:(
I fired up my home PC last night, after dinner, and continued playing BG, exploring the Hall of Wonders & looking for a particular telescope ;) .
Shortly into playing (not more than 5 minutes, I guess), I smelt a strange acrid odour. I thought it was coming in from outside (a container port is just across the road from where I live), and continued playing.
Not long after, the PC just switched itself off. At first I thought it crashed, but my worst fears were confirmed when all the blinky little lights were off. I couldn't switch it on again.
It's not a blackout (as the room lights, etc were still on), neither was it the fuse (the monitor & speakers still had power). I suspect it must be the internal power supply, which I just changed a few months ago.
Can anyone confirm my diagnosis? Or if it's wrong, suggest other possible causes?
Say!! Maybe thi'd be the perfect excuse to get a new computer... :D
Seriously, I need some information so that I can decide whether to shoot the poor thing or get it repaired.

[ 07-15-2002, 09:18 PM: Message edited by: Hayashi ]

<font color=Orange>I'd get it diagnosed first before you get it repaired...and see how much it costs! I think that smell had something to do with it......maybe it melted some wires</font>

sounds like it

A strange smell? Perhaps you didn't add the right spices and herbs! No seriously, you're on the right track with your power supply, especially if it was underpowered. Pull it out and take it down to your local computer shop and get them to test it.
Grab a small maglite and nose around inside the case looking for signs of burnt wires, chips, ports etc..
If your power supply tests okay, then you're probably pretty much screwed. Just out of curiousity what power rating was it and what kind of hardware are you running?

Power supply - 300W (I think)
Hardware - nothing beyond the standrad stuff - video card, sound card, 3.5" floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, 12 GB HDD.
Hate to poke around the casing but it looks like I'll have to. How do I tell if a chip is burnt? Would the signs be obvious?
I really, really hope the HDD is alright... [img]graemlins/uhoh1.gif[/img]

A burning smell indicates burning of some kind, so you might see some scorching although I doubt it, but it's worth a shot. If it's 300W then you should be okay. I seriously doubt that it's your hard drive, as it would still show some activity, ie: you see your BIOS POST at the very least.
Don't worry too much about poking around in the case, just don't have any kind of food or liquid around while your doing and make sure you aren't standing on carpet and touch a metal part of the case BEFORE touching anything else to relieve any static electricty you may have built up.
I'm assuming you have a running PC. You could always try swapping the power supplies to see if that is in fact the problem, but by the sounds of it your PC knowledge is somewhat limited.
A lot of newer ATX motherboards have an led built right onto the board to indicate whether it's getting power or not. If it's lit you've got power, if not....
I had a similiar experience a while back, but with no burning smell. Playing some NHL 2002, and computer just shut down, no warning no nothing. Couldn't even get it it to POST after that. Swapped the power supply for a 450 and bingo, no probs.

Incidently if it is the power supply, don't be cheap when buying a new one. Spend some $$$ for a decent one. You'll be much happier in the long run. Check out PC Power and Cooling. They've got some quality stuff.

Sadly, I'm not in that part of the world. Where I live (Singapore) there is a shopping centre that has a lot of the small businesses that sell PCs (non-branded), repairs, upgrade etc. But the QA is just not there... :(
Is there any particular reliable brand of power supply that I should ask for? What about wattage -- I guess there's no harm in having excess capacity, right (eg having 450W when 300W would do)?

[ 07-09-2002, 11:21 PM: Message edited by: Hayashi ]

No there is no danger of having too much in the way of power. Its when you have too little that the problems seem to arise.

I remember a while back you were wanting to build a new PC Hayashi. Now might be the time to learn the bit about how to do it. IF its your power supply you might just want to get a whole new case. IF you go to a market or swap meet of some kind many of the power supplies will be used anyway. You might be able to find one new and without a case but chances are youll have to buy a case as well if you want a NEW power supply.

All you have to do if you get a new case is take the old stuff out and remember how you did it. Back engineer it. Then just put it all together in reverse order. Its not hard at all. Once you do it youll have the confidence to do it again. Experience is the best teacher ;)

It also could have been the CPU but yes it does sound more like a power supply.

Onething to keep in mind is that if it was the motherboard that went bad it could have fried the power supply when it went out of commision. Take it to a local tech and see what he says. And find out how much to replace any bad parts.

