Please tell me it's not Dead!!!

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rottweiler

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 13, 2000
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1,126
Well, I know it is dead, but I hope it's just the PSU, and not CPU's.

I started the beast in my sig folding yesterday.
I went out after work today, and when I came home I knew something was wrong.
As I got to the door to my room, I noticed that I did not hear my computer.
It's not really loud, but loud enough.
As soon as I opened the door I smelled burned computer parts.
And I saw a very thin layer of smoke.
After leaving my room door open for a couple mins the smoke went away.

My computer was not running.
After a quick check I noticed that my monitor was also not on.
I checked the UPS, and it was off.
Not thinking clearly, I hit the power button on the UPS, which normally would turn it off, and nothing happened.
I hit it again to turn it on, and it came on and I heard a bad crackling sound.
I hope it was only my speakers being on as the power was going to them
I tried turning on the computer, but nothing.
I took off the side and looked inside.
I smelled around, and it seemed to me that the strongest smell was coming from the PSU.
The heatsinks are on the CPUs fine, no movement, and the fans look ok.
Even if the fans stopped, the computer should just shut down, right?
Please, Please, Please tell me that it's only the PSU.
Mainly since the CPUs are OEM, and only had a 60 day warranty.
I don't exactly know what the warranty on the PSU is, but it's PP&C and I bought it new from them the middle of last June.
The motherboard even has a 3yr. manufacturer warranty.
Please be anything except the CPUs.

Also if anyone is in the DC/N. VA area and has something I can test all this stuff on and has some time tomorrow or this weekend, please let me know.
 
i live in fredericksburg va. well i mean, i cant say what is wrong without being there. just a few questions though.

did you leave ur computer on while u were away?

did you just hook this computer up?

have you had any problems with it so far?

how old is your PSU?

whats ur system specs?

how many watts is ur psu putting out?

well maybe its not a few, but that would give me/us more of an insight to what is going on.
 
This computer is 8 months old.
I have never had a problem with it before.
I always leave it running while I'm away.
The PSU specs are:
PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 510XE
It was purchased on 6/17/2004 and was built with the computer in the beginning of July.

The Computer specs are basically in my sig:
MSI K8T Master2-FAR
2x Opteron 242
2x 1GB Corsair PC3200 ECC
3ware 9500S-8 PCI SATA Raid card
1x 74GB Raptor
2x 36GB Raptors in Raid 0
3x 200GB seagate SATAs in Raid 5
ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 PRO
 
not positive, but it sounds like your psu died.. though pp&c are supposed to be really reliable :(

if you can find another psu laying around, put it in and try booting your computer with minimal comonents: just the cpu, video card and ram. see if it can actually boot up into the bios.
if it can, well you're lucky, the psu died and didn't take anything out with it.
if not.. further investigation is required.
 
man that would be horrible if dual opteron 242's died.

keep ur head up though, processors are surprisingly resiliant

my first build i didnt seat the heatsink correctly and kept booting it up to 90C before it stalled out and i eventually figured out what was wrong. still works like a beast though
 
i thought you guys might get a kick out of this.. my cpu right now. i actually just took it up to 2.67ghz with 1.8v. amazingly durable other than the memory controller is crap.
and those lines are the result of too much lapping trying to make the core flat ;)
(note that the server is being really slow for me. give it a moment to load the pic, and i've got 412mb of my allocated 500mb of bandwidth used up already. time to find a better host.)

core.JPG
 
Dude You are supposed to lap IHS not Silicone core.
Mostly silicone (glass) core is flatt. Only IHS sometimes has higher corners then middle so lapping helps.

Taking of IHS helps cooling. But only if You have special Cooler for it. Normal socket 754 and socket 939 coolers tend to touch socket and flip to one side making bad contact and even cracking a core. Some people mod HSF base to eliminate that socket conntact and use spacers (shims) to asure that hsf is paralel with core and that it makes good conntact.




MD
 
Since the UPS was off, wouldn't it seem like there was a problem with it?
If so, my whole system should be covered right?
This system is hooked up to a Cyber Power 1250AVR.
The monitor is the only other big thing hooked up to it, along with a printer, router, and wireless speaker/headphone receiver.

I will probably go buy a basic PSU from CompUSA or something, hopefully they have one that will work.
I don't know if they do, looking at their site.
I need a 24+8, which is an EPS12V, right?
they have the +6, but some just don't say.
Anyone know where I can get a PSU to test on this?
Thanks.
 
rottweiler said:
Since the UPS was off, wouldn't it seem like there was a problem with it?
If so, my whole system should be covered right?
This system is hooked up to a Cyber Power 1250AVR.
The monitor is the only other big thing hooked up to it, along with a printer, router, and wireless speaker/headphone receiver.

