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TTSAPdude
0 pts.
 Hardware question - desktop fried through power surge
Windows 2000 desktop, DataCenter
PG&E, our lovely local power company, decided to pull a fun prank by cutting the power and then send a sizable surge that fried my computer. The computer was turned off but plugged in at the time.

The next day the power supply was stone dead (checked with my Antec power supply tester) so I bought and installed a new one, carefully replacing all connections as I progressed.

When I tried to boot the computer, the computer "on" light, which is normally green, was red. The CPU fan and other fans were running, but none of the hard drives sprung to life. More disturbingly, there was a smell of burnt plastic filling the room after a few seconds which prompted me to immediately pull the plug.

Now, question: What is the best approach for troubleshooting at this point? I guess my motherboard is toast, but what about my CPU, memory, harddrives, Radeon 9800 Pro GFX card etc? All this stuff is less than 6 months old - how can I be sure not to cause further damage? Thank you in advance!

Matt
ASKED: Apr 27, 2004  1:44 PM GMT
UPDATED: November 13, 2010  4:43:20 AM GMT
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EastCoastGuy
245 pts.
Answer Wiki:
You will have to test each component. Plug the harddrive into another computer and see if it still boots. Try the same with the motherboard and any other cards you may have in it. Hopefully something is still good.

As with all electronics (IE. tv's cd players, computers, etc) you should have a surge protector plugged into your wall outlet. You can pick one up at a local radio shack for less than $20. Power surges happen daily. It is a matter of intensity if your device gets fried or not.
Last Wiki Answer Submitted:  Apr 27, 2004  1:51 PM (GMT)  by  EastCoastGuy   245 pts.
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have you tried www.google.com or using asp.net ?

Tombrady
 250 pts.
 

to share for experience, when my pc got power surge, the board got fried. so what i did was on my other computer, i tested the ram, hard disk, dvdrom and graphics card..

i reco to get UPS or even a power surge as it will be good for your pc for a long term.

Jinteik
 12,100 pts.