I built the pc myself and it ran great for a year until last night. Without considering the thunderstorm I started to play halflife 2. Power went out. Now the pc wont start up at all. This was the 1st pc I ever built and am a novice when it comes to knowledge. I changed the surge protector but still no boot up. The green power light on the Abit IS7 does light up but thats the only sign of life. Does it sounds like I ruined the PC? Would replacing the Motherboard fix my problem or could it hopefully be something easier? I can try to provide other info if needed. thanks

a friend tells me it could just be a bad psu??? is that possible?

It maybe as simple as replacing the power supply unit. I had an old pc that was struck by lightning and all it needed was a power supply, however, the system board was extremly edgy after that and brought up a whole host of problems. Of course, my expierence with lightning will be different from others, I thought I would let you know my story. :P I was thinking if it was the psu you wouldnt see a light though, may want to have an electrician do a fluke test to see if it still emits power. (dont you do the test, get a electrician to do it, they will know what they are doing) Also, my advice would be scrap the whole pc, invest in a new computer and an expensive UPS. Computers are so touchy with power, and even without a thunderstorm your power level fluctuates, and computers need a clean consistent amount of power. With a new pc you could put you old HDD and cd players etc... into it. So all you would really need is a case, psu, motherboard, and cpu. Besides if your about to pay bucks for a mobo or cpu, you might as well, price would be fairly close anyways. Look to www.tigerdirect.com they have cheap good deals for this. My final advice, although this sounds stupid, in every hardware troubleshooting class I have taken, and almost every hardware book I have read, they suggest tieing the power cord into a simple knot, this way when lightning strikes it cant travel past the knot. I dont know if this really works, and I definatly wouldnt put an expensive PC on the line to find out, but it doesnt hurt. Invest in an expensive UPS with a new pc, you will be glad you did. Let this be an important and expensive lesson.

If you go shopping, try Newegg and ZipZoomFly. Tiger Direct's prices look lower sometimes, but when you add in the shipping you'll likely be paying more.

ya, it is more than likly a psu failure. i accedently put 240volts in my psu, fried it. and sent it back to tigerdirect the next day. your components should be fine if it is only the psu. :) p4 3.0ghz @ 222X15=3330mhz 512mb pc3200 dual channel @222mhz 80gb wd hdd/40gb maxtor when on linux 8x agp geforce 6200 @ 530/585can't unlock extra pipes. plz help if you can Audigy 2 ZS<b

You stated that the power went out but you didn't say the line was struck by lightning. If it was just a power failure then you may be able to reset the psu. What you would have to do is turn the power button on your psu from "on" to "off" several times for a good 5 minutes and then see if it will power up. Just make sure that you have it on the "on" position. It may or may not work but it is still worth a shot. It did work for my son's computer after a power failure due to a faulty breaker in my home.

it was the psu everything is running great again...thanks