Help! pc stopped dead

WestieFan

I was doing my usual Sunday morning clean up of pc, ran Ad-Adaware and was running Spybot, which takes ages. Went out for the papers and came back to a blank screen. Hitting spacebar and mouse buttons did nothing, so unplugged and switched on again. Nothing.
I have opened it up and checked various plugs and things are secure. I unplugged hard drive and tried again. There is a very slight 'sssss' noise coming from psu for about a second, as if it's trying to start.

Before I take the whole thing to repair shop, do any of you experts think it might be the psu (which I can replace myself) as I don't want to spend money on the wrong bit! (January - skint!).

Thanks in advance.

Pantera_Fan

I had a similar problem in about June 06. PC just wouldn't turn on one day. Took to PC world and they put on diagnostic machine etc and said psu gone - didnt charge for testing and didnt even ask if I brought it there.

They wanted £35 for psu plus labour/fitting costs but couldnt do for another week. Went into town and brought a more powerful one for £20 and done it myself and everything works fine now.

WestieFan

Thanks, I just hope it's the same for me!
I think I will take the plunge and go and buy one, £20 or so I can live with, but am back to work tomorrow and need this fixed quick before the kids get withdrawal symptoms.........

Aliktren

concur its likely the PSU, a good way to test is to open the case, unplug the PSU from the motherboard and then just turn it on (effectively power on the PSU) no fan noise = dead PSU

navig8r

Aliktren wrote:

concur its likely the PSU, a good way to test is to open the case, unplug the PSU from the motherboard and then just turn it on (effectively power on the PSU) no fan noise = dead PSU

That would not have worked with the psu that I have as it needed a connection through the Mobo and the on button to start up..

edit : Atx type.
Dave

WestieFan

All fixed now, thank you all.

I took the plunge and bought a new PSU (£17) and after figuring out where all those plugs went, got it working again. This wasn't as easy as I thought, so thank goodness for a digital camera & laptop - I took pics of it all and put them on laptop to refer to when I was putting the new one in. A wee trick I learned on a pc course I was on.

Thank goodness it wasn't the motherboard. Guy in shop said I could have brought just the psu in and he would have tested it before I spent any money.