Computer won't power on

I own a 2006 model Sony Vaio VGC-RA840G desktop. Up until now everything has worked smoothly with the exception of some driver issues. Today I tried to power it on and nothing happened. I'm sure the power supply is fine because the monitor powers on as does the printer and they are all plugged into the same surge protector. I opened the computer and had a look inside (I'm not sure what I was hoping to find since I know absolutely nothing about computer parts.) I did notice a green light that was lit.

One other thing. There was a faint smell in the air, like the acrid scent of an electrical burn. Does this mean that my mother board was fried somehow through some sort of electrical surge?

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Am I in the right forum for troubleshooting this? I read that testing the power supply would be my best bet - could someone tell me how to do this?

 

From your first post:

I think you meant to say 'power strip' and not 'power supply' mainly because your power supply has no effect on your monitor or printer.
From your second post:

Yup. Judging from what you have told us, I'd say there's a 85% chance that the power supply has indeed failed. When a capacitor inside a power supply burns up, you will get that burnt acrid electrical smell; it's unmistakable. There is a small chance that a capacitor on the motherboard has burnt out, or another component, but it's most likely the power supply as they fail fairly regularly. If you open the case and look around the motherboard carefully, look for any capacitors with 'popped' or bowed out tops. All capacitors should be perfectly flat on top without any swelling. They may be flat but have visible crud leaking out; it's usually an off-white or beige or (in severe cases) dark brown. If you think it might be dust or lint, simply blow on it fairly hard. Dust will blow away; leaking crud is stuck there. The easiest way to check the power supply is to simply put your nose right up to the rear vents and take a deep whiff. If it smells burnt, well, it's burnt. Then take a deep sniff inside the case. If it doesn't smell or has a much more faint odor, then it is the power supply. Sometimes the smell can permeate into the case so you may have some lingering burnt odor in the case. There's another way to test the power supply without a multimeter (I'm assuming you don't have one) that involves a bent paper clip or a short piece of wire, but we'll try that if the 'burnt-smell-test' doesn't reveal anything.