power surge went thru home

[terry62]

hi, been looking all across net for help. i think i found the right place. checked out alot of strings in here and so far so good
here goes...... yesterday we had 2 power surges hit our home. the comp i am presently using is fine. my sons comp is not. when computer rebooted after surge we were unable to turn system off. must hold power button for 10 secs before it will shut down. when we try to restart system we have no monitor, keyboard is unactive (i am guessing this because none of the keys light up ie. caps lock, num, etc) from reading some posts i understand that it is not the power supply because the green power light comes on when starting, but...it doesnt appear to be loading anything, i am also guessing at this by sounds that normally can be heard when starting up. green light will then flash continuously. here is what i have tried so far: let system run to see if it was trying a scan, unplugged system, reboot disk, start up disk. next step would be to try throwing it out the window, but my son may not be impressed with that form of technology. any and all help would be deeply appreciated. thankx ~terry~

 

[JohnWill]

I wouldn't rule the power supply out just yet, because it could still be the problem. You'll probably have to beg, borrow, or steal a P/S and try that first. I'd also consider removing everything but the video board and trying to start that way. If it still doesn't start, take the video board out, you should get beeps from the BIOS if it gets as far as the video board. If all that fails, it's possible the MB was cooked.

FWIW, I recently worked on the computers from a guy that had a floating neutral line, so the systems were seeing 150-160 volts, perhaps more. Almost all the damage was isolated to power supplies and wall transformers.

 

[griffinspc]

Also if you're not getting a lot of beeps now then you may be lucky (if you call what I'm going to say lucky) and you may have damaged memory sticks or stick. If you have any spares around, just a minimum will do (16 or 32 MB's), you might try substituting for the original(s). Pull them all.

The part that's lucky is if it is memory alone then you don't need a new power supply or motherboard.

As johnwill said, it may still be the power supply.

If that doesn't do it you may have to take it to a trusted, qualified shop for a hardware checkup.

PS: Welcome to the board.

 

[terry62]

hi, thank you both for your input and welcome. while i was waiting for a reply i hooked up an other monitor, mouse and keyboard.. they worked fine. went back to the original monitor.. now it works fine. good thing i didnt throw it out the window lol. thankx again, have a happy day. ~terry~
p.s. i am sure i will be back

 

[griffinspc]

Super. Unusual, but super. That had to be the easiest fix yet.