What can short a power supply?
Here's my story, it's a little long but it baffles me so I hope someone has more knowledge than I do and help me out with this.
My specs: Athlon XP 2800 CPU, Asus Mobo, 512 Mb RAM, 64 Mb video card, 200 Gb Western Digital HD, an LG DVD burner and 400 Watt PSU.
I've been running my PC for about a year with no problem at all. A couple of months ago I changes the hard disk for a 200 Gb WD Hard drive. Thats the only change thats been made to my PC in the last year and I've never had so much as a glitch of a problem...until last week.
One day I turn on my PC and I can hear it power up (fans) for about a second and then it justs shuts off, so I figure I didn't press the button hard enough or whatever so I press it again and it boots up and I use my PC for a couple of hours without problem. The next day the same thing happens when I press the power button the first time, but when I press it again I hear a popping sound (like a transistor blowing or something) and the PC is dead. I can't start it up again. So I assume the PSU is dead.
I go out and buy a new 400 Watt PSU and put it in my case. Try to start it up and nothing. So I think then that maybe Mobo is dead too, so I plug in another power supply (borrowed) and the mobo still doesn't work. So I buy another motherboard. So now I have new power supply and new mobo. I try to bootup, the fans startup for a second and then its dead again, and then it works no more (the LED on the motherboard won't even light up). So I think defective PSU, I go exchange the PSU, put it in the PC. I know it works because the LED on the mobo lights up. I power up the PC, it beeps 3 times and then it dies. So I don't remember what 3 beeps mean so I reseat the memory and make sure its well seated (can't switch it out because I only have one memory bar) and I change the video card with another one and make sure it's well seated. I power up the system, it beeps five times and then I hear a POP and I see a spark coming from the PSU. Another PSU dead!!
So here's my question, what in a computer system can short out a PSU? Can a hard drive and dvd drive burn it? A CPU? Memory?
The motherboard was well seated and it wasn't touching any part of the case, no cables touching the wrong place or whatever. I don't think the videocard could be the problem because I switched it out and the PSU still shorted out. I've already seen memory and CPU causing PC not to boot properly but never it shorting out a PSU. And I've seen defective hard drive and CD/DVD drives but that just causes the mobo/Bios not seeing them or not seeing them well...but shorting a PSU?
I realise now that when I had switched the PSU and motherboard I should not have connected the hard drive and dvd drive to discount them as causing the problem but I didn't think of it.
Now I'm scared to try anything because I don't want to burn out anything else. This is getting expensive.
Does anyone have any advise or suggestions? Any way to test the seperate components with a voltmeter or something?
Any help is well appreciated. I've been without a PC for almost 2 weeks now and I'm dying (I'm using my old 200 Mhz PC...ahhhh soooo slooowww, help)
My specs: Athlon XP 2800 CPU, Asus Mobo, 512 Mb RAM, 64 Mb video card, 200 Gb Western Digital HD, an LG DVD burner and 400 Watt PSU.
I've been running my PC for about a year with no problem at all. A couple of months ago I changes the hard disk for a 200 Gb WD Hard drive. Thats the only change thats been made to my PC in the last year and I've never had so much as a glitch of a problem...until last week.
One day I turn on my PC and I can hear it power up (fans) for about a second and then it justs shuts off, so I figure I didn't press the button hard enough or whatever so I press it again and it boots up and I use my PC for a couple of hours without problem. The next day the same thing happens when I press the power button the first time, but when I press it again I hear a popping sound (like a transistor blowing or something) and the PC is dead. I can't start it up again. So I assume the PSU is dead.
I go out and buy a new 400 Watt PSU and put it in my case. Try to start it up and nothing. So I think then that maybe Mobo is dead too, so I plug in another power supply (borrowed) and the mobo still doesn't work. So I buy another motherboard. So now I have new power supply and new mobo. I try to bootup, the fans startup for a second and then its dead again, and then it works no more (the LED on the motherboard won't even light up). So I think defective PSU, I go exchange the PSU, put it in the PC. I know it works because the LED on the mobo lights up. I power up the PC, it beeps 3 times and then it dies. So I don't remember what 3 beeps mean so I reseat the memory and make sure its well seated (can't switch it out because I only have one memory bar) and I change the video card with another one and make sure it's well seated. I power up the system, it beeps five times and then I hear a POP and I see a spark coming from the PSU. Another PSU dead!!
So here's my question, what in a computer system can short out a PSU? Can a hard drive and dvd drive burn it? A CPU? Memory?
The motherboard was well seated and it wasn't touching any part of the case, no cables touching the wrong place or whatever. I don't think the videocard could be the problem because I switched it out and the PSU still shorted out. I've already seen memory and CPU causing PC not to boot properly but never it shorting out a PSU. And I've seen defective hard drive and CD/DVD drives but that just causes the mobo/Bios not seeing them or not seeing them well...but shorting a PSU?
I realise now that when I had switched the PSU and motherboard I should not have connected the hard drive and dvd drive to discount them as causing the problem but I didn't think of it.
Now I'm scared to try anything because I don't want to burn out anything else. This is getting expensive.
Does anyone have any advise or suggestions? Any way to test the seperate components with a voltmeter or something?
Any help is well appreciated. I've been without a PC for almost 2 weeks now and I'm dying (I'm using my old 200 Mhz PC...ahhhh soooo slooowww, help)
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Comments
If this was a new build I'd say you might have a stray MB standoff shorting against the back of the MB. Try a barebones configuration (MB, CPU, Ram, Video Card only) and test it outside of the case. (Lay it on a board or rubber mat.)
If you've got spare cables, try them. I doubt they are the problem, though. Do you have extra case fans? You might want to leave them disconnected.
We all do things like that. The best ideas often arrive just a little too late...
Go with the barebones setup described above for starters, and Good Luck!
I'm afraid to do this. If the MB, CPU, Ram or videocard are the source of the problem then I will blow another PSU and I don't want that. I will try my HD, DVD drive and video card on my Pentium 200 Mhz (one at a time of course) so that if one of them are the problem I don't mind blowing the PSU on this PC. But for the MB CPU and Ram, I don't know how to test them without risking blowing another PSU.
Sorry, I don't know of anyway to test a CPU outside a MB.