Computer Dead/Component damaged?

[BritishJoe]

Hello there, recently I had my computer turned off for a while due to the fact my hard drive went. Although lately I had some important work to catch up on, so I got my spare HDD (I keep it for emergencys) which is a 80gb HDD which works fine, and plugged it in.

After I plugged it in, I put the power plug in, the monitor plug in, and when I wen't to turn it on, dead.

Your first conclusion is probably that the HDD caused this, no. I unplugged the HDD, nothing still. I'm not entirely sure what my motherboard is because I havn't got the papers anymore, but it's an AMD ATHLON (Don't know the model).

When I went to make sure everything is plugged in, I saw a connector coming out of the psu, wasn't connected to anything. It's got multiple cables going into it and there only coloured black and yellow. Are these ment to go somewhere certain, or can they be left loose?

 

[mailpup]

Is there an on and off rocker switch on the back of the power supply and is it turned on? If so, it might be a dead power supply.

In most PCs power supplies will have extra unused connectors. They can be left loose.

 

[BritishJoe]

That's the thing, could a power supply really die after connecting a HDD?

Anyway, thank you, although I'll wait for more comments because I don't want to throw away a 570V chrome power supply just like that xD

 

[mailpup]

It shouldn't die because of that but when was the last time it worked?

 

[seanc]

Is that a Trust power supply by any chance? With dual fans? They're pure rubbish. They look shiney and nice, they have cut corners everwhere.

I've never tested the short protection on one of those power supplies. It's possible to have a short on the HDD controller which will stop it powering up, but that problem should go away once the HDD is unplugged.

I'm slightly worried that you can install a hard drive, but have not looked at the motherboard to retrieve the make/model.

 

[BritishJoe]

Mailpup, a couple of days ago I turned on my pc to install windows, (this is the important work I was talking about) and it powered up fine but it said I had no HDD connected (The plugs wern't plugged into my 80gb hdd) so I open the case, plug them in, close the clase and connect the power plug and monitor lead, press the power button, nothing.

@ Sean, Yes, it's a trust power supply. And I didn't know you could check the motherboard by the case, where would the model be on it?

Also mailpup, as far as I know I can't find a switch on the power supply

READ BELOW - EDIT

It's an asrock n68pv-gs, not an amd athlon.

 

[BlackIrish]

Actually, I've had over 3 or 4 dead PSU's in the last couple of years.

What is very strange that, almost always the PSU randomly dies when something else goes wrong meaning your computer ends up unused for a few days. Like, my IDE cable to a DVD Writer died. I open up my computer, bought a new cable, changed it, power it up - and nothing happens! I thought my mobo was damaged, but changing the PSU fixed my problem (numerous times!).

I'm guessing cheap PSU's probably get too damaged at some point, and all they need is a cool down period of a few days or so to totally die.

 

[BritishJoe]

Well I have a 270v or something around that downstairs which came with the PC, I'll try that and see if it makes a difference.