Lost desktop pc

  • And no, it didn't go missing. It just died with a loud pop. Could be the power supply, the system is 8 years old.

    Question for those more hardware savvy, if I replace both the motherboard and the power supply, would it boot up with the current hard drives?

  • Lynn Pettis (1/31/2013)


    And no, it didn't go missing. It just died with a loud pop. Could be the power supply, the system is 8 years old.

    Question for those more hardware savvy, if I replace both the motherboard and the power supply, would it boot up with the current hard drives?

    Maybe. It depends a lot on what you have for a video system and network system if they're built in. The system may hurl and come up in the VGA mode and then you'll have to install drivers for the new mother board or it may auto-magically recognize the change and ask you to insert a driver disk or maybe it'll just work.

    You'll likely have to re-register Windows on the box because of the MB change, though.

    --Jeff Moden


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    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

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  • Lynn Pettis (1/31/2013)


    And no, it didn't go missing. It just died with a loud pop. Could be the power supply, the system is 8 years old.

    Question for those more hardware savvy, if I replace both the motherboard and the power supply, would it boot up with the current hard drives?

    As long as there's no RAID (onboard RAID) and the new motherboard has the same drive connections, it should. I've done it, took a few reboots and a couple driver installations.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • At 8 years old, you might have some challenges.

    Some of the architecture has changed - CPU, memory, disc connections, even the power supply feeds and voltages.

    I'd also consider if just getting the data to a newer machine and installing programs again might be a better investment in time and money.

    POP is usually not good - I'd probably try to determine if it's just the power supply, and if so, replace just that.

    MB would be a likely show stopper for me.

  • From my experience<*pops*> are often the power supply giving up the ghost; there's not a lot on the motherboard that could make that kind of noise. Problem is, when power supplies go, they sometimes take things that are plugged into them with them.

    I agree with Greg that, if you can find a replacement power supply, you should try that first, as it will be the least expensive part, and may do the trick. If the motherboard was damaged you'd probably see evidence of it - burn marks around connection points, etc.

    If the HDs are fit, you could also try moving them to a working PC with the same ports (e.g. SCSI, IDE, etc) or an external kit. You probably couldn't boot from them, and you may have to play with jumpers to make them recognized, but you may be able to read from them; at least, if you're familiar with how a healthy hard drive sounds, just connecting them to a power source might tell you whether they were blown up or not. As Gail mentioned, if they were RAID drives, this becomes much, much more complex (and your best hope lies with the issue being just the power supply).

    I'm sure you'd have noticed if this was the case, but if you were using a CRT monitor (you did say it was old), they have tubes that can make <*pops*> when they go; in which case you'd have no video, but would still have power to the PC (again, doubt you would have missed this, just trying to be thorough).

    I haven't been exposed to it much lately, I used to do a bit of h/w support, so if I can help, just let me know, Lynn.

  • Going to start with just a power supply swap. I have several PC's sitting around, just need to be sure that the one I use has the needed power connectors for the one I need to replace. So far it looks like they ar all the same size power supplies based on Wattage and other comparable values.

  • I would be worried that other hardware could have been damaged (RAM, CPU, and any cards that were attached). An eight year old PC, depending on the specs of the old machine and the budget, this might be a good time for an upgrade.

  • Maybe it just went "To The Cloud"...

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    How best to post your question[/url]
    How to post performance problems[/url]
    Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]

    "stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

  • I'd love to replace it but if I can salvage it now, that would be better. I can look at a replacement when personal funding is better, which will happen shortly.

    In 6 months or so I will be in a position to purchase a much more robust system that will allow for building VMs for much deeper dives for professional development. I just need this system to work until June when it will go into storage.

  • a power supply swap is usually a good place to start

  • Okay, had to go purchase a new power supply as the none of the unused PCs I have had a viable power supply to swap in for the blown one. Picked up another 2 GB of memory for my system while there, and it is now up and running!

    Thank you all for your support.

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