Is my machine a brick?

Need help?
Post Reply
User avatar
Itax
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 180
Joined: June 12th, 2010, 1:45 pm
Location: Oregon
United States of America

Is my machine a brick?

Post by Itax »

I thought I would spend a few hours playing DC. I go to turn on my machine and as I am pressing the power button there was a shock, like the kind you get when you touch someone else. I am not sure if I shocked the machine or it shocked me, pretty sure I shocked it but I cannot be certain. It started like normal for about 2 seconds then shut off. Now when I hit the power nothing happens, and I mean nothing. No lights, no fans, no bells, no whistles, nada, zip, zilch, zero. Any ideas on how I can go forward from here?
User avatar
Pinhead
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 150
Joined: December 3rd, 2010, 6:08 pm
Location: michigan
United States of America

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by Pinhead »

sounds like the power supply might have went out
User avatar
Trench
Admin
Admin
Posts: 2908
Joined: May 22nd, 2012, 3:19 am
Location: Dallas / Fort Worth
Contact:
United States of America

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by Trench »

Yeah, I'm not a big troubleshooter of power supplies to tell you how to run an get your multi-meter or anything, but not withstanding that none of your other fans are starting (those fans may be motherboard-controlled), pull the machine out to where you can get a visual confirmation of whether specifically the power supply's internal fan is turning, and/or any other indicator lights which might have only been visible from the back of the machine, etc.

If the power supply's internal fan isn't turning (and, um, your power strip doesn't need the "reset" button hit), the next step should probably be to disconnect all the internal power connections so that the power supply isn't connected to the video card, the motherboard, any drives, etc., and then test again to see whether the power supply itself will come on when connected to power. If it comes on /then/, the issue might be problem or short in one of the other components you disconnected from the power supply.

If the power supply itself still seems dead, changing the power supply out would be my next step. Note replacing the power supply might be the end of / the resolution to the issue, or you might be replacing the power supply in order to learn what other components got taken out / are now dead. Here's hoping that's not the case.

-Trench
S.O.S
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 494
Joined: May 22nd, 2009, 11:41 pm

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by S.O.S »

Sounds like a PSU issue. As Trench said, after verify you have reset the surge protector if you have one connected, you may want to test your PSU. It won't run without a load, so you can't just unplug everything then flip the switch. Here's a youtube link for a simple paperclip trick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixcWCrYp ... e=youtu.be. You can connect a spare case fan to a 4-pin connector at the same time to see if the PSU is putting out any power. I hope it's just the PSU instead of your motherboard. Good luck.
User avatar
ryeontherocks
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 760
Joined: May 28th, 2011, 12:02 pm
Canada

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by ryeontherocks »

these guys are being nice itax...i hate to be the bearer of bad news when my power supply went on a 5 -6 year old system it fryed everything motherboard, graphics card etc...this is why i dont buy cheap power supplies anymore....i hope its not the case for you bud....but be prepared....you can take your power supply out and have it inspected at your local shop...if its true its that and you have a good ps unit you might get lucky, and have a stupid issue like a bad switch or bad battery in mother board...
best of luck
Image
User avatar
Trench
Admin
Admin
Posts: 2908
Joined: May 22nd, 2012, 3:19 am
Location: Dallas / Fort Worth
Contact:
United States of America

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by Trench »

S.O.S wrote:It won't run without a load, so you can't just unplug everything then flip the switch.
Thanks for pointing out that important fact; the only power supply I've had to replace in recent times was already known to be the issue, or I might have realized "unplug everything" doesn't work like it used to. Modern power supplies have a low-voltage on/off control that needs to be tricked into believing the user or motherboard wanted the computer to be on.

-Trench
User avatar
c0loNeL
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 550
Joined: June 6th, 2009, 9:12 am
Location: Alberta, Canada
Canada

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by c0loNeL »

This is what I use to test PSU's. Gives full readouts and will give alarms if there is anything wrong.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX21793
Image
User avatar
Itax
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 180
Joined: June 12th, 2010, 1:45 pm
Location: Oregon
United States of America

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by Itax »

Thanks for the great links and advice. I must say that when you guys said check the reset button on the power strip I went complete face palm. Sadly it was not to be such an easy fix. I have purchased a new power supply and I am going to put it in this afternoon. I also got a new battery for the motherboard. With any luck this will fix it. I prefer not to consider the alternative because December is already an expensive month. Fingers crossed, and if you hear a frustrated yowl on the wind followed by the most vitriolic of cursing...well I think you will know what means.
S.O.S
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 494
Joined: May 22nd, 2009, 11:41 pm

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by S.O.S »

Maybe a bit late, but be sure to get a quality PSU. This is the single most important part of your build for stability and longevity which often gets overlooked. When it goes south, it can take more expensive parts, mobo, video card, with it. Trouble shooting can be a real pain in the ass when that happens.
User avatar
Itax
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 180
Joined: June 12th, 2010, 1:45 pm
Location: Oregon
United States of America

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by Itax »