Ok, here's an update. Apparently my motherboard has a short-circuit. The repair guy says that compatible m/b's for the existing processor (Pentium 3 500 MHz) are hard to find; most m/b's for P3s nowadays are for speeds above 1GHz.
He recommends I might as well upgrade to a P4. He also says I would need to change the power supply & RAM (I am using PC100 RAM now -256MB) as the existing components would be inadequate to support the new stuff but I should be able to retain the existing peripherals (floppy drive, CD-ROM, HDD, etc).
Any advice?

Bite the bullet and go for it. You'll be much happier in the long run.

Yes, I'd do what Animal says - if you can get it repaired and upgraded pretty much at the same time, you'll save yourself hassle in the long run, and you'll be all set for the next while as far as computer-upgrades go. In a way you're lucky, you can kill two birds with one stone.

Hi guys
Thanks for your replies. I guess I wasn't clear - I wanted to know if what the repair guy told me was the truth, & not som BS so that I could spend more than necessary.

What the repair guy told you is true enough as far as it goes. M/bs that slow are hard to find first hand, but it just might be worth looking through some stores that might have an old one around.

Personaly I woudnt touch a P4, cost too much and the AthlonXP is a better chip anyway.

The RAM you have might run in a P4 system but youd need more of it and it would become a major slowdown, so its better to upgrade it to DDR ram. Do *not* touch RDRAM, its crap.

For a P4 you need an enhanced ATX PSU which I cant remember the exact name of, but it cant be run off a standard ATX PSU. ALso the P4s heatsink requires extra support in the case, so a new case is in order. Its unlikly youll find a P4 PSU to fit in your old case anyway.

My advice - and this is based on whats available in scotland, not singapore - is to get a Athon XP 2000 with 512 MB RAM and perhaps a new graphics card. If your existing one is pre-Geforce 2 is say definatly upgrade, past that its not really neccesary. HDD - 12 GB is too small for serious CRPG play, I myself regularly have to switch around games depending on who want to play. Id keep it and add a second larger drive as secondary master. The rest of your system should be okay.

OK thanks all for your help. The repair guy managed to locate a m/b that would support the existing chip. As far as he can determine, only the m/b is fried; all other components seem ok. He'll be testing today though, and he'll contact me if he spots any other problems.
I've decided to get this existing set repaired, and once it's working I'll need to back up a lot of important files (email contacts, documents, game saves, etc :D ).
Then I'll go hunting for a new case & relegate the existing system to my son & daughter - *their* system (also a hand-me-down) is positively ancient (a P200 MMX about 5 years old, 32 MB RAM, lol)

Recipe For success: ;)

1X Bugle Horn

1x Busted Computer

1X Hole in the Ground

1X M1919 Browning Machine Gun chambered in .30_06

30000X Rounds of .30_06 Ammunition

Step 1. Confirm Computer is hozed

Step 2. Dig hole

Step 3. Build Alter for computer (soil from hole works best)

Step 4. Load BMG with the 30000 rounds.

Step 5. Shoot the Shizzitz out of that computer.

Step 6. Bury remains, cover with remaining soil from alter.

A MB shorting usually takes something else with it, if not all of it. Frankly, I'm amazed the CPU isn't toasted too. Count yourself lucky. Make sure and find out what shorted and why. You don't want it happening again. A serious burning smell would almost have to come from a problem with the main board power supply/voltage reulator. Chip-fry situations usually don't produce a noticable smell. They burn-out long before they start to burn.

Update:
Brought the PC home last night, connected all the cables. After a bit of fiddling got the system to recognise the mouse. All systems ok - except now my modem doesn't work! :mad:

I've checked the power supply to the modem (it's an external 56k) & the phone line itself. Both check out ok.

Initially when I try to dial up to my ISP it disconnects straight away and get an error message 666 - something about the modem not plugged in or unavailable.

Riiiggghhhttt. Go to control panel and add a new connection. Now when I try dialling the ISP I can hear the "beep boop whiiiirrr" sound that all modems make. Then I get error message 645 - Micorsoft Dial-Up Adaptor not responding.

Any help? Pretty please? *grovels shamelessly*

[ 07-15-2002, 09:22 PM: Message edited by: Hayashi ]

Dump the modem and grab broadband. If that's no an option, uninstall and then reinstall the MS Dial-Up adapter. It's accesible through the network control panel (depends on your OS)

I don't use the internet from home that much to justify a broadband connection.

I use Win 98 SE. I will try your suggestion tonight.

Thanks. *keeps finger crossed*

Yes!! It worked!! :D :D :D