It all started a month ago when I turned on my PC and POOF sparks flew out of the power supply. I went down to Best Buy and bought a 300W Antech and put it in my case. When I turned on the power, it wouldn't boot. The hard drive would spin up and the CD-ROM light would come on but the floopy wouldn't seek and I couldn't even get into the BIOS although the fans worked.
So, I took it to Best Buy and had them diagnose it. A bad motherboard and/or CPU was all they could GUESS ($60 for a guess..grrrr). I tested my CPU and it was OK so I ordered a new MB. Well when I installed it, the same IDENTICAL symptoms occured. Not boot, but the hard drive would spin up, the fans would turn, etc.
I thought that I must have just gotten a bad MB, but since the CPU was a little old I thought I might as well upgrade the whole thing. So, I buy a new motherboard (the new Soltek) a new CPU (AMD 1600+ retail), new memory (PC2700 Kingmax) and even a new case (just on the oddball chance that the wires were bad). I hook everything up and guess what? The exact same thing occurs. No boot, just my hard drive spinning up, the CD-ROM light coming on and the fans turning. The floppy still doesn't seek and this time the mouse sometimes does and sometimes does not work.
I have replaced EVERYTHING that could prevent the system from booting at least to the point whe I can get into the BIOS and have tried both AGP and PCI based video cards but nothing helps.
Does anyone have a clue as to what it might be? The only thing I thought is maybe I have a bad power unit and the 12V is working but not the 5.
Please help! I've spent so much time and money on this thing that I'm about to go crazy.
So, I took it to Best Buy and had them diagnose it. A bad motherboard and/or CPU was all they could GUESS ($60 for a guess..grrrr). I tested my CPU and it was OK so I ordered a new MB. Well when I installed it, the same IDENTICAL symptoms occured. Not boot, but the hard drive would spin up, the fans would turn, etc.
I thought that I must have just gotten a bad MB, but since the CPU was a little old I thought I might as well upgrade the whole thing. So, I buy a new motherboard (the new Soltek) a new CPU (AMD 1600+ retail), new memory (PC2700 Kingmax) and even a new case (just on the oddball chance that the wires were bad). I hook everything up and guess what? The exact same thing occurs. No boot, just my hard drive spinning up, the CD-ROM light coming on and the fans turning. The floppy still doesn't seek and this time the mouse sometimes does and sometimes does not work.
I have replaced EVERYTHING that could prevent the system from booting at least to the point whe I can get into the BIOS and have tried both AGP and PCI based video cards but nothing helps.
Does anyone have a clue as to what it might be? The only thing I thought is maybe I have a bad power unit and the 12V is working but not the 5.
Please help! I've spent so much time and money on this thing that I'm about to go crazy.