Probability of Bad Electrical Wire

[RobertX]

OK, let me take you back in time where the situation leads to me suspecting my motherboard is dead.

After a power outage, my computer started fucking up. I won't go over the unnecessary details, so I tell you this. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I turned off my fucked-up computer and reseat the RAM chips. When I turned it back on, the computer's fans spin for a moment (like a few milliseconds) and stops. I keep doing it, and the same thing happens.

I was then determined to replace the motherboard, but one thing got me thinking: can it not be the motherboard? Could the front panel/USB 2.0 wires that came with the case and are to be connected to the motherboard be the culprit? By that, I mean, could the wires burn out due to the power outage?

If so, I am at a crossroads. When the system is turned on, the power-on light turns on and off just fine, it's that the fans go on and off.

What should I do? Buy a new case?

[RodneyYouPlonker]

I'm not sure Robert, my guess is that it's probably knackered your motherboard.  If the light or lights are coming on but there's nothing happening then it must be broken.  I think wise really to continue using that new motherboard, the Asus board, that you mentioned and just scrap that other one you're talking about.  It sounds in a very bad way something happened to me a while ago, my mate he broke his board because he took the CPU out and didn't put it back properly and he damaged the pins in the socket and could never get it working again.  It would come on like what you're saying but not doing anything and make these like clicking noises so I had to strip his machine down for him and scrap the thing and he flogged the rest of the bits on ebay.  Sounds like to me that going and abandoning that board is probably the best thing after all it's very old now not many people use these kind of boards anymore you're better with a new build...

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If I'm honest it sounds like that it's beyond repair and it could have been surge damaged.  Probably a good idea to plug your computer in using an anti surge socket and gang socket connector.  You could always try and plug your PSU into a PSU tester and see if all the power is working from the Power Supply, but it does sound like to me the board is damaged so best really to scrap it and get rid take it to your local recycling centre and dump it.

[waregim]

Test the power supply first.

Disconnect it, connect the green wire plug to a black wire plug at the main connector and then use the connectors to power a 12v fan, and a 5 volt device i you have one, else just take the voltage across the red pin to black pin with the fan running on the 12v line (need some kind of load).

Make sure fan comes on in the power supply.

Also: If you have another system, borrow the power supply out of it and plug you mobo into it.

A good surge from a power outage can take pretty much anything out, from power supplies to mobos, and especially hard drive boards.

Whenever possible a surge protector (minimum) should be used, or the best choice is a Uninterruptible Power Supply. If the battery portion doesnt work switch the cord to the plugs over to the surge suppressor side - they are pretty good, and better than most commercial surge suppressors.

I use old dead UPSs as surge protectors.

[RobertX]

OK, I'll try the motherboard.

Building a new computer, a makeshift one, can be real fun, but I'd rather be high on crack.

[RodneyYouPlonker]

Building computers is not really something you should rush at.  It does take time really, need to do all the proper research first, make sure that you're buying the correct parts.  Make sure that everything once you've got all the bits you need, does infact go the right way you want it to.  Making sure you don't go and buy something you don't need.  Making sure you don't make mistakes as well, that's where computers go wrong.  For the many people out there that don't know what they're doing it's probably a good idea to go and do a course or something at college and do some training which can be very useful later on.  It's one of those things really you can't just learn how to build computers in a few days you need to be taught by somebody which can take several months.  You need the right teacher to make sure that silly little things don't go wrong when you're messing around inside the thing.  Knowing how to correct problems, how to fix and solve something when something bad occurs.  It's all about knowing how to fix it yourself and not having to rely on going to places like chat forums and doing all that.  Really you should just be able to sort things out on your own and then if you can't then really the use of a search engine to find out the correct information you require.

I'm only talking in general really but just saying that all that people who have had all the correct training know a lot about what they're doing.  If the right kind of person can teach you to understand things then you're on a winner.  Maybe even get a good job in computers, a bit of experience in doing some kind of IT work can do massive things to help build confidence.

Having that experience from buying lots of things components and then finding out that some of these things don't work properly and having to take them back and knowing what to say to people to explain what has happened.  The most stuff you buy in the long run the more of an understanding you get about things.  Working with old machines from years ago and so on and then buying newer stuff, more recent boards.  The good thing about a lot of boards is that these more modern things have built in anti surge protection now where as years ago they didn't have that kind of technology.  If you get a good board these days you might get one with all that anti surge built into the system to protect it.

Doing things in the old school way was much more harder, back in the old days it was a lot more complicated like having to read tables on the motherboard and having to set up CPU's with putting jumpers and setting up a processor that way.  Now it's all more automatic, again like with Windows 10 it does a lot of things for you so you don't have to like installing lots of drivers.

There comes a time with old computers where you've just gotta say it's time to throw it in the bin and start again.  No point in clinging onto old stuff, even Anti Virus these days is too demanding when it comes to running on old machines, too many processes running on modern anti virus software and will mess up your machine.

[RobertX]

Well thanks, dad, I'll follow your advice.

EDIT: Now, another question: I visited the local computer franchise store and tried to back order an item, namely the processor I was looking for. The nice guy told me that the item was discontinued but agreed to call another location to see if the requested item is there. He got the answer, and requested the item to be shipped to the store.

Then he told me that the store that has the item reported that the item was opened, and the unit was used. What happened was that there was thermal residue but the item "was not damaged." As per the within 15-days return agreement, the item must be returned in the mint condition that I bought it, like fan, CPU, manual, and the plastic. That did not bother me, but should I really accept something that is cheap (like $45 CDN with Ontario sales tax) just because it's cheap even if the box was opened up and the unit used?

It's been a stressful couple of days.

[RodneyYouPlonker]

Robert, if you buy something and it has already been opened then you must make sure that it works correctly straight away as soon as you've bought it.  Like anything if there is a problem and it doesn't work then you must take it back immediately and get your money back.  You must test it and check to see if there's something wrong with it, it's just normal protocol.  I did buy a processor a while ago from ebay and it did cost me a fair bit and it came from overseas and it worked fine, there was no problem and I'm running it right now.  As long as you're very careful and you barely touch it just around the sides and don't touch it underneath then it should be fine.  If there's any thermal paste on it then clean it off very carefully with some kind of very carefully used cleaning device. CPUs are very delicate so just be careful you don't want to damage it.  If there is a problem then just return it and explain that it doesn't work.