In a nutshell, it didn't work. I put the new power source, not a top shelf one but also not a cheapie either, in and, while the new PS worked, nothing else did. There was less action in the box than a nun's panties on a Friday night. It would seem that not only did I fry my original power supply but I fried some other components as well. I can now add "Electrocuting My PC" to my list of dubious computer achievements. My thought is to take it to a shop and have them tell me what got fried and needs to be replaced. Do you think this zap did any damage to the hard drive? My hope is to rebuild the machine and pop my trusty old win 7 HD back in. I just built this machine in Feb. of this year and the damn thing didn't even make it a year.
S.O.S
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 494
Joined: May 22nd, 2009, 11:41 pm

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by S.O.S »

Now the fun/pain begins. When you said "nothing else did", you meant the only thing running was the fan in PSU? Any error beeps? Tried reset BIOS with jumpers? If the cpu fan runs, I'd think the motherboard is OK, otherwise the board might be fried and you won't get get anything else to work as they are all connected to it. Hard to say if you need to shop for other parts unless you can test them on a working rig. The Win 7 HDD may or may not boot if you rebuild with a different brand/model of mobo. The little shock was a starter and the 2-second run probably did the most damage.
User avatar
Itax
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 180
Joined: June 12th, 2010, 1:45 pm
Location: Oregon
United States of America

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by Itax »

The only thing moving was the fan on the PS. There were no lights, sounds, and none of the other fans were working. I can't shake the feeling that when I built this system I missed something or did something wrong and that led me inexorably here, to the land of no computer. I am reduced to watching matches on Twitch and listening to banal commentary. Woe is me.
User avatar
Trench
Admin
Admin
Posts: 2908
Joined: May 22nd, 2012, 3:19 am
Location: Dallas / Fort Worth
Contact:
United States of America

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by Trench »

One thing I would suggest is that if you have important data on that hard drive, take your hard drive out NOW and put it high up on a shelf. Don't let that drive be what's in the computer if you take it to a shop, and don't have it in the computer during any further troubleshooting of "what's wrong" or "what other parts are blown." We don't know whether the data is even readable from that drive at the moment, but there is no reason to put it at further risk either.

There are some relatively narrow cases where "let me just put my previous hard drive into a different computer" would actually allow Windows to boot up and work; most times that just ends in Windows throwing an "inaccessible boot device" bugcheck. For some cases, the "boot from Windows DVD and ask it to repair my startup" would actually fix it, but others actually require hardware detection which you can't easily force since you can't get Windows to boot.

My suggestion, once you reach the point of having hardware you believe to be fixed and reliable to trust your data with again, is to purchase a new hard drive regardless. And rather than trying to boot or run on the actual original drive, perform an image copy of your old drive to the new drive, and then put your old drive back up on the shelf. Then you can perform whatever else needs to be corrected using the copy of your Windows installation that is now on the new drive, leaving the old original drive untouched in case you need to start over and re-image from that old drive again, regardless of the additional question of "is the old hard drive even still reliable."

But if you don't have anything truly important on the drive, don't worry about it and if the shop ends up having to reformat or reinstall Windows you can just deal with setting things up again.

-Trench
User avatar
ryeontherocks
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 760
Joined: May 28th, 2011, 12:02 pm
Canada

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by ryeontherocks »

there are companies that can retrieve the information from your hard drive if you have good stuff that you dont want to lose, what i did if they they dont want to is keep your existing harddrive and put it into an external hard drive case and sometimes you can get it all back if your lucky, but dont reformat or all is lost...this is why i have 2 hard drives the secondary rarely get fried when this happens and i have a nice back up of everything...i always go with the cheaper first....good thing about your system is if you have bill you should get replacements under warranty, but you need to get a shop to say its toast.... i didnt mean to imply that you need the best of the best but a $80-100 power supply bronze or silver will do the trick. Man Itax it hurts but it happens...even if everything was built correct

outta curiosity what happened if i am late to post?
Image
User avatar
Itax
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 180
Joined: June 12th, 2010, 1:45 pm
Location: Oregon
United States of America

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by Itax »

Back soon...
Have new parts...

Duplicitous code mongers beware.
User avatar
Itax
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 180
Joined: June 12th, 2010, 1:45 pm
Location: Oregon
United States of America

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by Itax »

One other quick question:

Does anyone know where I could find a free copy of Doom Masters Edition or something like it? The original btw. I was watching a guy on Twitch do some levels, with inane commentary as usual, and it got me feeling nostalgic. I am looking to find one that I can d/l and not play through a browser.
User avatar
Nightstalker
Retired Admin
Retired Admin
Posts: 4624
Joined: February 7th, 2010, 9:29 pm
United States of America

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by Nightstalker »

I played Oregon Trail recently you young whipper snapper.
Image
God bless the past and present men and women in uniform.
Like sands through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives. This is Nightstalker and this is EA117.
User avatar
Sarge 1/68th Armor
Member
Posts: 2429
Joined: July 10th, 2010, 5:34 pm
Location: Cedar City, Utah
United States of America

Re: Is my machine a brick?

Post by Sarge 1/68th Armor »

What?
Image


'Silver Lions" 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 8th Infantry Division/
SFC. TANK CDR. M1A1....HUA!

With Great Speed
Post Reply