what a muppet - fried the PC

[lazarus]

noisy fan - couldnt make up my mind whether it was the one on the cpu (amd athlon 64) or on the video card so I switche on the pc for a few seconds with the cpu fan disconnected. enough apparently to fry it or damage the main board in some way cos the pc wont now even start to boot up. all the fans work but absolutely nothing happens.

question is what to do? PC is 2005 vintage and quite adequate for my purposes but of course half the components are now obsolete and difficult to get hold of. the processor is socket 754 but even if I get one of those, the main board might have gone and the video card is on its way.

if I get a new main board and processor I will also need power supply, new ram and new video card so only the hdd and case move across.

if I get a new PC then thats money I dont want to spend having just bought a new boat.

what would you do in my circs?

[FlyingKiwi]

Aldi have a PC on offer this Thursday.
I'd get up early and join the queue

[Samray]

what would you do in my circs?

What I did was order a cheapo (Acer) from Tesco on that Sunday evening and it was delivered about 17 hrs later.
I quadrupled the memory a few days down the line and have a fairly decent pooter there now.


I assume you're 100 % certain it is fried ... you didn't disturb anything else playing with the fans?

[Aladinsaneuk]

new pc

you need only a base unit and you can get one of those cheap enough - your existing keyboard mouse screen etc should all be fine

may i suggest that you contact your local pc shop - as in the kind of one man band place and enquire as to a second hand base unit? You obviously have your windows licence, probably stuck on the side of your old case, and that will save you a few quid - tbh, tht licence is worth more than the second hand bits!

i would avoid vista like the plague - when it works it is fine, but getting it to work well can be... problematic - so using your existing windows xp makes a lot of sense

without a windows key, I expect a decent second user base box would be under 150

(P4 or equivalent, 1gb ram, 60gb hard drive dvd writer)

oh - if you do go down that pathway, max the ram to at least 2gb and get a dedicated pcie graphics card.....

[Viking]

I switche on the pc for a few seconds with the cpu fan disconnected.

Was the fan unplugged from the power? Or did you remove it from the CPU all together?

I can't see 10 seconds of no fan killing the CPU... However, 3 seconds of no heatsink / fan will kill a CPU these days.

wont now even start to boot up. all the fans work but absolutely nothing happens.

Do the hard drive(s) spin up?

if I get a new main board and processor I will also need power supply, new ram and new video card so only the hdd and case move across.

2005 vintage is still new enough to have an ATX power supply.

what would you do in my circs?

As the others have suggested - a new board + CPU + RAM and maybe the video card as well.

[lazarus]

Just unplugged the fan - didnt remove it. Cant remove it in fact - its attached to a large ally heat sink which is glued to the chip.

The HDD light comes on and stays on but theres no sound of the pc accessing the disk. No beeps, no nothing in fact.

How do I transfer the HDD and op system across to a new bare bones box? Is it as simple as just plugging in?

[Firestarter]

Just unplugged the fan - didnt remove it. Cant remove it in fact - its attached to a large ally heat sink which is glued to the chip.

The HDD light comes on and stays on but theres no sound of the pc accessing the disk. No beeps, no nothing in fact.

How do I transfer the HDD and op system across to a new bare bones box? Is it as simple as just plugging in?

Pretty much, you may have to access the bios to change the boot order if you wind up with two HDD's, if only one then yes, Plug & Play.

Do you got the POST/BIOS screen up when you turn the computer on? If you don't, I'd be checking the power connections to the motherboard before binning your machine. Even with a fried chip I think you would still get the POST screen (the bit that tells you about how much memory you've got, what HDD is in there, what the processor is before the OS starts loading etc)

[Aladinsaneuk]

with respect - but from the questions you are asking may I strongly suggets that you get a knowing friend, or pay for some one else, to transfer your data ESPECIALLY if it cannot be replaced

the option i suggested of buying a second user base station would make it easy for your data to be transferred

(Just putting your HD into a bare bones system is likely to make windows have a hissy fit - should work, could work, but may not)

I would suggest a nice clean install on a new hard drive, with your old HD installed as a slave - then importing your data after the system has been built up

[lazarus]

the one redeeming feature of the current set up is that I have a network disc and auto back up. so losing the PC HDD would be an irritant but not a disaster. that being the case I will have a go myself cos its a way to learn.

bought a replace processor off E bay. Will be interesting to see if it works.

power to the main board is OK cos the video card picks up its power from there and the video card fan works.

when switched on the PC does absolutely nothing other than fans starting up and hdd light comes on permanently. but without the hdd working

[FlyingKiwi]

Damn, you jinxed me.
My Hard drive went pop on saturday. 4 mth old PC so under warranty but hadn't backed up as "it's new, it won't break" so lost the lot.

anyone recommend a good, easy to use back up program