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power supply blown? xp on dell e510

910 views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  DaveBurnett 
#1 ·
hello- had a few days where comp would randomly restart while it was in an idle state.. i would come back to find the desktop with the 'recovery' background rather than my aquarium wallpaper, which indicates a loss of power and some kind of reboot, like when the power goes out.. only this time power in house stayed on- although its been windy and that seems to also trigger these little spikes.. so came down this morning to the setup screen, press f1 or f2.... nothing happens with f1.. f2 goes to the menu.. so i press the power button to turn it off. it goes off -then 5-10 seconds later push it back on and POP like a firecracker, and smell a little burned plasticy smell. so unplug everything, take it apart -clean it out - lots of dust.. I'm thinking the power supply blew? can get one for $29 online. Am sure you'll suggest a whole new computer, etc but I want to get back up running so I can get my pics/ files/ etc off my hard drive. then maybe look at new computer.. i do have this vista laptop I'm typing on. But hubby uses the xp for his email and internet.. :( any advice??
 
#2 ·
There's no need to spend a bunch of money on that "dinosaur" to try to get it running so you can retrieve your personal data from the hard drive.
If the power supply blew, it may have taken out the motherboard and other components.
Remove the hard drive, then insert it in a USB drive hard enclosure, then connect it to a working computer and attempt to retrieve your personal data.
Hopefully, the hard drive didn't get fried.

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#3 ·
I hope so too! What would a usb hard drive enclosure be called? This is something I'm not really familiar with. I've changed out hard drives on my tivo, but always had another one to replace it.. This is the first time I had to deal with any issues on my computer, and it's over 9 y.o. so I guess I did get my money's worth..
 
#4 ·
ok so i went and googled the hard drive enclosure to see what it is. exactly what i thought, since my daughter just had an issue with her macbook and had to do a whole re-install and used an external drive to save her files on.. but I'm not a mac person and couldn't help her much.. this IS something I could do. Just need to find the time!! thanks for your help - I haven't been to this website in many years but I thought what the heck they are probably still around :)
 
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