Power Supply??

[Tiro]

I've read through these forums and tried what I thought were the "obvious fixes" before I bothered you guys with this, but I don't where to go from here. Yesterday I was happily surfing away on my AMD tbird 1.2, 30gig HD, 1024Ram, DVD, CDRW, 400 watt (CompUSA store brand) power supply, Sis 7"somethin", WinME... computer. For no apparent reason I got the blue screen of death....then when I tried to reboot I got a non-system disk error.. no disk at all in the floppy so try to reboot again.. Since then I havent' been able to get it to boot up. It starts, the fans start, the LED's flash for the DVD, the LED's flash for the CDRW, it shuts itself off. I tried replacing the surge protector, same, tried a different outlet..same..tried a different power cord, same thing. OK, time to get serious and open up the box, I find the fan hanging loose with lots of white goopy stuff on it..I looked around, found no spare parts or anything rolling around that it might have knocked off when it came loose. Removed both memory chips, same thing..put one back, same thing, unplugged each drive one at a time, same thing. Now I'm by no means an expert at computers so try to keep it simple for me..lol. This is the second Power Supply I've put in this thing. I suppose the next logical step is to try another power supply?? If that doesn't work, then what else might I try? Thanks in advance for any help you can give :)

Oh, and I guess I should also ask, how do I get that fan back where it came loose from? One of the plastic clip things that it was hooked to is broken.

[newclockr]

I find the fan hanging loose with lots of white goopy stuff on it..

Are we talking the cpu fan, here? If yes, your processor is probably instantly overheating, and for its own protection is shutting down to prevent further damage.

Fix it first.

[BipolarBill]

OMG! You broke the socket?!

The reason your PC shut down is HEAT. You lost your cooling for the CPU. If this is an Intel setup, it's probably still good. Now you just have to get that heatsink back on there.

Are there other tabs along the side of the socket? Some have 3 on each edge. Losing one is no biggie because you can buy another heatsink/fan (HSF) and snap it on to the other tabs.

Some motherboards have four holes arranged around the CPU for mounting special HSFs. Let us know what you have.

Welcome to SysOpt!

[Tiro]

OK, yes I'm talking about the cpu fan, and yes there are 3 tabs on each side of the socket but the clip that held it in place goes through a slot in the fan and the other slots aren't wide enough for it to fit through so I can't get it to line up with any of the other tabs on the socket, it was clipped on the middle one that's the one that's broken. Right now I have my computer laying on it's side on a table with the cpu fan sitting where it should be but not locked down and it still won't power up.

Thanks for the welcome :)

[BipolarBill]

I noticed that this is an Athlon. Oops. Athlons fry really easily. Do not turn it on again until a heatsink is in place. Frankly, it's probably toast now anyway. :( It only takes 5 seconds to fry an Athlon with no HSF.

You will need a HSF like this to connect now:

http://65.119.30.151/productimage/35-109-005-02.JPG

http://65.119.30.151/productimage/35-110-005-02.JPG

Otherwise, you'll need a new motherboard too. :(

[Tiro]

Thank you for the info! I probably fried it, seems it should start once it's cooled down and the fan is back in place (although not secured it is sitting where it normally would) I don't see any signs of anything being fried though, no burn marks and smelled nothing burning when it quit... oh well, I'll try the fan and go from there. Thanks Again.. You're the best :)

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by Tiro
You're the best :) Ain't that the truth! :p

[Bovon]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
Ain't that the truth! :p

Lord help us all!! :eek:

[BipolarBill]

:D

Hey - here's a reasonable HS:

http://store.yahoo.com/directron/therslhigper.html

Here's a great fan for it - not too noisy and not too slow:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=127&manufactory=1379&DEPA=1

It's the 60X60X25mm.

[ukulele]

Now you might think this is a stupid idea but I actually fixed a broked lug on a socket 7 once because nobody told me I couldn't. What I did was first I glued the broked lug back on with super glue then I heated up two straight pins red hot and pushed them into the plastic on both sides of the broken lug. Finally I snipped them both off flush. I never did tell the poor fool I sold the computer too, but a couple or years later he brought it back to me for an upgrade and it was still OK. I put in a new CPU and some ram and sent him back down the road. :p