Electrical Surge, Oops.

**Chamillionaire2** · January 29th, 2010

What's Up?

OK, So I started to work on a old computer tower I got to do some disc burning, But I'm completely new to messing with the hardware of computer's had had a slight problem.

I was actually testing something else when I saw that the wrong cdrom was set to slave, I unpluged one of the cables to get at the bit where you set slave and master, But when I put it back in their was a slight electrical flash (I hate to admit it, But yes the computer was on) And now the computer won't turn on.

Why am I such an ***?

Thanks Bye.

**mr clark25** · January 29th, 2010

probably messed up your motherboard and/or your cd drive.

make sure you turn off the computer before doing stuff like that in the future. at least it was an old computer.

**Chamillionaire2** · January 29th, 2010

Originally Posted by mr clark25

probably messed up your motherboard and/or your cd drive.

make sure you turn off the computer before doing stuff like that in the future. at least it was an old computer.

So theirs no way to revive it?

**davec64** · January 29th, 2010

You might be lucky if you change the fuse on your plug (if it has one!)

I don't fancy your chances though!

**cascade9** · January 30th, 2010

Try clearing the CMOS as well. If it doesnt work your computer could be toasted.

As for if your computer is toast....that would depend on where the 'flash' came from.

**Malakai** · January 30th, 2010

You either fried the PSU, or the mobo. The CD drive itself is almost certainly fried.

Id say the PSU has the strongest chance of being what burned out, as the only thing connecting the cdrom to the mobo is the ide/sata cable, and it would have had to be a pretty unlucky short for it to happen to travel right down that cable into the mobo. Or back through the psu into the psu cables attached to the mobo. I suppose its also possible tho unlikely that you could hav3 surged & killed everything attached to the psu heh

So I would drop that PSU and CDROM out of the box & see if it works then.

Also check the wall socket and make sure you didnt somehow cause a breaker trip for that outlet i your powerbox, unlikely but possible.

Never ever do work inside a pc case with the psu powered on, You should have the PSU unplugged at all times when you are reaching your hands around in there. Build good computer habits right from the start!

Also touch metal on the case before unplugging the PSU to discharge any static electricity you have built up. Too many times have I seen someone touch a component and that little spark jumps from their finger to a video card or whatever, its like oops bye bye component!