*BANG* is a bad sound

[mrBen]

Finally got around to putting all my bits into their shiny new case. Problem is that my motherboard didn't seem to like the shiny new 300W PSU, and emitted a loud BANG, short flash and nasty smell when I turned it :(

Now I am sad.

This poll might cheer me up ;)

[Okie]

OUCH!!!

you could unplug the powersupply from the board and test it with an electrical multitester, try it set to AC current first, and if nothing shows switch it to DC current, if there is no juice then it is most likely the powersupply...

good luck...

[eyceguy]

hey i think i know exactly what happened. your power supply blew up. the same thing happened with my computer and i was freaked that something really bad happened, but when i replaced the powersupply everything worked again. just get a new power supply that works with your mobo and cpu and everything should be fine

[b_usa]

Today marks the passing of our beloved friend Computer Part. He will be missed. Copper to copper. PCB to PCB. May the garbage man have mercy upon your circuits.

[threadhead]

ouch.
i feel your pain, dude... ;)

[Dawa13]

hehe donkey hehe

[Zoist]

I remember when getting into computers for the first time years ago. **** like putting motherboards on carpet and plugging in power connectors into devices while power is connected (nice flash of lightning :eek: ) , putting my friends 486 CPU in the wrong way and costing $300 to replace.

If it's your motherboard thats the problem, and it is still under warranty, AND has no burn marks on it, get a replacement and pretend it suddenly failed :D

[Zoist]

Originally posted by Okie
OUCH!!!

you could unplug the powersupply from the board and test it with an electrical multitester, try it set to AC current first, and if nothing shows switch it to DC current, if there is no juice then it is most likely the powersupply...

good luck...

That's a stupid thing to say. PC PSUs use a full wave rectifier circuit meaning direct current.

[sharth]

I've had two explosions from my computer in my using of it. One was when i had the case of my comp off. for some reason it was over heating. So one day, my brother was playing some game, and we get bang, and a spark from the psu flies across the room.

the other time wasn't really a bang, but smoke emitting from the monitor. some piece on the mointor's board blew up. a good 1 inch radius circle :)

If its the psu, you may have blown up some other pieces in a surge. I would reocmmend tring a new psu and then a new mobo, but make sure you have a return policy on anything you buy (in case its not the problem)

[yinrunning]

try it set to AC current first, and if nothing shows switch it to DC current

Yeah, that's pretty silly. And you better not be talking about the "mystery switch... the little red one on the back of the psu? Should be set to "115". If it's not, that can cause some pretty funky problems.

Was on the phone with a customer. We'd already sent her a new mobo, to the wrong address. I was about the 10th person to talk to her. Totally stupid. Anyway, got that sent to her, takes about 1&1/2 hrs. to replace over the phone with someone who's never been in a box before. She actually unscrewed her sound card from the metal card-hole-cover instead of taking out the screw on top and lifting them out together like you're supposed to. Somehow got everything back together. Reloaded her OS, blah blah blah. Put her driver disk in tray.... "BANG"!!!! Cd shattered in the drive. Talk about the worst luck ever.

[bwkaz]

Was this a Dell?

They used to (don't know if they still do) have motherboards that took an ATX connector, but where the pinout (and therefore the expected voltages) were all moved around. If you plug a standard ATX PSU into one of those Dell boards, at best it won't boot, and at worst you blow up the board.

Same if you try a standard ATX board with one of Dell's power supplies from that time period.

[Okie]

Originally posted by Zoist
That's a stupid thing to say. PC PSUs use a full wave rectifier circuit meaning direct current.

i did not know they are totally 100% DC, i have found some PCBs that were AC 12 volts, they are rare but there are a few electronc PCBs that are AC, so do not call me stupid,

[mrBen]

OK - update on the story.

It was the PSU, and my mobo seems fine. So I went to swap the PSU, when I realised that the PSU in my old case was custom for the case - big power switch cabled into the front of the machine. So I whip that out with my screwdriver, and transfer everything across.

