generator fired computer

[Fire58Mech]

a firend of a friend asked me for help wiith this. heres waht happened:

The power went out on his house. He pluged in a genrator into the house and turned on his computer. It fried the vid card. They replaced that. Then they started to load windows. AFTER it just got done it fried the CPU. They put in new ones. ried them. didn't get any further

I say psu is fried or mobo. one or the other. What you guys think?

[don256us]

I say 'stop using the generator'.;)

If you know for sure that the vid and CPU are indeed fried. Beyond a doubt, then I would suspect both. You also may have fried other PCI cards, modem, network, sound, etc (even if these are integrated on the MB). RAM too would be suspect.

If you really think that all this voltage went through the machine (to burn up parts), then it all becomes suspect.

[Fire58Mech]

thankyou. I'll rellay it to them tomorrow. Any way to test the parts? safly?

[coin]

without the generator :D

[Breadfan]

I really woudln't use a generator for much of any high end electronics you want to keep. Unless it's a really good generator, most generators will output "dirty" power.

In otherwords, it'll be ripe with spikes, dips, surges, and not be a very clean power source.

If I were running a computer off a generator, I'd atleast use some sort of line conditioner or perhaps a good UPS.

[Fire58Mech]

yeup I already know that and have lectured them not to do it agian. now what about the hardware. How can I test to see whats fried and whats not?

[Breadfan]

Well...best way is to put each part into a working machine and see if that works.

Becareful though, sometimes burned stuff can cause more problems when put into a working machine...a messed up vid card for instance, has the slight possibility of being damaged in such a way that it sends a surge into the new mobo damaging it as well.

Most likely you'll be safe, but I'd use an older system just to be on the safe side.

[Fire58Mech]

thankyou

[don256us]

I really get nervous with burnt parts. If one part has a permanent short, you fry good parts. I really would stay away from it. It sounded like you knew that the expensive parts were toast, don't risk other hardware by testing the cheap parts.

[Fire58Mech]

should i just tell them to throw the hole thing out? it's a compaq any way.

[coin]

eeek :eek: burn the heathen trash!

j/k
see if it boots if not then probably the CPU and M/board are fried, beyond that I can't think of anything worth saving except the hard drive

[Fire58Mech]

it won't boot. I think it's the mobo and/or psu

[DDR-PIII]

shoulda used a surge protector =/

[Mr.Radar]

The problem most likely a power surge, it was the ultra-dirty power that most generators output.

[Fire58Mech]

i don't mean to sound rude or anything but you guys really need to read what came before you. i already know its durt power( I call it rough power) and I already know what coused it. I want to focus on the solution, NOT the problem. sorry if this sounds rude

should I tell them to through it out? Not risk another system testing the a parts?

[Pepsi274]

Maybe the case is still useable just gut it out get a mobo that fits that case and use it for what ever Ive done that to many cases that the mobo didn't work

[Agent_Mull]

Pepsi has a good idea, but i think compaq and most companies use proprietary cases and stuff like that.

[ThePerfectCore]

Pwned by generatah. :(

[Fire58Mech]

good idea pepsi I'll see what I can do. maybe he'll gve it to me for free and I 'll use it for parts. that' be great for my up comin project

[Fire58Mech]

okay they said they took it apart. The psu had two blown up capicitors and the mobo had scortch marks on it.

[JCLW]

That sucks.

May I ask what size & kind of generator? I run stuff off of generators all the time.

[Fire58Mech]

don't know but I can ask. big enough to run a house on is as much as I can say. it wasn't relevent to the problem so I wasn't worried about it. I'll ask them tomorrow or tonight if I see one of them.

[DDR-PIII]

I had to use a generator for 3 months before :) last year from June - August :) I had moved out to the country, there was no power hooked up yet.... well... there was nothing I bought a lot, 27acres, cut right into it "it was all forest". Made some space for a 74'x14' trailer, had that brought in, luckily there was a water well and a septic system, so i hooked those up, picked up a 4000 watt generator, hardwired that to my breaker box, started it up and had power:).

I already had my phoneline hooked up so i plugged in a surge protector, plugged in my pc and i was on the internet :D:D haha... i had no problems, other than not being able to use the dryer "hot water tank worked :) along with the oven / stove".

[don256us]

Originally posted by Fire58Mech
okay they said they took it apart. The psu had two blown up capicitors and the mobo had scortch marks on it.

I've seen PSUs blow before. That's no biggy. The scorch marks on the MB is problematic. You don't know what it did to the rest of the equipment. The HDDs, CDs, Floppy, PCI cards, etc. may have been hit too.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, cut your losses and start from scratch. Don't risk buying a new MB only to find the the HDD blows the IDE channel and ruins the new investment.

"That's all I got to say about that" (Forrest Gump)

[Fire58Mech]

lol. they beat the crap out of the thing. nothing in it works now. They left it on my porch step for me to find. Man , it looked like they put the thing through world war 3.

Luck to me though. I found about 5 ram heatsinks, a couple jumpers, and a small heatsink of the northbridge. these were about the only thing not destroyed.

[DDR-PIII]

omg...... wasted a computer....

[AMD Phreak]

I agree ony the fact that the power was dirty, especially since you said you opened the PSU up and found blown caps, which are used to filter the pulsating DC from the rectifier stage of the unit. I would recomend investing in a serious line filter, such as the APC Line-R regulator. You can check it out here:
http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=67

Running a toaster vs a computer off of a generator is quite different.

[don256us]

Originally posted by AMD Phreak
Running a toaster vs a computer off of a generator is quite different.

I'll say. My computer does not do a good job of toasting. My toast only gets brown on the part that make contact with the CPU die and with all of the fans, it gets dusty. Besides, I'm tired of bread crumbs in my case. :D

(I'm just having a little fun. I've had a bad day otherwise. Peace out.)