Powersupply got fried

at least I think it did... I was playing some left 4 dead 2 earlier and out of nowhere the system restarts, makes it to the loading bios screen then cuts off completely, no power. Now the power button is unresponsive and when I felt the case above the power supply, almost burned my hands.

So, is there a chance that any of the other hardware getting power from it could be damaged?

 

Hey welcome aboard but the bad news is that the power supply 'could' have taken something out, doesn't mean it did. Depending on the age of your machine and your $$$, you could go from replacing your PSU to your whole system. Tough call man!

 

ok ive got this beast out and it's specs are

atx 20/24
serial ata
total power 330 W
Max. Output 480 W

the speakers, monitor & ethernet cable work fine still

 

OK, that's fine but what is/was that powering? For example, CPU/GPU. What I'm trying to say is is it worth it to buy a new power supply or is your machine getting on in age. 330W sounds like a 5 year old to me. Maybe get a 400W or better if you'll stick with your current config, but there's no way of knowing if your stuff still works unless you can 'borrow' a PSU first.

 

nah my stuff isn't old. It's powering this

intel core 2 quad q8300
radeon 4670, 512 mb, needs 400 watts
cd burner
foxconn mobo
2 sata 1tb hdd's
2 fans
front light panel
logitech 6 speaker surround system
1 microsoft wireless controller charger & 1 wireless controller reciever

 

What brand is the PSU or is it a knock off cheap brand PSU?

 

it's a logisys PSU, someone just smelled it & thinks it's burnt inside.

 

My advice is to spend a few extra bucks on a name brand power supply such as Antec or Corsair. Here's why:

Many cheaper PSUs use "peak" wattage in their ratings; better brands list constant wattage output. A good analogy is comparing wattage in stereo equipment. A no-name "100 watts per channel" system that is rated on "peak" wattage doesn't sound nearly as good when cranked up as a better "100 watt per channel" unit that is rated on constant output.

In the case of your PC, it sounds like you need a minimum of 400 CONSTANT watts. Also keep in mind that PSUs, as they age, drop about 10% of their output each year (Source: Antec.com). Given this, I would go with a minimum that puts out 500 constant watts. If you are planning to upgrade your video card in the next few years, a unit with 650-700 constant watt output wouldn't hurt.

Your time and nerves (not to mention the hardware connected to the power supply) are worth something. Spending a few extra bucks on a quality product will save all three.

 

Yep just got back from bestbuy not too long ago & came back with a Antec Earthwatts 650 watt psu. However after hooking everything up, the sob still won't load up, so I called geek squad and the guy said it's either the psu or the motherboard, so I'll bring that up there & let them check out what got fried..

 

Not could

Your Motherboard could be gone.

I would double check everything to make sure you didn't miss something simple as it can happen

 

Double-check all your power connections.

Be sure both the 20/24 pin main connector and the 4 or 8 prong 12-volt connector are securely plugged in. If either is loose by even a hair, the PC won't power up properly (the fans will spin but the PC won't boot up).

Check both the data (IDE or SATA) and power connections on your drives. When you removed the old power supply you may have accidentally loosened a data cable as well.

If this fails, unplug the PC and remove the button-cell battery from the motherboard for about a minute. Reinstall the battery and plug the PC back in. This will reset the board's CMOS settings and may solve the issue.

Finally, if it is the motherboard, get a few estimates and compare it to the cost of building a new PC. If your motherboard got zapped, there's a realistic possibility that other hardware (video card, HDD, DVD drive) got whacked at the same time.

I know this sucks. Good luck on getting up and running again.

 

The problems here are:

1. You had a no-name power supply. These are more likely to fail and when they do fail they are more likely to take out other PC components.

2. You only had 350W when your graphics cards alone needed at least a 400W supply.

Neither of these may be your fault and I am not trying to get at you in any way. I am just pointing out the problems for future reference.

You may, just for your interest, wish to fill in this on-line PSU calculator to work out how much power your system actually needs: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

Well I reconnected the 4 pin near the cpu & pressed the button... the front panel lit up for about 1 second then lost power, also I think that battery you was talking about is buried under a graphics card at the moment... silver, about the size of a nickel & says 3 volts and for whatever reason one of the periphereal plugs only has 2 inserts intstead of the regular 4 but this goes to the front panel lighting.

 

Well I'm shocked. I just took the time recently to replug everything just a few minutes ago and to my surprise everything works!! Hell I assumed everything got fried. The only downside is the hard drives cant find the boot file.. but whatever no biggie!! The guy at bestbuy told me the powersupply was unresponsive and the gpu plug was plugged into the cpu plug slot. I consider myself lucky, hella lucky that nothing was damaged. I'll brb after I plug everything back up.

 

wait let me see if someone can help me with this now... I had 2 hdd setup, no raid config nothin special.... so I suppose both of them like they did the last time shared the bootfile... can anyone help me to restore this bootfile, if memory serves, the windows repair didn't do jack for me the last time.

 

Nevermind got it working and thank god I googled, found this tip that totally did the trick.