Okay so I turned on my computer yesterday morning and didnt really use it. I came into the room 10 mins later and I smelled burning plastic, i couldn't tell where it was coming from though. I had to leave for physio, so I turned my pc off, just in case it WAS something in the computer screwing up. So i went to turn on the computer after, and it was completely unresponsive. As in, I pressed the power button, nothing happened. So I opened it up to see if a cable had melted or something somehow. Maybe it had become tangled in a heatsink and blown out. Idk. Nothing abnormal inside that I could see. So maybe it was the power supply, because my computer's eaten through several in the past. I swapped it for another one which I knew worked, and it was still unresponsive. So now I have a few questions: 1. Could it be something little and stupid like the power button wires becoming overloaded and blowing out, and I just have to replace that part? 2. Does it sound like something more, like my MoBo? 3. I have an older (Bought in 2002 or so) dell that my mom stopped using because the "hard drive fried" according to the tech guy. If it was me, I'd have replaced the hard drive, but my mom would rather listen to what the tech guy says. Can I install my processor, sound card, video card, hard drive, etc. in the dell and have it work, or are there other problems I have to look at as well?
First thing to do is to check for power in the pc. That's kinda hard to do but if you're lucky enough to have LED on your network card, check if those lights are working. I've gone through 4 power supply and this is a neat trick for a first check. They are running even if the pc is not. If there's light, you should be fine (meaning the board isn't fried) If your handy (meaning you know the difference between Volts and Amps ) with a voltmeter, you can easily use it to see if there's power coming from the power supply directly. Googling your PS number should give you the layout of the wire and you'll be able to check for power. If there's power, you can now check for the power button. Disconnect the button from the board and try starting the pc using a metal pin to short the 2 contact point to see if something happen. Or you can also use the voltmeter to see if you get any kind of resistance. If while pressing the button, the readout is till "1", then something's wrong with the wires/button. If after all this, it's still not working, well that's bad. As for retrofitting some new hardwares on an old PC, I don't think it will work. Technologies change fast and this may cause problem. You can put the HDD in it and run it like this, but for the CPU/RAM, I highly doubt it. Often, the PS just have to much dust in it causing a major failure. Those piece are generating quite alot of heat so if there's no proper ventilation, it's a case of bye bye PS.
Blarggg. I have a multimeter somewhere around the house, I can't remember where I put it. I opened up both PCs, the dell has all of the same ports (PCI rather than PCI-E), the processors are both Pentium 4, the one my pc was running was 2.8GHz while the dell runs 1.7GHz. I'm sure I can replace the CPU heatsink with the little pegs. And of course they both use DDR rather than DDR2/3 RAM. The two computers were manufactured about 1-2 years apart, and there were no significant advances in technology, all of the ports seem identical to me. Which is why I think that the two might be compatible. I know enough about computers to not try to jam DDR ram into a PCI slot
Well, the only thing I could see then is limitation from the board regarding cpu speed. Just be sure that the board support the new cpu.
Before you go tearing your system apart, try something a little more basic, which I'm sure you have but -- try plugging something else, like an alarm clock, into the outlet to see if it's even putting any voltage out. Even if it is, it could still have been something burning up between the walls due to faulty wiring...
Mhm, tried that though. It was plugged into a surge protector that still worked for all of my other devices. I also tried it in two other plugs in my house. When I plug my PSU in, even when the pc isnt on, there aren't any lights that go on inside, that was my first red flag.
Test your PSU jump start it using a paperclip in the 20/24 pin atx connecter just google psu hotwire in images and it will show you which pins to jump.