I will probably go buy a basic PSU from CompUSA or something, hopefully they have one that will work.
I don't know if they do, looking at their site.
I need a 24+8, which is an EPS12V, right?
they have the +6, but some just don't say.
Anyone know where I can get a PSU to test on this?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

I work in DC and live in Leesburg, I have plenty of spare parts if you need to do some testing. Send me a PM if so inclined.
 
Sounds like your PSU, if the processor got destroyed, the PC would still boot and the fans would still turn on.

PC Power and Cooling's warranty is supposed to be the best, I thought I read before that they would replace or give you money on all the components the PSU took out.

You might have had a weird surge, and that might have been why the UPS was turned off. Either way, your CPU should be covered, either by PC Power and Cooling (supposedly, read the warranty terms), or by the UPS manufacturer.
 
Also, take a good look around your mobo. Sometime capacitors can blow and burn up a little and make a nasty smell.

MD, as far as lapping your core, I've done it before (to mobile P4 CPUs which do not have an IHS) and it works well. You'd be surprised at how uneven cores can be. I wouldn't reccomend going as far as (cf)Eclipse did, but that's just me :)
 
I'm really bothered by the UPS being off. As a rule they have pretty good fault protection.

As for (cf)Eclipse, well, he is most certainly into "Guts" tweaking ;)
 
dmonkey said:
Sounds like your PSU, if the processor got destroyed, the PC would still boot and the fans would still turn on.

PC Power and Cooling's warranty is supposed to be the best, I thought I read before that they would replace or give you money on all the components the PSU took out.

You might have had a weird surge, and that might have been why the UPS was turned off. Either way, your CPU should be covered, either by PC Power and Cooling (supposedly, read the warranty terms), or by the UPS manufacturer.
Click to expand...
Looking at PP&Cs site, it doesn't look like they replace damaged parts.
It is very strange that the UPS was off, but also that nothing else died.
The monitor and router connected to the UPS are fine.
 
I'm sorry about that, I thought the warranty covered parts. I would just go buy a PSU somewhere, and use it to test. It is probably the PSU, if the fans don't come on. CPU could have been affected though, so I wouldn't put your hopes up yet.
 
MD said:
Mostly silicone (glass) core is flatt. Only IHS sometimes has higher corners then middle so lapping helps.
Click to expand...
yeah, the silicon is flat. but the protective layer of metal that goes on it wasn't. i shouldn't be able to spin my heatsink just by touching the edge of it, so i figured it was round and getting very bad contact. i took a utility knife to it, and sure enough, it was rounded.
but enough of that story, lapping cores = bad anyhow.

pp&c makes good psu's. if it died, i don't think it would have taken anything else with it. you never know until you try, but i'd definitly send in that psu for an rma.
in the meantime though... i guess you can try to pick up a spare. like i said before, a somewhat wimpy psu should work if you take out all the extra things in your computer, but i guess you need that 8pin 12v line. not many psu's have them yet. :(
 
Good news everyone.
I took it to a local computer service/repair shop I found and they diagnosed that it was only the PSU that was dead.
They even gave me a reason.
They said one of my case fans, the one right in front of 2 of my 200GB drives had it's wire pinched between the drive cage.
Over time, although nothing in there moved much, this wire got stripped and the bare wire was exposed, this touched the metal of the drive cage and Boom, the PSU blew up.
But all my other components are fine.
So I should be able to exchange the PSU with PP&C and be set.

It took me half of the day to find a computer service & repair place that
a) was open
b) serviced individual computers, not only companies
c) Knew what I was talking about when I explained my computer needed an EPS12V PSU
d) had an EPS12V PSU and other componets capable of testing my system.
e) was reasonably priced

I must have called 20-30 places before I found this one.
Only one other place could do it, but I googled their company, and the only thing that came back was one post talking about fraud.
It ended up only costing me $30, if that, it might have been a free diagnosis, I'll find out when I pick it up tomorrow.

I'm thinking about possibly buying an OCZ powerstream 520 or 600W PSU, and then selling the new one I get back from PP&C.
It's not that I don't trust them, I guess it was sorta my fault, but the OCZ powerstreams seem really good, and I like the universal connector, so I could test other systems with it if needed.
What do you guys think, is the Powerstream 520 or 600 better than the PP&C 510XE?
If not, might it still be worth it for adjustable rails and a universal connector?

Thank all for your help.
 
i have an ocz powerstream myself. the adjustable rails and connectors are amazingly awesome. plus it's pretty quiet.
 
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