PC Help please!!!

[booder]

I lost years of photographs when my power blew and seized the hard drive

 

[Colchester Kev]

Harsh but i LOL'd

[Bongo]

I think they were just trying to sell you a bigger PSU chap

[lazaroonie]

Suzanne,

is your machine a "brand name " ? I am thinking specifically compaq,HP,Dell etc ?

often these have proprietory power supplies, and putting a standard ATX into it will cause problems.

If we know the actual make and model of the pc then that would help.

[suzanne]

Maplin sell a range of them. Only thing to be careful of is the mainboard connector - it will either be 20 pins or 24 pins - if your computer is oldish it will probably be 20 pin. Try and get the same or you'll need a converter cable (or cut 4 pins off - but not particularly advisable as you may get the wrong end ). Also, if you've got SATA hard discs, the power connector is a slim thing, and not all PSUs come with them. Again, you can buy a converter cable). Other than that, they're a pretty standard size, unless you've got a "slim" case machine, in which case it won't be, and you'll have to search for the exact replacement (as I've had to do for a Dell at work recently, sigh).

When replacing, you'll have several connectors - 1 or possibly 2 to the mainboard (secondary 4 pin one is common these days), plus 1 to each HD and CD/DVD drive. If your machine is very recent and/or with swanky graphics, it's possible you'll have a 6 pin one to the graphics card, but I suspect not if it's only 400W. Again, not all PSUs come with these 6 pin connectors, and again, you can buy converters if necessary.

There are usually 4 screws holding the PSU to the case, or some (Dell) just clip in.

And please, DO NOT open up the old one - capacitors can store enough charge to shock you if you're very unlucky.

Good luck .

Sorry - posted this just as most Maplins close - looks like it's the ironing for you. As is right and proper of course.

GRRRRRRRRR but otherwise very helpful. Thank you :-)

Well I managed to get it fixed though god only knows how. I took the power supply out of the old 98 windows machine and had no idea what plugged in where apart from the big one so I just stuck them in where ever I could. Should they be in any particular order?

I dont know if its safe and I am half expect it to explode any minute.

Should I buy a new 400 power supply anyway?

Laz, its not a "brand name", I use my sons old machine that he had built specifically as hes into gaming WoW etc

Where can I find out the info? Does this help? AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3200+ 2.20GHz 2.00 GB of RAM.

[rex008]

Partly true. I've done 4 Dells in the last 2 months. PSU went only (nothing else) on all of them. 3 replaced with Maplin ones, 1 with Dell part, but only because of size. Packard Bell (Dixons specials) used to be the worst for proprietary bits. Not sure about compaq/HP.

You're pretty unlucky to lose a HD. Even losing a motherboard is reasonably unusual with modern switched mode PSUs these days. They tend to fail open rather than short.

PS: You're reply: I would most definitely look for at least a 400W replacement. Those athlons take about 85-100W on their own. Graphics cards are the big eaters of power these days. 300W may be ok for a while, but wouldn't bank on it.

[suzanne]

Ok thanks I will try and find one the same as the broken one.

At least its working for now and the ironing pile is still growing :-)