Help - PSU died, has it fried the motherboard or CPU?!

[singh_uk]

Hello,

My Corsair PSU recently died and it is sent off for RMA. In the mean time I have connected up a spare PSU.

I stripped the PC down to RAM, GPU and CPU. Out of the case, onto cardboard to avoid shorts.

With the old dead PSU, on powering up the PC, no video output, no post beeps, CPU/GPU fans did NOT spin up.

With the working PSU - CPU & GPU fans spin up for a few seconds then die, spin up again, and die, etc etc. Cant turn it off from the front (need to switch off from PSU). No beeps, no monitor signal.

Took out the CPU - now if I connect the CPU fan, it spins up and keeps spinning. The LED on the front of the PC comes on and stays on. I can turn the PC off from the front switch. Still no post beeps though.




From this - is it certain the motherboard is dead? Or is it possible the CPU is also / instead of dead? I dont have another system to test them on.... so I am going to have to buy either a new mobo or a new CPU but I am trying to work out which I need....


Thanks

 

[engiNURD]

What spare PSU are you using? make/model plz.

Pull the GPU and RAM, with the CPU and HSF plugged in, turn on the system.

• If you hear error beeps, the CPU and Mobo are fine, and your GPU may be the culprit. Try it again with a known working GPU (PCI or PCI-E).
• If you don't, one or the other could be dead -- more likely the board than the CPU. Find a friend with a compatible board and test your CPU.

 

[singh_uk]

Hi, thanks for the reply

The spare is an Antec Neopower 480 (the original was a Corsair 620HX)

No error beeps when I booted with GPU/RAM/CPU/HSF - just the fans spinning up and down and no signal. My assumption is the motherboard has gone and I am hoping I will not have to fork out for a CPU also.

Would Corsair offer compensation for frying my components due to their faulty powersupply?

 

[engiNURD]

... No error beeps when I booted with GPU/RAM/CPU/HSF - just the fans spinning up and down and no signal. ...

I know, I read your first post. The question was, do you hear error beeps when you boot with just the CPU/HSF/Mobo? (NO RAM/GPU)

... Would Corsair offer compensation for frying my components due to their faulty powersupply?

Iunno. Ask 'em. And let us know what they say. I suspect not, simply because it could have been your input power causing the the PSU to fail. Do you have a UPS, surge suppressor, or line conditioner?

 

[singh_uk]

I know, I read your first post. The question was, do you hear error beeps when you boot with just the CPU/HSF/Mobo? (NO RAM/GPU)

My mistake - but yes even when the system is stripped down to literally the mobo on cardboard, with the PSU and CPU, still nothing no beeps - just the fan spinning up and down

Iunno. Ask 'em. And let us know what they say. I suspect not, simply because it could have been your input power causing the the PSU to fail. Do you have a UPS, surge suppressor, or line conditioner?

Unfortunately not - the power lead was plugged straight into the wall - not a mistake I will make again Although having said that, I am not convinced it was a power surge as such which caused the failure - I had some strange symptoms leading up to the failure - the screen would randomly flash black for a very short period of time, sometimes the PC would go super slow (even in windows/ie browsing) and then lock up. There was no spark/bang etc when the PSU failed - I shut down the PC as normal and 20 minutes later it simply would not turn on.

I will send Corsair a carefully worded email and let you know what they say!

 

[leward]

I would still think it is likely the mobo that is bad. The cpu rarely dies in my experiences. I had a PC that was on and the basement flooded and the computer was running with about 4 inches of water in it. The mobo oxidized but the cpu (P4 1.7GHz Williamette) was still good and I used it in another computer that is still working to this day.

 

[singh_uk]

Just an update for anyone interested - I bought a new motherboard (Gigabyte EP45-UDR3R) and the system works fine again. Once corsair have processed my RMA I intend to take the issue up with them.

Also added another 2gb RAM and my 8800gtx I RMA-ed to BFG for overheating returned as a GTX 260 OC so a nice mini-upgrade

 

[engiNURD]

Heh, lucky you. You could probably RMA the board to its manufacturer, too.