marcoma
asked on
Exploding PC! (well nearly)
After plugging in some hardware into a firewire card on my PC, when I started the PC there was a loud pop.
I'm only concerned about my 4 hard drives in the machine. I don't know where the pop came from, but it left a burnt plastic type smell. Can you suggest what part of the machine blew? Can it have damaged any of the drives (it was starting up at the time).
The hardware device has 2 firewire ports, one of which was connected to a mac, so there could have been a charge going through the cable (doh!).
I will buy a new machine but want the data on the disks. I just want some suggestions on things such as enclosures for my original hard drives. Are there any which can be daisy chained together so I can access all of them from say a laptop? And can I use an enclosure for a startup disk when plugged into a laptop? The startup disk is windows XP.
Marco
I'm only concerned about my 4 hard drives in the machine. I don't know where the pop came from, but it left a burnt plastic type smell. Can you suggest what part of the machine blew? Can it have damaged any of the drives (it was starting up at the time).
The hardware device has 2 firewire ports, one of which was connected to a mac, so there could have been a charge going through the cable (doh!).
I will buy a new machine but want the data on the disks. I just want some suggestions on things such as enclosures for my original hard drives. Are there any which can be daisy chained together so I can access all of them from say a laptop? And can I use an enclosure for a startup disk when plugged into a laptop? The startup disk is windows XP.
Marco
PUNKY
You can open the case and look inside, if components burned you will see them.
It is probably a capacitor on the motherboard. As far as daisy chaining hard drives to you notebook, I would just swap them in and out when needed.
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I can't see any burning. The pop was quite loud I would have thought any burning would be easy to see.
Whatever it is I assume the computer has had it. I wanted to change it anyway, but it is a bit of an inconvinience when considering the time it took to install all the software.
I really need to be able to put the main drive in an enclosure and use it as a startup disk on a laptop. Can PCs startup from a disk plugged into the USB socket or any other socket?
Whatever it is I assume the computer has had it. I wanted to change it anyway, but it is a bit of an inconvinience when considering the time it took to install all the software.
I really need to be able to put the main drive in an enclosure and use it as a startup disk on a laptop. Can PCs startup from a disk plugged into the USB socket or any other socket?
ASKER
Hello sparkmaker
I think 2 of the drives are IDE, and the other 2 are SATA. I guess a single enclosure wont be sufficint unless you know of one which can take 2 types of disks at the same time.
What about using the drives in the enclosure as the start up disk for a laptop? Is this possible?
I think 2 of the drives are IDE, and the other 2 are SATA. I guess a single enclosure wont be sufficint unless you know of one which can take 2 types of disks at the same time.
What about using the drives in the enclosure as the start up disk for a laptop? Is this possible?
That may be problematic as the operating system would have been installed on totally different hardware than what is in the laptop. This would require a repair install of the operating system on the PC hard drive in order for the proper HAL( hardware abstraction layer) to be installed to run on the laptop. The other issue is the ability of the laptop to boot from an external drive like firewire or USB. You would have to check the BIOS to see if those boot options are allowable.
Check the power supply out, it may just be a simple replacement issue to fix the PC.
Check the power supply out, it may just be a simple replacement issue to fix the PC.
What is the laptop model.
ASKER
I haven't bought a laptop yet. Can you suggest one. I live in the UK so one that is available here will be useful.
ASKER
I take it the only way to check the power supply is to replace it. Is there a way of checking my power supply before trying this?
"What about using the drives in the enclosure as the start up disk for a laptop? Is this possible?"
You mean to boot from it?
No......
You mean to boot from it?
No......
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ASKER
OK problem solved. It was the firewire card that had blown. A little piece came off it. Now my PC works.
I will administer the points.
I will administer the points.
ASKER
Thanks. Useful advice there!
There are a couple things that will cause a pop like that.
LOOK IN THE POWER SUPPLY TOO.
Not just at the motherboard!
Usually such a noise is a Cap venting or a hole being blown in an IC chip.
On the IC chip the 'hole' may only be a lump or a shiny spot in the plastic.
-
Both are caused by a power surge that may only be internal to the computer.
Those are generally caused by a capacitor, diode, or MOSFET failing suffenly creating a voltage spike.
LOOK IN THE POWER SUPPLY TOO.
.
LOOK IN THE POWER SUPPLY TOO.
Not just at the motherboard!
Usually such a noise is a Cap venting or a hole being blown in an IC chip.
On the IC chip the 'hole' may only be a lump or a shiny spot in the plastic.
-
Both are caused by a power surge that may only be internal to the computer.
Those are generally caused by a capacitor, diode, or MOSFET failing suffenly creating a voltage spike.
LOOK IN THE POWER SUPPLY TOO.
.