One day i was happily playing my ususal game i play, not touched any
setting on my computer for a long long time and ... BOOM! no warning my
computer just switches off...
Does "boom" mean you're nuts, or does it mean you actually
heard an explosion, or a pop, or ??
What make, model and rating for the PSU?
I'd expect your PSU blew out a capacitor, sometimes they
don't vent very gracefully and shoot the top off if not
entirely peeling it away. If you (disconnect from AC first)
the PSU and inspect the inside you may see the problem - or
at least shards of what used to be a capacitor like bits of
paper or foil, and if the metal can from the cap flew into
the wrong place, it can really do some damage though this is
a lot less likely than that it just blew out killing the PSU
then the poor design of the PSU kept it running too long and
that might've killed some of the equipment it was powering.
It would be good to find a fault on the old PSU even having
a new one, to try to determine cause and effect. It could
be the old PSU just shut off because something it was
powering was damaged and it still works fine.
The PSU is now making a high piched noise... so that has been replaced
with a brand new one. but still does not work.
It could mean the PSU is bad but given a certain load range
some psu would whine when they otherwise wouldn't. In other
words it could be a sign of a problem but not necessarily.
Obviously having the new PSU hooked up is a sign something
still isn't right but have you determined the new PSU is
viable for the system (as in, properly working, decent
quality, at least enough current capability for the demands
of the system?).
BTW, it would be nice to always post a concise description
of the system at the beginning of a hardware forum post when
there's any possiblity there is more than one part in
question.
Here is what happens.
I press the power button on the front of my computer. All fans inside
spin for 1 second, lights on front of pc flick once, and back off again
after 1 second. no sign of anything happening what so ever.
This is a typical sign the PSU can't keep the voltage up,
and through undervoltage or overcurrent it's shutting down.
That can happen if the PSU merely has insufficient current
capability for an otherwise working system, but if we assume
for a moment that this new PSU is appropriate and working
properly, it would tend to be most likely you have another
part that has failed in a way that is shorting it out.
To determine this you would strip the system down to bare
essentials and even less...
First hook up only the motherboard. Try to turn it on, what
happens? Of course there won't be video output/etc but does
the PSU keep running? Next put the CPU back in, making sure
heatsink is on good. If you hook up the heatsink fan now
(not really necessary as the CPU/sink won't get hot enough
to matter within the few seconds it would take to see if the
system stays turned on, BUT if you hook the fan up too and
the system doesn't stay on, next try it without the fan
plugged in, just in case you had a rare fan failure).
Next video or memory, repeat the turn-on attempt then try
the other part. Anytime the PSU shuts off as it had been,
be sure to unplug the system from AC for at least a few
minutes, some PSU will not turn back on until they're
disconnected to reset.
Speaking of reset, it wouldn't hurt to clear CMOS right at
the start, also with AC power disconnected. If your board
is aged enough that the battery might be worn out, check
that too... since having the system disconnected for awhile
may have run down the battery finally.
Im thinking the Motherboard is bust, but i also think that the CPU
could be. cant test with any old equptment as it will not fit. Can
anyone find out or tell me if they know what is wrong?
Certain board failures could damage a CPU, but usually not.
I would assume the CPU is ok for the time being, but only
you can decide if (based on age of system or whatever) now
is the time to get a newer (faster, etc) motherboard and CPU
pair instead of just a new board for the old CPU (if that
seems to be the next step).
After having tried to power on the other things mentioned
above next would be adding back a drive at a time, the other
cards one at a time, etc, etc. If I had to place odds,
they'd be that the motherboard died, though since you were
gaming the video card is a little bit suspect as well as it
was under more stress (and continually so if you're gaming
somewhat frequently), and you might also check the video
card fan, that it turns freely instead of being seized,
having failed and damaged the video GPU.
