$3000 Gaming PC destroyed already?

[Alive.777]

Well we will start from the beggining. I built my first gaming pc. it all worked out great, no problems at all. just ran smooth. Well it had been running great for about 3 months when the weird problem occoured. I turned the pc on in the morning and walked into the kitchen. When i was in the kitchen, i heard a loud and scarry zapping sound. It lasted about 3 seconds and then stopped. i went into the room and found my pc, lifeless. i unplugged everything and called the electrician. he said that the powerboard that i had my pc plugged in to had shortcirceted, hence the burnt smell coming from it. The thing is, when i try to turn my pc on again, it doesnt do anything, no lights, no sound, no nothing. The same smell coming from the powerboard is also coming from my Corsair HX1000w PSU.

My main concern is that the rest of my pc is fried, not just the PSU. i am going to buy a new PSU and hope for the best but if you have any idea why my pc wont start, then please reply. The electrician said my pc should not have been damaged.

 

[Hefemeister]

hopefully you computer will be fine but no real way to know until you have a new psu.

In the future make sure you have clean power into your computer. a battery backup (UPS) is a great investment.

examples:
Newegg.com - PC UPS, Back Up Power Supply, Uninterruptable Power Supply, Computer UPS

 

[Slaymate]

I have this Newegg.com - powercom King Pro KIN-1500AP 1500 VA 900 Watts 5 Outlets UPS

I've had it for quite a few years now, I replaced the batteries about 6 months ago for less than $60

 

[carnageX]

I have this one:
Newegg.com - CyberPower Intelligent LCD Series GreenPower UPS CP1350AVRLCD 1350 VA 810 Watts 4 x 5-15R Battery/Surge Protected
4 x 5-15R Surge Protected Outlets UPS

Had it for around a year and a half, and it works perfect.

 

[-RockMan-]

You might want to try taking your pc to a computer shop and have them do a diagnostic on your pc.
You might want to get all of your warranties in place for your parts.

If you have a AMD CPU, they will replace your cpu under a 3 year warranty, most HDD manufacturers will have a warranty for new hdd for 1-2 years western digital is good for that as well as seagate.
The motherboard is a "IF" and a "but" with certain manufacturers, I may be over stepping my boundaries with certain mobo's makers, but if they ask how your mobo is not working just tell them flat out, you went to the store to pick up a few things, 2 hours later you come in your is not functioning.
When you send it to them they will check it to any burn marks on the circuitrie if they don't find any but busted capacitors they should replace it and probably call or email you stating what they will do and won't do.

The memory shouldn't be hard to replace, in fact get a new set if it comes down to replacing everything.
I hope the best for you man, there is nothing mor disappointing than your pc dying to a electric shock, atleast your room and house didn't catch on fire....

 

[Alive.777]

I have just found out that my HX1000w psu has an onboard surge protector which stops large amounts of electricity from reaching any of the other pc parts. I hope this has worked. All the people who i have asked have said that there will be obvious melt/scorch/burn marks on the Motherboard and/or other parts in the pc if it was totally fried. I have checked the pc and there are no burn marks anyware so hopefully it should be fine. My theory is that the PSU has taken the full grunt of the powerboard shortcircuting and has blowen a capasitor or 2 but has stoped the charge form going through my pc thanks to its surge protector.

If this sounds likely to you than please say so.

 

[iFargle]

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully your surge protector worked. Same thing happened to my brothers computer not too long ago. The smell is putrid From his computer, we salvaged the video card, but have not tried any other components, so there's a little ray of hope for you there

 

[Alive.777]

Well, i have done a lot, i mean a lot of research on the internet into this problem. I have come accross serveral variations of this problem on other forums. Most of them have been "I was playing a game and my PSU just died and my pc shut down" but to cut a long story short i believe that the fuse in the PSU has blowen, hence why my pc won't start up.

So i was fairly confident that this was the problem and that the rest of my pc components were not damaged, when i came accross yet another forum. This one went along the lines of "i was using my computer one morning when i heard a very loud bang a crackiling nois comming from my pc, then it shut down, i could not restart it or anything. I bought a new PSU and plugged it all in and started the pc up. It all went smooth but when it got to loading windows, it went blue screen of death and restarted"

The forum then goes on to say: Forum Admin- "your system is probaly not booting because the ram is fried. Try replacing you ram and see what happens." The guy with the problem put in new ram sticks and the problem still occured. This makes me very worried. I have made a crutial question out of this all HOW DO I TELL IF ANY OF M PC COMPONENTS ARE FRIED? WILL THERE BE ANY VISUAL SIGNS LIKE MELTING/SCORCH MARKS? I JUST WANT TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PROBLEM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP?????????? IF I COULD I WOULD PAY YOU $3000 IF YOU CAN GIVE ANY VITAL INFORMATION ON THIS PROBLEM.

 

[farinha]

I think your first step should be to buy a new psu and plug it in. If the computer starts but start to reboot randomly I would test the ram with memtest. If it returns no errors then I would test the disk to see if it has bad sectors or anything and after that reinstall windows.

 

[Alive.777]

I took the PSU out today and could see no obvious sign of damage. i also removed the graphics card, ram, and looked at the back of the cpu, all showing no signs/smells of damage. i also tested my screen (Which was pluged in and turned on when the shotcircuting happened) and it is fine, i only turned it on from power point and not hooked up tp pc. All seems fine. BUT no one will tell me if this is what i should be doing, Does anyone know if my PC is fine. iam having so many sleepless nights and i still have to w8 2 weeks or mybe shorter maybe tomoro, bu i just want to know if my pc is fine, thats all.