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Thread: Big Mistake

  1. #1
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    Big Mistake

    Ok so i completed a nice gaming system and it was working great... Until I decided to add a cd burner to the mix... i canibalized my brothers dell and took his cd burner out and put it into my computer. It turned on once... and froze. I shut it down. Tried to turn it back on... nothing except a slight burning smell. Now before i keep going... I did all the nonos... I didnt unplug my system... and I believe i used the wrong cable for the psu. Now because of my impatients I have a brand new paper weight. Now I ask... what could i have damaged in my system? My father who has been tinkering with comps for a little while says I just burnt up the psu and nothing else is damaged. But is it possible i damaged any other components? Could i have fried my mobo or even my ram? I just wanna brace my self for the repair cost.

  2. #2
    Ultimate Member mobo57's Avatar
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    First, welcome to Sysopt. Hate to say it but there is a good possibility of all of the above. Shoot the wrong voltage through a system and you can fry every component. Hopefully you just borked your psu and that's it. Be prepared for the worse, that way if it does happen, you won't be dissapointed. If it doesn't happen, then you will be pleasantly surprised.
    Profanity: a weak mind trying to express itself forcibly.
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  3. #3
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    Used the wrong cable for the PSU? Are you refering to the one that you plug in to the wall, or the one you plugged in to the CD burner from the PSU? The 4 pin molex that goes to the cd burner should only fit in one way, unless you really force it in, and would likely only damage the cd burner. There isn't really any way you could use the wrong one for plugging in to the wall, it's a standard cable, and will only go in to the psu one way. List your full specs including power supply. If you were using a generic power supply, it probably went bad, and may or may not have damaged other components with it.

  4. #4
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    I had a mad dog 500w psu in there... Oh well if then maybe i didnt use the wrong cable... it was labeled for another component but it fit in the cd burner. Oh and im not a new member per say... just re registered... been training at a marine corps base for a few months so ive been out of the loop.

  5. #5
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    ick, mad dog power supply, not exactly a good brand, sounds like the PSU fried. If you have another one you can use to test with, there is a good chance the rest of the components are fine. Stick with quality power supplies from now on, I've seen too much damage done by generic PSU's. Get a quality psu.. Antec, Fortron, Enermax, Seasonic just to name a few.

  6. #6
    Senior Member mcool61's Avatar
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    I'm guessing you already tried this but unplug the cd burner. I had a burnt drive once that I guess loaded down the power supply cause it was shorted. Nothing happened & there was a burnt smell in the case so I figured it was a bad power supply. Put in another & same thing, funny thing was the power supply didn't smell burnt but I still had the burnt smell in the case. Turned out to be the cd burner.
    In any case, good luck.

  7. #7
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    Yeah i figured it was junk... effin guy in comp usa insisted on me getting it over an antec... Well Thats great if just the psu fried... i dont mind that at all... Im going home friday night for the first time in a while so Ill pick up a new psu... What should i get..

    I have:
    A8n-sli mobo
    1 gig of corsair xms ram
    6800 gt 256 mb
    western digital 250gb hd
    NEC dvd-rom 16x
    athlon 64 3500+ 90nm
    and thats pretty much it...

  8. #8
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    Yeah i unplugged the cd burner... the psu didnt even run

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    I'd get a 420w from Antec or Enermax, either of those will be plenty for your system.

  10. #10
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    The way I read it, you did fry the Power Supply & very likely
    the CD drive if the connector you used had either too high
    a voltage for the drive or the wrong polarity .. I seriously
    doubt you did any other damage

  11. #11
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    ok great... I really hope all i did was burn up the psu... because... i dont have the time or the money to start replacing parts.

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    Oh no the cd burner is fine... i threw it back into my brothers computer and it worked fine.

  13. #13
    Ultimate Member mobo57's Avatar
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    First try a new psu (obviously). Did you buy it at Fry's? Take it back as a pile o' dog @#$%. Then would be the mobo. Based on your posts, it's gonna be the psu. HOPEFULLY you didn't fry anything else. Semper Fie dude.
    Profanity: a weak mind trying to express itself forcibly.
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  14. #14
    Ultimate Member Imperion1's Avatar
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    ThermalTake makes most if not all Mad Dog products.

    Only way to check the components is to first replace the power supply and see if everything works.

  15. #15
    Senior Member lptech's Avatar
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    Shaun Mood-

    I would disassemble the whole system and test out each part to see if anything else was taken out by when the power supply blew out. Start with the basic components - motherboard, CPU, HSF, memory and videocard with the new power supply. If those items POST and run OK, then add the other components one at a time in order to determine if any other interface card(s) or drive(s) have failed from the failed PSU going out. Once you've determine that they are OK then assemble it all back inside the case and start the system. Good luck!

    LPTECH

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