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Which component have I fried?

F

Fakeman

n00b
Joined
Mar 11, 2011
Messages
18
I made a very boneheaded mistake and seem to have destroyed some equipment i just bought, but go easy on me.

I bought an AMD A10-5800K cpu and Gigabyte F2A75M-D3H motherboard to upgrade a computer that's around 5 years old (HP a1700n, vista era Athlon 64 dual core). The power supply does not have the necessary 8 pin power connector needed, and the computer was powering on but not showing anything onscreen with only the big ATX power connector hooked up.

Hastily and stupidly, I hooked up a 6-pin PCI-E power cable to the 8-pin connector and powered on the computer. I realize now that I should have bought a more modern power supply instead, but as they say hindsight is 20/20. I powered the computer down and disconnected the cable when it became apparent that the idea hadn't worked, but ever since then the fans only spin for a split second when I try to power on the computer and then everything goes dead again. I'm guessing that I've damaged something permanently with my stupid mistake, but I'm not sure if it's likely to be the CPU, the motherboard, or both.
 
i'm gonna guess motherboard.cpus are pretty sturdy..and I have a motherboard that does that after i cilled it.
 
Thanks for the feedback. If you're right, at least it's not the more expensive of the two parts that needs replacing.
 
So, did you ever try a proper PSU? That wouldn't necessarily kill anything, there are actually adapters to use the PCI-E 6-pin for +12v CPU. I'm not sure which way you managed to force it in there though.
 
The connector fit easily without excessive force in one of the two possible positions with the clip parts on the same side. I believe the polarities were opposite to what they should have been. If I can get this PSU to work with a simple adaptor then that would be great, because I was not expecting to have to pay for the same motherboard twice.
 
Does the power supply have a 4 pin power connector? For some motherboards the 4 pin will work in place of 8 pin power connector.
 
I did not know that. This PSU doesn't have a 4-pin connector though. The PCI-E power cable I used to cause this mayhem is actually a Molex to PCI-E adaptor.
 
You could have fried your power supply. Is it possible to put the old HP motherboard, cpu ... in to test?
 
The computer had stopped working recently which is why I chose this time to upgrade, but I guess the power supply could have caused that problem as well for all I know. I do have another desktop computer that I could test the new motherboard with, thanks for the idea.

Edit: works as before! Looks like I do need a new power supply but perhaps the new parts are fine.
 
If I were you I would buy a new quality PSU (one with the 8 pin) - because I think most boards nowadays use the 8 pin for the mobo - and I would try both taking the battery out of the mobo and resetting the CMOS before calling the mobo dead. Could be that you didn't fry anything.

Edit: Didn't see your edit. Yeah you are probably ok. Just buy a decent PSU and go from there.
 
beto said:
If I were you I would buy a new quality PSU (one with the 8 pin) - because I think most boards nowadays use the 8 pin for the mobo - and I would try both taking the battery out of the mobo and resetting the CMOS before calling the mobo dead. Could be that you didn't fry anything.

Edit: Didn't see your edit. Yeah you are probably ok. Just buy a decent PSU and go from there.
Click to expand...

This x100. Get a PSU. Stat.
 
As it turns out, the PSU in the other case does have one of the 4 pin connectors and I was able to start the computer up and install the OS. I'm still down one power supply but at least I can give the new hardware a try now. Thanks everyone for talking me through this problem.
 
No problem. Good description of the issue too. :) It helps. Have fun with the new Hardware.
 
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