General lack of response(solved)

Hi, new to these boards. I have been having a bit of trouble with my rig, i built it last November for general gaming/college work. I cant provide to much information on the specs.

Originally i was using a 400W power supply, which may have been a bit to weak for my system. I was happily surfing away when i noticed the case getting a bit hot, i thought nothing of it and loaded up "World in Conflict", not long into playing, my speakers emitted an annoying noise, then the system just shut itself down. After several attempts to reboot there was a shot of sparks out the back of the PSU, followed by the smell of burning, i was still unable to get any response from it.

I left the system to cool-down, hoping that would solve it. Later in the day i opened the case to inspect the PSU and the Motherboard, i am not to experienced with them with it being my first build, but i could see no visible signs of damage (when they burn out is it usually visible?). My next course of action was to order a new PSU, this time i got a 500W one. Hooked it all up, plugged it in, power on and no response(should the PSU fan spin if it is working? and not connected to anything? it didn't spin)

I am a bit lost with what to try next, could it be the power cable I'm using? I have no idea, please could you offer some advice?

Thanks, Sam.

No it also needs the other parts like Motherboard and CPU to be working.

Please BenchTest your system

Thanks for the quick response, i shall get on to a BenchTest right away. I shall return with the results later in the day.

I connected the base components(cpu, motherboard, heatsink, 1 stick of ram and the PSU) i received no response after connecting it to the mains. Does this mean that it is either the CPU or the mobo? i could see no visible damage to them and the PSU is brand new. This was before connecting the hard drive, cd drive and graphics card. As i receive no response, is it possible it is the power lead or a fuse somewhere? i have not tried with a 2nd lead as i do not own one (typing from a mac *shame* at the moment)

im going to experiment with a few different ideas. will post the results later

UPDATE: i tried several different bench setups, with and without RAM/graphics card ect. But still no luck, do you reccommend me to replace the mobo? i could always take it down my pc repair shop and let them have an overpriced look at it.

I'd suspect the motherboard. Have you changed the power cord? As a precaution, try using the reset switch to power the pc on (hook it up to where the power switch would go) rather than the power button. Those buttons sometimes stop working, caught me out a few times.

This may be a good idea.

Just ask them to tell you what they think it is, not to actually fix it.
Depending on the cost, you may be shown a new computer !

I solved it, not sure if it was the whole problem but the power lead i was using and the one i borrowed from my neighbor had a blown fuse in both. Would have been rather embarrassing to take it to the p.c. shop only to have them plug it in and have it work.

Thanks for the help anyway

Power leads and power supplies don't have fuses in them.

But oh well, if it's working now, so be it.

Power leads do, in the plug that goes into the wall.