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Computer Problem

Snecho

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Sorry for the late update, had a couple really busy days at work and didn't have time to work on it. I have opened it up now, nothing visibly wrong on the mobo. I re seated the ram, checked connections and tried to run it without the graphics card. Unfortunately it still has the same problem. I do have spare power supply so next I'll try and swap that out.



EDIT: I have swapped out the power the supply with the spare and now the PC will at least turn on, but nothing appears on the screen. Fans spin up normally and it stays on, but screen is blank.

Thanks for the help everyone.
I relayed the update to my brother.

Quote:
"Psu was obviously the point of failure, I dont know if it caused any other damage to his system without seeing it. [He has an a really old computer so it's possible] His backup Psu probably isnt enough for the rest of the it.

At this point he needs to swap components and try to isolate any further problems or find out if his motherboard can generate a fault code.

He might also be having a blank screen when booting from mobo display signal because he didnt change inputs on his monitor."
 





Ears and Eggs

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Thanks for the replies. I managed to get it running. Using onboard graphics and switching out the four 4GB RAM sticks I had in there with one older 4GB stick. Not sure if the power supply failing nuked either the ram or the graphics card when it failed, or the new PSU is simply not powerful enough (280W instead of 500W) for the system as it was in it's original configuration.

I will let it run for a bit now and do various things just to see that the problem doesn't reoccur after a bit. Then I'll gradually add the old ram back and see if it has failed or just the old PSU doesn't support it.


Thanks for the help everyone.
 

Snecho

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Joined
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Messages
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Thanks for the replies. I managed to get it running. Using onboard graphics and switching out the four 4GB RAM sticks I had in there with one older 4GB stick. Not sure if the power supply failing nuked either the ram or the graphics card when it failed, or the new PSU is simply not powerful enough (280W instead of 500W) for the system as it was in it's original configuration.

I will let it run for a bit now and do various things just to see that the problem doesn't reoccur after a bit. Then I'll gradually add the old ram back and see if it has failed or just the old PSU doesn't support it.


Thanks for the help everyone.
From the outstanding evidence, looks like you need another 500W PSU or more. 280W would barely fly 15 years ago. You can take it to Best Buy and have them hook up a proper power supply to troubleshoot.

My brother replied again but that's the jist of it.
 
Last edited:

Ears and Eggs

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Okaay, unfortunately some bad news here. Had been letting it run and using it to make sure the problem didn't come back and suddenly this morning I went to turn it on and there was a loud pop and now it's totally dead. lol Power button does nothing at all. Not sure if the new PSU just blew or the mobo finally gave up. Think it's probably time for a new PC now.
 
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The loud pop is usually a good indication of a bad electrolytic cap blowing its case. This is normally a PSU issue.
Nice thing is that PSUs are pretty cheap.

try the motherboard with a new PSU and see if it comes back... a blown cap is usually pretty easy to spot.
 




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