Power Supply Question

steps_3314

Hi guys

Quick question

I received a pc recently to fix and unfortunately the little switch on the back was set to 115v instead of 220v.

Now the person who owns it set the kids may have switched it and i asked was there a bang when they plugged it in.

Of course they had being a bang.

My question is although the pc is fried can i assume the PSU is also dead or is there a safety mechanism within which protects the PSU but not the MOBO etc.

Also i havent tried the hard drives either yet externally but cud they also be destroyed.

Cheers for any replies

MunsterCycling

TBH its entirely possible the machine is fried but just pop in another PSU and power it up is the only way to know for sure.

MC

ricman

the power supply could be dead ,and the motherboard may be ok ,cpu is ok.see is there any burn marks on the motherboard.
DISCONNECT the hardrives,cdrom,dvd , leave 1stick of ram in slot 0.Most motherboards have a power led, light.IF THE graphics card is expensive put in a cheap pci .or agp card if you have one.plug in a keyboard,connect to monitor.plug in an identical psu, same type of connections.
turn on power to psu.
Does the motherboard led, power light come on.IS THE psu fan coming on.have the mobo audio out connected to a speaker. if theres only 2 or 3 beeps , turn on the pc itself.see does it boot up bios menu,should say no drive, boot media found. if theres no beeps,or bios display ,the motherboard or cpu is dead.
see here http://www.duxcw.com/faq/mb/deadmb.htm , i find if mobo is damaged ,its easier just to buy another motherboard.
its a waste of time trying to fix a damaged,motherboard ,new mobo =60euro approx.
if you want to test cpu ,install it in a compatible motherboard, read the mobo manual 1st ,re cpu ,jumper settings etc installing cpu if you buy a new one, be4 installing any cpu.

if you see burn marks on the mobo, its very likely to be dead, throw it in the bin.
what model pc is this,eg dell 560, what is the cpu. pentium 4, athlon ?
use onboard sound audio out,green port, take out the sound card
if theres one in the pci slot.if theres mobo onboard vga out,
remove the pci or pci-x video card first.
1st switch off power to pc plug, set old psu to 220v.
use a new or identical psu on the pc, with the exact same mobo connectors.

MunsterCycling

gamer is that you?

mordeith

Exact thing happened to me once although in this case I flicked the switch while the PC was on! (don't ask). Anyway there was a bang, smoke and a horrible smell. I presumed I'd just fried my PC. Tried a spare PSU and everything was okey. No damaged to mobo or anything else. Having said that maybe I just got extremely lucky.

corkcomp

i've seen this happen loads of times and the machine itself / MB were always ok.. once you replace the blown PSU it will most likely be fine:)

steps_3314

Thanks for the responses guys.

Really helpful.

After trying another PSU there is a red light on the MOBO.

Can i assume the MOBO is gone.

mordeith

What make and model of mobo do you have? The red light might just indicate that there's power going to the board. Have you a manual that shows you the layout of the LEDs?