PC died - is there a way to know if its the PSU or motherboard?

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MrCrispy

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Its an old PC I built a while ago, Antec case with Antec PSU, AMD cpu. I started using it again recently.

Heard a pop/flash and it just died, now it won't power on, I don't hear anything. Sounded like a short somewhere but can't be sure. It's not really worth it to replace the mobo etc.
 
You can test the PSU by shorting two wires together on the ATX 24-pin connector:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-power-up-an-ATX-Power-Supply-without-a-PC/

Just disconnect the PSU from your PC before you try this, just to avoid damaging anything.

You just need to short the two pins together (green with black) with a wire, and the fan should come on, and you should see voltages come out of the 12-pin connector (if you have a multimeter).

If you don't have a multmeter, and your PSU fan doesn't spin at idle, you can always just hook up an optical disc drive to power, and see if it opens. OR a hard drive, and hear it spin.
 
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Do a Mark I eyeball scan of the motherboard, look for blown capacitors.
 
MrCrispy said:
Its an old PC I built a while ago, Antec case with Antec PSU, AMD cpu. I started using it again recently.

Heard a pop/flash and it just died, now it won't power on, I don't hear anything. Sounded like a short somewhere but can't be sure. It's not really worth it to replace the mobo etc.
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try a PSU you know that works. I've bought a new one retail from Best Buy, tested it, then returned no questions asked
 
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