My Scanner blew up... along with my PC.

[Faaip De Oiad]

My girlfriend came over with some photos and asked me to scan them in for her using my scanner. The thing is, my brother and sister have been messing around with all the cables behind the family pc so I can't find the scanner's power cord.

I figured I'd use the spare one in the drawer next to the family computer. I hook up the scanner to my PC, plug the power cable in, go for a leak.

I came back and my girlfriend says "It's been making weird noises!"

I lift the lid of the scanner, and it is slowly but surely filling with white smoke.

Panicking, I quickly unplugged everything and checked the voltage rating on the cable - 30V. The scanner is 12V.

My computer seemed to have crashed. I hit the reset button and a get one beep out of the usual two, a few seconds later and my startup music plays... but no image on the screen.

I hit the reset button again and nothing, not even startup music. I think it has burnt out my motherboard.

Would you say that my motherboard is dead? Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[SAS91]

Graphics card possibly dead ? i cant see why it would fry the pc howevever.. the psu limits the voltages automatically for it.

Is it still under warranty? If not have you got other componanats you can test the possible faulty ones with?

 

[sacha35]

hi sorry to hear about this,when the scanner started shorting and you switched the power off it could have caused a spike in the electical system, these spikes can have great voltages so i would think it has tracked to the shortest point in your PC, if you can though try it in anouther pc first but i would say video card Mate, see if its still under warranty and RMA.

 

[Faaip De Oiad]

Now when I restart it, no startup music plays. Doesn't even POST, fans spin and lights light up but that's it. I can hear the system clicking occasionally as it tried to restart itself. So annoyed.

 

[sacha35]

Hi mate have you tried to disconect everything first and just install the basic's then try and boot, when you switch on how many beeps do you get?

 

[Faaip De Oiad]

Yeh I've disconnected everything apart from my monitor and keyboard and I don't get any beeps at all.

I usually get one, PC POSTs, then another, then Windows loads.

I am going to leave it overnight with the CMOS reset and hte battery unplugged. Wish me luck, and thanks for replying by the way, I appreciate it.

 

[sacha35]

sounds like a good idea let me know how you get on.

 

[Faaip De Oiad]

FIXED IT! NOTHING IS DEAD!!!

I left the battery out for a few hours, put it back in and nothing immediatly, but after a reboot it started beeping frantically and irratically. I rebooted again, hoping for third time lucky, and it just came on!

I have no idea what happened. Can anyone offer an explanation?

I swear this board is invincible - It has nearly died on me so many times.

 

[sacha35]

Hi glad to hear everything is ok, i would say the problem was a power surge, and this corrupted, the coms settings, if you still have problems then clear the coms settings and re-flash the bios.

anyway hope it stayes ok for you.

 

[SAS91]

good for ya m8, glad its alive

ps. Buy a good surge protector

 

[clone38]

Get revenge on brother and sister by cross dressing there barbie and action men then run and tell parents

 

[Faaip De Oiad]

Haha, they are 11 and 15 but I suppose it is probably mostly my fault for trusing random power cables without checking them.

PC seems ok today anyway, no problems! thx again for the replies

 

[Faaip De Oiad]

Turns out it IS broken...

Continuation of this thread:

(edit Boardy - Threads merged)

(wow that got closed in a hurry)

PC was working fine last night for a few hours, and this evening for a few hours also. All of a sudden, PC locked up, and rebooted on its own.

Pretty gutted, thought I'd been lucky. It keeps rebooting after a few minutes of being turned on now.

My PC will turn on, but only after hitting the reset button a few dozen times. I am going through the process of testing components now to eliminate the broken one.

Testing RAM in memtest atm as that is the easiest to do.

Will take my GFX card round to GFs house tomorrow to test that, but how do I go about testing the motherboard/CPU still work?

Could I cause damage to any other componants by plugging them into it??

EDIT: RAM MEMTESTED PASSED

Graphics Card when running AtiTool is corrupted from the word go. Think I have found the culprit.

 

[boardy]

I'm a little confused why this got closed to be honest. Maybe mav can shed some light on it as he closed it.

Anyway, merged the threads and re-opened this one for ya mate.

Cheers

Boardy