i've blown up my computer....
primer
Posts: 6,370 Forum Member
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so, yesterday it wouldn't start. nothing. no fan, no beeping, no start. nothing.
so i checked the fuse and tried a replacement power cable. nothing.
so i then did some stupid thing, where by i flicked this switch i couldn't read (its all a bit dark round the back... i thoughtt it might be some power surge override protector .... or something) and
*bang* smell of electrical burning. it was the 110/220 switch....
so, can anyone advise me what might have been wrong in the first place, and what might be worse about it now...
so i checked the fuse and tried a replacement power cable. nothing.
so i then did some stupid thing, where by i flicked this switch i couldn't read (its all a bit dark round the back... i thoughtt it might be some power surge override protector .... or something) and
*bang* smell of electrical burning. it was the 110/220 switch....
so, can anyone advise me what might have been wrong in the first place, and what might be worse about it now...
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Comments
It is actually quite rare these days to find a 110/220 V switch on a PSU. Most modern ones are switch mode and can happily accept anything from about 90V upwards without any need for switches.
Which makes me think your PSU is possibly a bit old and may have failed before you blew it up. One of the more likely things is capacitors ageing and basically stopping working. And if you put the wrong volts across them they can explode quite spectacularly (make good miniature missiles some of them and the devils own job cleaning up the mess they leave behind
If you are very lucky the PSU was sufficiently dead before hand for no damage to have occurred to the motherboard or other components in your PC. It certainly sounds as if it had died already. So you may just need to replace the PSU to get back in business.
I'd be inclined to take in into a PC repair shop and get them to check your Motherboard first.... i'd be reluctuant to but a new PC only to find out I needed a new motherboard as well - depending on the age of your motherboard, you may find it difficult to find one that supports youd ram and processor, meaning those would need to be replaced as well... before you know it, you'd be in new pc price territory!
as you can imagine, i'm kicking myself for making the original problem worse...
its all a bit old, but new machine is not really an option unless i really have to...
i also need to get it going cos its got all my stuff on...
oh what an eejit...
Even if the PC is dead there is a reasonable chance that the hard disk is OK and can be put into another PC so that you can copy your files off it.