you want to upgrade you can just make sure you don't stick things in it. you can put any power supply in it it won't affect it it will just be a better psu and you will be able to add more components in the future without frying a power supply. find a friend that know alot about computers and ask him to help you and instaul it and give him like $20 he will be glad to help probably for free but money is good.
2007-02-07 15:46:50 · answer #3 · answered by me 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