Dead Power Supply?

[Vncent_0]

Ok guys, I haven't posted in a while, but now I'm lost and have no idea whats wrong with my computer. I was restarting it, and when it came up after POST beep and memory test, it got to detecting IDE drives and froze. So after waiting, thinking it might be doing it thing for a while, I restart again, and the same thing, nothing. It wouldn't let me go into boot menu or BIOS before it would stall like that. I checked the connections to all my drives and such, no luck. I managed to get to the boot menu and it doesn't have hard drive as an option.
Next time I restarted I heard something in the power supply and nothing at all happens when I try to turn it on.

My question is what are the odds the hard drive wasn't working due to a power supply going under, and whether or not thats the problem that it wont turn on now? I have *tons* I stuff I dont want to lose on my hard drive.

Antec 350W PS
MSI k7n2 delta ILSR mobo
Western Digital 120G HD

*Any* help at all would be appreciated :bang head

[mortimer]

You can get a PS tester for about $10. I got mine at compusa (no rebates, TG).

[dicecca112]

either that or put it (the psu) in a known working system. If it fires up, its not the psu.

[mortimer]

Not a flame... What if the suspect PS is only flaky? Two dead systems?

[dicecca112]

Not a flame... What if the suspect PS is only flaky? Two dead systems?
Not at all a flame a legit question. If the psu does it with two and not the third, then still, if its under warranty its RMA time,because something is not right with the PSU.

[Vncent_0]

thanks, I think I'll try to see if I can get a PSU tester , I dont have another working system at the moment, anyone think it could be the hard drive? Or is it more likely that it was just bad power supply to it? The hard drive worked completely fine before the last restart

EDIT: Actually now that I remember, I saw a orange light blinking while it was trying to start up, I thought nothing of it at the time, but now that I checked it, I think its the 'battery' light? It looks like a light beside it, does that have anything to do with the power supply?
Sorry the the excess questions here

[mortimer]

Ok guys, I haven't posted in a while, but now I'm lost and have no idea whats wrong with my computer. I was restarting it, and when it came up after POST beep and memory test, it got to detecting IDE drives and froze. So after waiting, thinking it might be doing it thing for a while, I restart again, and the same thing, nothing. It wouldn't let me go into boot menu or BIOS before it would stall like that. I checked the connections to all my drives and such, no luck. I managed to get to the boot menu and it doesn't have hard drive as an option.
Next time I restarted I heard something in the power supply and nothing at all happens when I try to turn it on.

My question is what are the odds the hard drive wasn't working due to a power supply going under, and whether or not thats the problem that it wont turn on now? I have *tons* I stuff I dont want to lose on my hard drive.

Antec 350W PS
MSI k7n2 delta ILSR mobo
Western Digital 120G HD

*Any* help at all would be appreciated :bang head

I just reread the original post. :oops: This is the order that I would try:

1) If you get a PS tester, try it. If it fails, RMA & replace. You're done.

2) Disconnect the HDD and any other components other than CPU and CPU cooling, one stick of RAM, and video. Try to POST. If it fails, either Mobo or BIOS. Consider clearing CMOS using jumpers or by removing battey for a while. Note: this will reset to factory defaults, probably not optimal for any system.

3) Add a component at a time and test.

Um, are you able to boot from a CD? If so, and it turns out to be the HDD you can try one of the self repair utilities. I had luck and :sigh: no luck with Windows Self Repair. You might want to try this as step 1) or 1.5)

Let us know how it goes.

[Vncent_0]

*Sigh* So it looks like it wasn't the power supply, but I managed to get something fried in my system however.
Heres how it looks:
Through a long process of swapping parts, I found out that my old motherboard doesn't work with either my old PSU or the new one that we ( my friend and I) know works. So I swapped motherboards with another one around, and it boots up, but I'm at the same place I started with the hard drive, it wont detect it, and even further, when I substituted an older hard drive for the new one, that one is detected.
And about the motherboard, do you think I fried the motherboard or just the CPU?
I'm going home later today to try to switch processors(though I haven't done it before I'm going to try....) to see if its the motherboard or the CPU.
Do you guys think that my hard drive is no good/corrupted or what?