[Dylan.Scott]

I'm having some difficulties. I built my computer a little over a year ago and it has been working fine since then (minus a graphics card failure and replacement a while back). Recently, I noticed a strange smell in my room, but ignored it until a few days ago when my computer shut off in the middle of use and would not power back on (no spin up, no lights, no beep, no nothing). I opened it up and sure enough, the burning smell was concentrated in my power supply. After checking out some reviews of the PSU, some other people had had the same problem (smell/failure), so I was confident it was just a PSU failure. I tried installing a PSU from an older computer to make sure, and the fans would spin up but not boot. I figured that since it was older, it was probably powering down because it could not power my system. Today my new power supply arrived, I installed it and I'm having the same problem. The fans spin for a second, but there is no beep and no boot, nor can I hear the hard drive spin up at all. I have noticed that if I let it sit for a while, it will spin for longer when I power up (like it is charging up a little bit). The only thing I have tried is clearing the CMOS, but that did nothing. Does anyone have any suggestions about what I could try?

And the only difference between this power supply and the old one is that this one supports a 24 pin ATX power connector, which I have tried with both 20 (like my previous set-up) and 24 pins.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT: If anyone needs to know, the new PSU is a Rosewill 480W ATX V2.01

Specs:
GIGABYTE GA-K8NF-9 MoBo
Athlon 64 3000+
Corsair Value Memory (1 GB)
XFX GeForce 6800 GS

 

[Doby]

When the other psu went it must have damaged another part, start by removing all the cards, then remove all the drives and see if it will at least post.

If still no go remove the ram, make sure a case speaker is connected and see if the board beeps, if no beeps this usually indicates a bad motherboard. If you recieve beeps it could be the ram or cpu or possobly the new psu

 

[Dylan.Scott]

Thanks. I've tried removing the hard drive, DVD drive, RAM, and graphics card (everything but the CPU and motherboard) with no luck. I've got a couple more questions:

Firstly, is there any way to diagnose the exact problem? I have a feeling something is wrong with the motherboard, but is there a way to make sure it is just the mobo?

Secondly, I hate to be pessemistic, but I doubt I'm going to fix the computer in it's current state, is there any danger in upgrading the components one at a time? Let me explain - I figure that it's about time for me to get a better computer anyway, so I figure I'll build a new one soon. However, being a student, I'm strapped for cash and it would take some time to get the money for a whole new one, so I figure that right now I could get a new motherboard (I've been meaning to get an SLi one for some time now anyway) and see if the components would work in a temporary set up with that motherboard. Is there any danger that, say the CPU was damaged as well, that it could damage the new motherboard? (Or memory is damaged, graphics card, etc.)

Thanks a bunch,

 

[Doby]

Its hard to tell the exact problem with out trying new parts but if the mother board did not beep with the ram removed it is usually bad.

In rare cases when a psu goes it takes the ram and cpu with it but this is not always the case.

To answer your second question, It should not hurt the new board at all if say the ram was bad and you tried it, it just would not post, same if the cpu was bad.

You must of course make sure your cpu and ram are compatible with the new board