All of which would be brilliant apart from one thing.....

My mobo is a hybrid AT/ATX. I had previously used a standard DIN keyboard socket, but decided to reinsert the PS2 port, and the old DIN was left behind the ATX face plate where all the normal sockets usually go. But I forgot to reenable the PS2 port in the BIOS beforehand, and so it's not picking up the keyboard on bootup :(

[JayMan8081]

Ouch, this certainly doesn't seem to be your day for computers. I think after you get the keyboard working again I would take a break from changing any hardware, at least for today :D

[yinrunning]

Yeah, a beer or several would definitely be in order there.

[fancypiper]

If you try to repair a Dell, you have to use Dell parts. The cpu socket is misplaced and they wire the power supply up so that it will blow the mobo if you try to replace it or blow the PS if you install a standard one to a Dell mobo.

Avoid Dell.

[sharth]

borrow a usb keyboard? maybe if you are lucky. otehr than that, unless you want to bring it to someone, perhaps a bios flash (upgrade) will reset it to defaults and fix it.

[bwkaz]

Remove the BIOS/CMOS battery, short the connections to it for a few seconds to a few minutes (to make sure the capacitors on the board drain), reinsert the battery, and try to boot up. This has the effect of resetting the CMOS to its default values, and maybe those defaults are PS/2 keyboard. Or maybe there's a jumper you can move on the motherboard that'll reset the CMOS settings to defaults?

[sharth]

Originally posted by bwkaz
Remove the BIOS/CMOS battery, short the connections to it for a few seconds to a few minutes (to make sure the capacitors on the board drain), reinsert the battery, and try to boot up. This has the effect of resetting the CMOS to its default values, and maybe those defaults are PS/2 keyboard. Or maybe there's a jumper you can move on the motherboard that'll reset the CMOS settings to defaults? forgot about that personally :)

[mrBen]

Originally posted by yinrunning
Yeah, a beer or several would definitely be in order there.

Yeah - I went out and had a good game of football, then came back for a kebab and a couple of cold ones from the fridge :D

There is a jumper on my board for resetting my CMOS, so I will try that, thanks. Failing that, I do have a backplate insert for a DIN socket, so I'll just cut out the default backplate, and insert that instead :(

[Zoist]

Originally posted by Okie
so do not call me stupid,

I wasn't calling you stupid. I didn't think it was the right thing to suggest.
No hard feelings?

[yinrunning]

Definitely yank that CMOS battery if the jumper doesn't work. If the CMOS battery doesn't change it back to defaults, then that is one seriously hamstered mobo.

[TheCatMan]

Originally posted by yinrunning
Yeah, that's pretty silly. And you better not be talking about the "mystery switch... the little red one on the back of the psu? Should be set to "115". If it's not, that can cause some pretty funky problems.


If that's the same "mystery switch" I'm thinking of then "115" would be a really bad setting for a Glaswegian :)

[yinrunning]

A Glaswhosewhatsit? 115 in the US, though. Sorry. Keep forgetting that not everyone lives here. *Head Slap!* Bad American! Bad American!!

[dungscooperdave]

Good American. Good American. lol. That CMOS battery thing works wonders. I tried it once. Ya. It was cool. :D

[dungscooperdave]

I'm not surprised it was the power supply though. They go a lot. I usually keep a few around just in case. A month or two ago I went to turn my computer on, and when I pressed the power switch, nothing happened. I just switched the power supply and it was all good again. :D

[mrBen]

Originally posted by yinrunning
A Glaswhosewhatsit? 115 in the US, though. Sorry. Keep forgetting that not everyone lives here. *Head Slap!* Bad American! Bad American!!

Actually, my PSU was so cheap it didn't even have a switch - just a big yellow sticker saying '240V'. :)

Originally posted by me just now
Actually, my PSU was so cheap

Which was why it blew ;)