Did I ruin my entire computer?

D

drummerboy678

New Member
Ok, I had installed two DVD burners... I turned it on, and only one worked... While the computer was still on, I was wigging cables, just checking around, and one of the burners power cables wasn't all the way in... when I wiggled it, it pushed in, sparked, and the computer went dead...

Since then, the computer turned on eventually and was actually working for 3-4 days, occasionally shutting itself down... I figured it was bad ram.

I took it home to work on it, and it stopped working all together... When I turn it on, fans start up and things hum, but no video signal is sent to the monitor.

Since then, I've replaced the video card, mobo, power supply, processor, ram, and all cables.

But when we wired up the new equipment, we ran it through the hard drives and the DVD burner (the one that sparked).

We then decided to essentially build a simple computer, using only the new equipment. Motherboard, power supply, ram, processor, video card, monitor... That was it. All new equipment, and it still didn't work... The monitor never showed anything, like it wasn't recieving any data.

We tried listening to the motherboard speaker, but there are no beeps...

Did plugging all these new things into the possibly fried burner, somehow short circuit everything? Is everything fried now?

I wasn't sure if this was possible.

Please help, if you have any suggestions... I'm desperate, and out about $2500 if this doesn't work.


Thanks
 
First off, NEVER mess with your power connections when things are running...EVER! I think you learned that by now but I should reenfornce it :P

Now then, I suspect your main problem is your power supply. You could or shorted it out both times, so I'd suggest trying another WITHOUT the fried burner. It sounds like that's your problem but it's hard to tell when it's elecrical.
 
I did try it without the fried burner... It was just the motherboard, power supply, processor, ram, and video card. Still nothing.

All these are new. Thats what I dont understand. The only reason I can suspect that they dont work, is b/c right when I bought them all, I plugged them into the fried burner... Could that have fried them all too, even though they're new? Is that possible?
 
So you tried everything with a new power supply that hasn't been exposed to the burner?

If so, I beleive you did fry it. Now we shouldn't jump to anything. Double check your setup. Be sure everything is correct. Remove anything you can(single stick of RAM, no cards other than video, etc) and see if it works...
 
I've tried a fairly simple setup, with just one stick of ram and the video card... still nothing.

Is there a way to reset the BIOS, when the computer isn't displaying anything? It turns on, I hear fans, but I never see anything. I didn't think I could reset the BIOS like that.
 
To reset the BIOS, you have to remove the battery on the Mobo, and in some cases, shift a jumper. Leave the battery off for around 10 Seconds, and Put it back in again. Check your motherboard manual to see if your board needs a jumper to reset.
 
First off, NEVER mess with your power connections when things are running...EVER! I think you learned that by now but I should reenfornce it
Click to expand...

This just cannot be stressed enough. I also wanted to ask. Why 2 dvd burners? surely you did not plan on burning 2 dvds at one time? You only need one optical drive in a PC. Now back to fixing your prob. :). Good luck.
 
have you tried all these components (except the burner) in a different case as well?
it may sound wierd, but i have heard of cases where the wire for the power button actually shorts out.
 
maybe one of your new parts could have been DOA (except video card cause it would work w/o it if it has intergrated video card already)
 
have you tried all these components (except the burner) in a different case as well?
it may sound wierd, but i have heard of cases where the wire for the power button actually shorts out.
Click to expand...

Of course it would be much easier to check if the wireing was shorting out.
 
Thanks so much for all the responses... I ended up taking it into a computer specialist (friend of the family, so it wasn't as expensive)... For some reason, the case had a piece of metal that was sticking out of the base... It was touching some jumpers on the mobo and short circuiting it.
Apparently, even with the new mobo installed, the metal still touched, and short circuited.

Nothing was fried, metal was removed, and everything works great now. Apparently I got extremely lucky with the spark, and the metal piece was just a coincidental time.


Thanks for the help though, I appreciate it. I definitely learned my lesson as well.


And about the DVD burners... I burn a lot of CD's and DVD's, and both mine were getting old and faulty, so I figured I'd buy 2 off newegg for like 35 bucks each, so they last longer
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top