Computer dies, smells bad, need help!

[CastleBravo]

Here is what happened.

1) Thunder storm hit area with a ton of lightning while I was out of the house. PC was left on. (NOTE: PC was on surge protector)
2) Go to turn on PC, notice fans are running & LEDs are on, but nobody is home (no signal to monitor). Also, smell of burned plastic.
3) Power switch no workie. Hmmm. Turn off power at PSU, turn back on. Push power switch, nothing happens.
4) Take side cover off case. Hoping some cable might have gotten loose, I turn power off @ PSU, wiggle the 20 pin ATX power connector, turn back on. Fans come on, DVD drive lights up, but nobody's home (no boot, no signal to monitor). Just like I found it. Hmm.

EDIT TO ADD: The PSU doesn't power anything unless the 20 pin ATX power connector is wiggled so it is a little LOOSE... plug it in all the way, and nothing happens, plug it in 90% of the way, and things come on but it doesn't boot. This happens with both PSUs.

And just to make it clear, the power switch on the case never does anything now... doesn't turn things on or shut them off. Only the power switch on the PSU, or unplugging things outright, makes anything happen now.

5) Swap out PSU with another I had handy, same thing happens.

So what do you think is the culprit here? I've got some ideas, but it seems kind of wierd.

I think I've ruled out the PSU being dead. After all, it DOES deliver power (and the spare PSU acted exactly the same). I would think that a dead CPU, memory or hard drive would still allow it to POST or give me an error code or something. A dead video card would explain the blank screen, but not the lack POST/bootup sounds or the power switch not working.

That pretty much leaves the motherboard itself and the case. And unfortunately it seems alot less likely that a power surge would kill a simple switch before it would also roast everything else in its path.

I guess I have kind of answered my own question, but I'd like any insight anybody might give me into what exactly might have died. Thanks.

Here is the goods:

Antec P180 case
Antec SmartPower 2.0 500W PSU
Asus A8V deluxe 2.0 mobo
A64 3500+ Winchester
1 GB OCZ EL Platinum PC3200
BFG 6800 GT OC video card
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Western Digital 120GB IDE hard drive
Memorex 16x DVD+/-RW drive

 

[lithium726]

burnt plastic? where did the plastic melt? or did the caps explode?

id guess board, but it could be the vcard too.. the power switch thing is very odd...

 

[CastleBravo]

burnt plastic? where did the plastic melt? or did the caps explode?

id guess board, but it could be the vcard too.. the power switch thing is very odd...

I'm going to tear it all apart to see what burned/melted/whatever, I couldn't tell just by looking in the case.

I thought the power switch thing was wierd as hell, but since the power switch on the front of the case just plugs into the mobo, if the mobo craps out, the switch might not do anything even though the board is getting power from the PSU. Still, it is wierd that wiggling the 20 pin ATX cable would affect anything.

Video card could be dead, too, (heck, everything but the damn fans could be dead), but that wouldn't cause the power switch on the case to not work. I'm going to replace the mobo with a PCI-Express model, so the video card is going to get tossed out either way.

 

[RavenD]

Sounds like dead motherboard at best, at worst only the fans survived.

 

[CastleBravo]

Sounds like dead motherboard at best, at worst only the fans survived.

That's kind of my assumption at this point. I've already got my "unplanned upgrade" parts on the way from Newegg.com. Mobo, CPU, RAM, hard drive and video card. And I'm replacing the PSU too.

 

[lithium726]

if youre just gonna toss it untested, ill pay shipping (the graphics card)

i did the exact same thing when my mobo died, just said fuck it and went PCIe, lol

 

[CastleBravo]

if youre just gonna toss it untested, ill pay shipping (the graphics card)

i did the exact same thing when my mobo died, just said fuck it and went PCIe, lol

Somebody already has dibs on the graphics card if it lived.