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From: johne66 on 19 Mar 2010 20:47

I have always built my own computers and have built more than I can
count. My son ******* up his admin account (I know) so I fixed that, was
getting everything working and running a virus scan when I went to bed.
The next morning the computer was off and would not restart. The power
supply apparently died. I got another power supply and hooked it up.
When I turned on the power supply, the computer came on without me
hitting the power button!?

Holding the power or reset button did nothing. The POST never came up.
I tried a different power supply with more power than the original had.
Same thing!

I removed the battery to reset the BIOS, same thing. At this point I am
thinking there was a power surge and it fried both the power supply and
the motherboard. However, I am totally open to new ideas. Any help would
be appreciated.


From: philo on 20 Mar 2010 08:50
johne66 wrote:
> I have always built my own computers and have built more than I can
> count. My son ******* up his admin account (I know) so I fixed that, was
> getting everything working and running a virus scan when I went to bed.
> The next morning the computer was off and would not restart. The power
> supply apparently died. I got another power supply and hooked it up.
> When I turned on the power supply, the computer came on without me
> hitting the power button!?
>
> Holding the power or reset button did nothing. The POST never came up.
> I tried a different power supply with more power than the original had.
> Same thing!
>
> I removed the battery to reset the BIOS, same thing. At this point I am
> thinking there was a power surge and it fried both the power supply and
> the motherboard. However, I am totally open to new ideas. Any help would
> be appreciated.
>
>



Removing the battery will not necessarily reset the bios
if only removed for a short time

I'd use the bios reset jumper instead
From: Paul on 20 Mar 2010 10:59
johne66 wrote:
> I have always built my own computers and have built more than I can
> count. My son ******* up his admin account (I know) so I fixed that, was
> getting everything working and running a virus scan when I went to bed.
> The next morning the computer was off and would not restart. The power
> supply apparently died. I got another power supply and hooked it up.
> When I turned on the power supply, the computer came on without me
> hitting the power button!?
>
> Holding the power or reset button did nothing. The POST never came up.
> I tried a different power supply with more power than the original had.
> Same thing!
>
> I removed the battery to reset the BIOS, same thing. At this point I am
> thinking there was a power surge and it fried both the power supply and
> the motherboard. However, I am totally open to new ideas. Any help would
> be appreciated.
>

I've had this happen to me. What happened was, I was working inside the
computer, and managed to loosen the IDE ribbon cable, so it was only
half inserted. (Some of the pins weren't touching.) This puts
stress on the Southbridge chip, which is the chip with the IDE
interface on it. My computer started immediately, as soon as the
power switch on the back was switched on. Scared the hell out of me
when it happened. I'm more used to surprises like that now...

I would start, by keeping careful notes, of how the cables are
arranged inside your computer, so you can put them back where
you found them later.

Then, disconnect the ribbon cables, and retest. It could be,
that a drive interface (either the CD or a hard drive) has
failed, and is dragging the cable down with it. Disconnecting
the cable from the motherboard, may allow more normal behavior
from the Southbridge (i.e. computer doesn't come on as soon
as power is available from the switch on the back).

I am more likely to put weight in your theory, that this
all precipitated from a power supply failure, if the power
supply in the computer originally was a Bestec 250W. When
those blow, they ruin the motherboard. In that case, you
may be able to salvage some of the hardware (processor and
RAM), but there could be other stuff damaged as well.

Paul
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