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Re: Will a failing power supply destroy the rest of your system? by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 09/15/2011, 2:55am PDT
Willdog wrote:

About a month ago the power supply started emitting a high pitch whine whenever it was in plugged in and in standby whether or not the computer was actually powered on.


The death rattle of a dying machine or part. You would need to replace the part.

Willdog wrote:

I'd been flipping off the standby switch to silence the whine when not using the computer. I waited and waited to replace it, and finally two weeks ago it failed.


What you're doing is called "rubber patch" maintenance where you presume the need for maintenance of a failing part is like rubber, that you can stretch it. Sometimes you can stretch a little, but stretch too much and it breaks.

I don't know how old you are, but I'm old enough to remember this sort of practice in the real world. It's called "sticking a penny in a fuse box." There was a time when the emergency breakers in your house, instead of being switches that simply trip when you overload them, were protected by actual fuses, which got warm as they were used. This was okay as long as you didn't overheat them (by drawing more power than the circuit and wiring could tolerate), in which case, you burned out the fuse and it blew. Well, if you desperately needed to run something and were out of fuses, you could "cheat" by sticking a 1c coin - a penny - into the socket where the fuse was. The circuit was now closed and the power could be restored. If you had cut the overload, you could get away with this temporarily, but you took a chance (if you screwed up and didn't cut the overload) of the wiring overheating and catching fire, meaning that on your way back from the hardware store with the replacement fuses, you now got that warm feeling as you stood and watched your house burning.

Willdog wrote:

I replaced the power supply and the computer wouldn't power on. More to the point, the fans would shudder ever so slightly when pressed the power button, but nothing else would happen. The green LED on the Mboard is on, but nothing else reacts to the power switch. The ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboards only has to power connections, a 4 pin near the CPU and the main connection near the IDE sockets. Those are fine. I tried disconnecting the hard drives, and the fans did come on, got the "all clear" beep, but I didn't get a video signal. After about 10-15 seconds, I heard one more beep and the power shut off. I reconnected one hard drive, same thing. Reconnected both hard drives, no response, except for the fan shudder. I looked for that award BIOS beep code, but it's not listed. Nothing about 1 short beep followed later on be another short beep and power off.

So long story short, did leaving a dying power supply in place for 4-6 weeks screw up my mboard, vidcard, or hard drives? I need to upgrade anyway, but I was hoping to do it on my schedule.


Hard to say. I had an AT class computer that I messed up, I pushed on a component - a CD drive - that wasn't far enough in, it shorted another component and blew out my computer. I save up some money and buy another one, and I salvage a couple of things from my old computer. Turn it on and in 10 seconds my new computer shorted out. I had to wait 2 months before I had enough money to buy another one. One of the slot components - a graphics card, I think - had been damaged, and it shorted out the motherboard.

Depending on what happened, anything on your old computer could be toast. Unless you're really, really broke, you can always buy a refurbished computer from someone's off-lease and upgrade it. Micro Center, a small national computer chain, is selling dual-core 64 bit machines from off-lease, with XP professional, refurbished, for around $225. Typically 500 MB hard drive and 3 GB memory.

The only thing you have to worry about is the hard drive. Everything else is components and unimportant but any data you have on it is irreplaceable. (I can bet good money you don't have everything backed up, do you?)

I don't do as many backups as I should, such as on DVD or Blu-Ray (I have a burner) but my most important files are backed up on hard drives on two different machines. My most critical files, the books I wrote, are backed up on two machines, on a jump drive, on a CD, and on dropbox.

Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS)
_________________
"The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that no one learns the lessons that history teaches us."
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Will a failing power supply destroy the rest of your system? by Willdog 09/13/2011, 6:54pm PDT NEW
    Most likely your mobo and power supply are dead. The rest is OK. NT by Mr. Kool 09/13/2011, 8:38pm PDT NEW
        Probably this NT by Entropy Stew 09/13/2011, 9:23pm PDT NEW
            Suspected as much by Willdog 09/14/2011, 5:00am PDT NEW
    Connect the components one by one to a functioning computer and verify them NT by independently 09/14/2011, 6:51am PDT NEW
        I would but... by Willdog 09/14/2011, 7:22pm PDT NEW
    Not in my experience by WITTGENSTEIN 09/14/2011, 5:38pm PDT NEW
    Re: Will a failing power supply destroy the rest of your system? by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 09/15/2011, 2:55am PDT NEW
        This is you then? by Vested Id 09/15/2011, 3:27am PDT NEW
            Yes, that was me. NT by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 10/02/2011, 8:04pm PDT NEW
        This is the best money I have ever spent in my life. NT by Ice Cream Jonsey 10/18/2011, 9:44pm PDT NEW
    Pointless follow up by Willdog 10/18/2011, 5:45pm PDT NEW
        you had an old-school power surge by jeep 10/19/2011, 7:46pm PDT NEW
            Didn't even consider the fact that the power supply could cause a surge by Willdog 10/22/2011, 6:11am PDT NEW
 
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