pls help with computer problem diagnosis

glasscup

New Member
I'm not sure what's wrong with my old desktop. All I did was shut it down like normal, after it shutdown, I then quickly unplugged my slave hard drive, but a few minutes later, I came back into the room and noticed that the power supply fan came back on. Not only that, but my computer's hard drive indicator LED and power LED was blinking. I unplugged everything and reinserted the power cable, but it still does it. I also smelled burnt plastic. Anyone have an idea of what's going on? Is it just dying because it's 4 years old and pretty crappy? I have an idea of what component is at fault, but please let me know what you think. Thanks in Advance.
 
Did you plug the molex backwards? Did you blow an capacitor? Did the PSU just give out?

1) Locate the smell

2) Look for an blown capacitor or burned item

3) Send pictures
 
I'm pretty sure I didn't plug the molex connector backwards. It won't fit unless it was forced (which I did not do). I'm notsure if it's a capacitor or not. How would I know? For some reason I think it is the PSU.

I didn't want to replug it in because sniffing burnt plastic doesn't sound like a good idea to me. haha

I looked at the motherboard, but I didnt see any burnt/melted items.

I don't think it's necessary to send pictures because it looks exactly the same as before, except it just acts up when I plug in the power cable to an outlet.
 
I tried a different power supply and right when I plugged it into the power outlet, the computer started doing that weird pulsating powering on and off thing, so I'm guessing it's the motherboard. Kind of a shame, it was only four years old. Oh well, it's not worth the 100 bucks to fix, I could just buy walmart's new $200 linux based pc.

Edit: actually, i'm considering buying a new mobo/cpu combo. what do you think of this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135057 ? is the AMD Athlon 3200+ better than my celeron d 2.2ghz processor? let me know thanks. happy thanksgiving
 
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