BZZT!

[fury]

goed my computer

The furnace was being serviced, and apparently one of the breakers blew and caused a massive power surge, followed by a loud BZZT and the smell of burning, after which hitting the power switch to my computer did nothing.

Removed all my hardware except the ram, video card, hard drive and modem, unhooked all fans except those on the CPU, chipset, and video card, and with a little tap on the power supply, it came to life.

However, it did not boot.

So I reset CMOS a few times, and tried to power it up again, and got into the BIOS.

Without giving it much thought, I went over into "PC Health" and saw that the CPU temperature was jumping 5 degrees per second and had reached 65 degrees by that time. I hurried up and went over into the softmenu and clocked it down to 700 mhz and rebooted.

I can use the system for a few minutes at a time if I shut off Genome, otherwise it locks up within seconds after Windows starts.

Without having a spare computer to swap parts around with, where do I start finding out what has been fux0red?

 

[soniclos]

Start with cpu fan, does it have a Tach?
does it sound like it's spinning right?
Is it connected to the power supply or a header on the MB?

Does the power supplies fan still work?
do you have a Multimeter?
do you know how to measure volts with it?


Damn i hate it when a power problem happens.
Did it smell like a CPU frying? If so you may have a new keychain.

 

[fury]

CPU fan does have the monitoring pin, it's connected to a header on the mobo. It's spinning just as fine as it was before this happened.

Power supply fan still works. No and no.

It smelled a lot like a CPU burning, and this time I think it really did my CPU in

Along with having to underclock it to 700, it locks up at random times (mostly when starting a program up or dialing in - i have a winmodem) and I am lucky it even starts.

 

[soniclos]

I would take the board out of the case.
It sounds like you actually fried the Voltage regularator to the CPU.

I would inspect the bottom of the board for burned spots.

 

[s4]

It sound like your cpu is getting hot and locking the system up or the memory could be failing. You might try removing each stick and try each one having only one stick in at a time, however if the cpu is getting hot that would not be a good idea. Do you have thermal paste between the cpu and heatsink? Too much or two little paste can cause heating problems. Your power supply could be overloading the system too.

I think sn covered most of these things, but I hope anything I said helps.

 

[systembuilder]

if your good at mobo and smt device repair replace the volt reg
would be where i would start, if you can get a cpu from a friend
plug it in and see if the prob is still there if it is its the mobo

your not alone ive had the same kind sh*t happen to me

 

[s4]

Is any of this stuff under warranty?

Does this mean you can't get online for any length of time?

 

[fury]

Looks like all hopes of salvaging any of it have pretty much dried up.

Soon after I posted the last message in this thread, the CPU started burning again (apparently it was being fed too much voltage) so I shut it off again, and 1 second afterwards, saw a very bright flash from inside the case.

Everything that was in there except the hard drive (video card, modem, one stick of 128mb ram, and one 1.2 gig t-bird) has burn marks on it and is very likely to be cooked for good.



No warranties, either. I lost all hope of having them when I overclocked

 

[fury]

It's time for an upgrade anyway.

I've been out of the hardware loop for a few months... Can I get some recommendations as to how to proceed?

I'd like pretty much just a system that will blow me away in terms of speed and overclockability. You know what I mean?

I was thinking maybe a board based on the nForce, with a gig or so of PC2700 DDR, an Athlon XP at 1.6 ghz (are they out yet?) and obviously a new case with lots of room for a crapload of fans and maybe in the future a watercooling rig

 

[Professur]

Upgrade No.1: Buy a freaking UPS already.

 

[fury]

Had one. Sure didn't work though, did it?

 

[Q]

Make the furnace company PAY! They should have warned you a power surge was a possibility. They have to carry liability insurance BY LAW, in the event they do damage to someones property.

 

[br0ck]

Originally posted by Q
Make the furnace company PAY! They should have warned you a power surge was a possibility. They have to carry liability insurance BY LAW, in the event they do damage to someones property.

Agree, fury, get them to pay for your upgrade!!

 

[fury]

It wasn't the furnace company that was servicing it

 

[Professur]

Go after your UPS maker. Those things usually carry some kinda insurance against overvolt damage. BTW, have you checked to make sure the ups isn't the source of the problem?

 

[Q]

Originally posted by fury
It wasn't the furnace company that was servicing it

Who was?? I'm not kidding around about this. Kirk and I each carry a million dollars a year general liability insurance. Does a million dollars sound extreme and insane? ..yes it sure does.. (because, as I asked...what could I possibly do that would cost a meelllion dollars???) answer: if, by chance I left a faucet running in a condo building where each condo goes for a minimum of a million dollars ( and the majority of our work is in buildings like that) the damage caused by simply leaving a faucet running could potentially damage several units....the minimum requirement, by law in Florida, for an independent subcontractor is a million bucks.

Now if this was caused by HIM, I will need to know where to locate him, because I am in just such a mood that it would be a recreational activity for me to drive up there and grind his face into the pavement....please provide details.

 

[Kruz]

Stand back and cover your meat!... PIT-Q is fired up

 

[Q]

*taps foot impatiently* ...I'm waiting.

 

[Q]

*snorts more impatiently*....still waiting *looks for ways to get off chain*

 

[Kruz]

*using Fuser As a shield...Kruz backs slowly out of the room*