Hi
A little while ago my I was sitting at my computer when it made a loud bang noise, and turned off. There was a smell of burning coming out. I took it to a repairer who replaced the power supply. All seemed well for a while, when it blew again! Again the power unit was replaced. Again, less than a week later it again blew up!!! And once more all the same was done again.

Now he told me he would like to replace the motherboard and processor (Pentium 4) - but this is going to cost a bit. Do you think this sounds like the next best thing to try? Should we replace both - or just try the motherboard first? Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated!!! I miss my computer so much - and I am sick of all the explosions!!!!

First things first !!

Can you give us the exact specifications of the comp!!

brand of mother board, speed of processor, how much ram do you have , how many hard d rives, how manu cd/dvd. roms/burners.

And above all how strong is the power suppy 300W 350W 400W ??

Plus I would be checking the wall outlet socket...

IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD X64 3500+ Wnchst
Corsair 2x512 DDR400 Dual Channel
GV-NX6600128D PCIX Graphics Card
Ggbyte GT Pro CPU Cooler
Zalman VF700-CU VGA Cool

Amanda I so notice that you are in oZ

Do you have a surge Protected power board ???

And do you have Circuit brakers in the main power board ???

IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD X64 3500+ Wnchst
Corsair 2x512 DDR400 Dual Channel
GV-NX6600128D PCIX Graphics Card
Ggbyte GT Pro CPU Cooler
Zalman VF700-CU VGA Cool

Buy a surge protector. That is the first thing to do. After he has replaced the psu of course!

And er... gooday mate!

Englishman in the USA missing his daily dose of Neighbours/Home and Away/ Blue Heelers et al! :-)

Yes, make sure you have a power surge protection. Also, I've heard that when the PSU goes, it can sometimes affect other components, which can then cause problems in other systems.

Make sure the PSU he's using is a good quality. The PSU is the backbone of the computer, when it goes, it can cause all sorts of problems.

i would have your outlet looked at. sounds like its your problem.

Please keep us updated so we know if we helped you or not.

Generally speaking, if the motherboard was causing the problem, it would blow the power supply right away, not a week later.

I agree with the others that the cause is probably mains related. You might have an overvoltage problem in your area. A surge protector will almost certainly help. If your power is subject to large variances and spikes, you may need to look at an Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS).

(Sapphire Coast NSW)

Of course we can't overlook the possibility that the repairer is selling you substandard replacements or somehow the voltage setting is finding its way from 230 to 115.

well it sounds like something with the psu but the damage is done, uve probley damaged most of the hardware on the motherboard now, so id sugeest u get a whole new system.If to much power is being pumnped into your comp then its fatal

Presscot 2.5g @ 533/133
2x256mb Samsung
Pny geforce 6 6600 GT
40gb seagate HDD
i845GE

The likelihood that you've already damaged other hardware in your system is obviously higher than normal since you've had several PSUs fail on it. However, PSUs are designed to protect your equipment in the event of a malfunction. They are designed to destroy themselves before letting the other hardware get destroyed. Now, this doesn't always work 100% and hardware does get damaged from time to time when PSUs fail. But I wouldn't throw the towel in on the rest of your hardware just yet.

Assuming that the PSU is rated to handle the load you are giving it, I'd start looking for other problems such as intermittand shorts, pinched wires, loose hardware (screws, board standoffs, etc.) and make sure the system is sound.

One more thought... I once, years ago, had a PSU problem that plagued my system for months. I went through 3 PSUs before I took the time to figure out what was causing it. All the hardware was secure and all screws were accounted for (nothing "floating around" in the chassis, etc.). I notiiced that the small PC speaker was hot! This should never be the case! Upon investigation, I found that the mobo manufacturer had failed to isolate the DC component on the spkr output with a blocking capacitor. This is fine and dandy as long as your little pc speaker isn't chassis grounded. Mine was! Anyway, after inserting a 10uF capacitor inline with the speaker lead, the problem went away and the system worked flawlessly for several years afterward. I'm not saying that you have the same situation happening with yours. I'm merely giving an example of things that can cause undue stress on the PSU and other components. Have a look around inside and look for anything obvious. Oh, and you really should have at least a nice surge protector or UPS to protect your system - as others here have already mentioned. Anyway, good luck with it.

Robert Pectol
http://rob.pectol.com/