PSU/MOBO Hilarity

Wooz

Wooz

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So. There I was, yesterday, playing happily, when suddenly and without any warnings, my computer rebooted.

"Egads", thought I. Might my CPU be overheating?

Went into safe mode, checked, my CPU was around 32 degrees Celsius. Everything fine.

"Ah well", I sighed, and rebooted the computer to run in normal mode. After five minutes, it shut off again.

Crap.

Checked a few fora online, disabled ACPI and came up with the conclusion it's probably due to a failing PSU, prompting the computer to reboot when it doesn't deliver enough power to the MOBO, as there are no hardware beeps, BSOD's or anything indicating a software problem or a hardware problem due to a malfunctioning video card.

Tried to start the computer a few times, once it worked allright until it rebooted after I started a game that requires a lot of... resources? RAM, CPU etc.

Crash.

And now, the computer wouldn't even start up BIOS. It reboots three seconds after hitting the power switch, and there isn't a single thing on screen while I turn it on.

"Ah well", I thought again, and proceeded to remove the 400W PSU in order to try it out with a friends' more powerful one.

And then... the horror.

My 20-pin ATX connector had one fried pin. It looks something melted, it's caramel-colored.

So, the computer now reboots after a few seconds, not even going into BIOS. I'm afraid the melting pin damaged my Mobo, permanently. And I hope it's the only thing that broke.

So, any ideas? Maybe my forensics examination is utterly wrong? Can one repair the pin-connector on a motherboard? Ye guys think I'll be able to get a replacement via warranty?

SuA, Halp!
 
hmz... i'm afraid that usually when stuff like this happens, both the mobo and PSU will likely be beyond repair... it's quite possible that it even damaged some of your other parts as well (usually starting with the most fragile on electric level, like the DVD/CD-ROM).

i'd really suggest that you don't take any chances with trying to fix it and just replace both.

as for possible warranty? is it obvious which part started this? and did you buy both parts together? quite frankly, i'm inclined to say that you shouldn't count on warranty to get you out of this mess. you can try and maybe you get lucky, but chances are, they'll leave you hangin'...
 
I just went through this.

In my case it was the SATA adapters on the mobo that fried. Same symptoms you have, I thought it was all kinds of things too, but it was MOBO all the way. And it's most likely unrepairable. Time to upgrade your system early like me it sounds.
 
So.

Put a new PSU, reset the CMOS jumper, tinkered with the mobo a while and everything works fine, for now.

No thanks to you guys :P
 
ive had your symptoms for MONTHS now, but very rarely. i tend to blame the circuitry in my (pre-war) house. nothing got ever damaged... happy to hear you can continue your oppressive reign here.
 
Wooz said:
So.

Put a new PSU, reset the CMOS jumper, tinkered with the mobo a while and everything works fine, for now.

No thanks to you guys :P
Click to expand...
Lucky you. Want a burnt out HP 9.5 x 9.5 socket 939 mobo that doesn't even boot into bios?
 
Hehe. Well, I think the cost of sending it to the other side of the Atlantic would overweigh any benefits you could gain from that.

Not pushing my good luck that spared all of my work aboard my hard drives, I'm buying a beast PSU tomorrow. As of now, I unplugged everything except my mouse from the USB ports, as the rig's... miraculously running on a 350W PSU, although it does make little strange squeaky whirring sounds.

whirrsqueesssswhirrrsqueee

Fan-powered micro mice.

Put that in your cupboard with your cupcakes.
 
i hope you're in the clear woozy, but there's a good chance your mobo's mosfets, etc are waiting to melt down or capacitors to leak and kill a bunch of hardware. :P

i'd suggest you backup your work & art stuff and leave the backup unconnected from the rig. ;)
 
Mobo works fine, gave me some shit this morning, with the same blackouts. Bought a 600W PSU and a cooler thingy for my CPU. Was a bitch to get the socket pin thingies in, as the thing's bulk impeded me from properly putting them in. Managed.

About an hour of cold sweat passed when the PC wouldn't boot, even in safe mode. Cleaned my SATA cables, tried again, booted from DVD, worked.

Still, yes. Backuping everything as of now. I wish I had a Blu-Ray burner.
 
Wooz said:
Still, yes. Backuping everything as of now. I wish I had a Blu-Ray burner.
Click to expand...

Or an external Hard Drive.

Sounds just like what I had to way back couple years ago.
Image006.jpg


and

Image007.jpg


Both PSU and mobo were fried, badly. :o
Lesson learned: NEVER use a cheap ass PSU.
 
Ow.

Thankfully, only my PSU fried.

Backed it up on DVD's, and fixed an old computer to work as a general backup rig.
 
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