Crashing, then smoking and now wont turn on

[Twiggie]

hello
I was playing games on my pc when the screen cut off and said something along the lines of 'video signal, no input', before going blank. The sound was still on but was just making a flickering, beeping noise. The computer turned back on afta a couple of tries, but then would crash again next time i played a game. This continued until next day when it just stopped turning on. I left it for a while, and when i tried again there was a 'pfft' noise, followed by smoke and a smell liek tcp :S.
Unsuprisingly my computer will no longer turn on, although when i press the power it will flash as if on standby. My friend says it soudns like the power supply has blew. Can anyone confirm this, or any other ideas?

 

[mflynn]

Yes!

Mike

 

[Twiggie]

Lol, niec and simple, thank you!
But, would you suggest taking it down to a store and checking for certain before buying a new supply?

 

[mflynn]

Yes, if you have shop available. A PSU is so easy to test and replace you may get them to test and replace while you wait.

A clear sign would be the strong electrical smell from the back of the computer at the PSU fan.

Altho it could be the Video card or even the motherboard. Usually the motherboard will not give a strong electrical smell.

Mike

 

[raybay]

It could be anything at this point... depending on the brand and age of the motherboard.
Components that can sometimes emit smoke during failure or damage: Power supply,cpu fan or any other case fan, DVD or other optical drive, hard drive, or motherboard.
Rule out motherboard by examining each and every little barrel shaped component... If any are rounded in a distorted way on top, or split on the side, your motherboard is history. Also, using a strong, bluish light, examine the entire board for brownish, reddish, bluish, or yellowish streaks or a shiny oil-like look. Then do the smell test.
But the problem is most likely the power supply, when you can test by replacing temporarily with any other, or by purchasing a power supply tester which sells for $8.00 to $30 depending on quality... there are six different brands out there that we have used... and they all do the job.
If you posted the brand and model of your computer, or the power supply sticker, we could likely tell you whether it is a power supply problem just from experience with repairing them.
Power supplies run from $15 to $400, but you should be fine with any of a number of those in the $50 to $80 range... Post the brand and model here if you want an opinion.
The most important consideration is size (it must fit the available space), then the cables, so if you go to a computer parts store, take the defunct one with you... in order to get one with similar capabilities.
There are huge differences in Quality of power supplies. You might want to look elsewhere on this forum for postings on power supplies. One member of this forum has posted a fairly comprehensive list of the good ones and the bad ones... sorry, I do not remember the link.

 

[Twiggie]

Sorry i took so long to reply. Have foudn hte problem, turns out it wasnt my power supply, but my graphics card has blew! i have another graphics card, nothing great, just an old cheap one i could ge my hands on. how do i go about swapping them over. I have removed the old one and put the new one in, but when i reboot the computer it says somthing along the lines of 'a recent software or hardware change means windows could not load, insert your windows disc and go to repair.' I have inserted the windows disc, rebooted the computer but it just comes up with the same message, and does not load the disc. any help? Thank you