Red power light constantly on - popped Power Supply.

[Omo]

My computer went blank and the red power light remained on. Could not turn off machine except for the switch on the back, or pulling out power cord. When I plugged machine back in the red light came on immediately. Unplugged everything and restarted with only the power supply and the power supply popped and gave off a bad smell. Replaced p/s with a new one but no boot. Same problem. Any ideas??

500mhz Intel P3
Micro-Star LTD MS-6163 (i440BX) 2.x motherboard
256MB RAM
Win 98

 

[SYAR2003]

Im afraid that often when PSU's does this
it takes the motherboard out also (and somtimes other things too).
Im not saying it's so with you , but you should consider
that the mobo has been taken out by the p.supply .

 

[danomac]

I agree with SYAR2003.

I had a PSU that popped like that... it took out my motherboard and RAM.

D

 

[fs483]

My PSU actually caught on fire. The first thing I noticed was the power light was blinking, then the fire. In the end all but the casing, memory, cpu and floppy drive survived. HD, MB, CDRW and PSU were dead... Unplug everything (both DATA cable and power connectors ) except the RAM, CPU, new P/S and video card (if it's not onboard) and try to turn on PC.

anthony

 

[paparazi]

In my experience the motherboard is one of the last things to go.
When you work in a repair shop you see a aweful lot of cheap generic PSU's poping.
25-40% of the time people are lucky and get away with a straight PSU replacement, the rest of the time various components are damaged.
In order of the most common components:

Hard drives*****
CDroms***
Motherboards*
Rarely Ram

Graphics cards, Sound cards, Floppy drives and CPU's are hardly ever effected.

As a last note* better quality power supplies such as Enermax, Antec, Fortron, Zalman etc not only are they more reliable but their more sophisticated circuitry means they very rarely damage other components if they fail.

Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[Omo]

Thanks for the tips. I've determined that the HD works. I'll check the RAM next. Is there some test I can do myself to see if the mobo is completely shot?

 

[SYAR2003]

The mainboard provides a Special Diagnostic LED's for users to be aware of their mainboard conditions.
The LED helps user determine the problem of the mainboard.

Diagnostic LED's (four named 5-4-3-2)
Where 5 is the one near the pci slot and 2 is the one near the edge of the board.
Status 0=red 1=green

Possible combinations , Check against the manual .
If you dont have it anymore , download from.

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/manual/mnu/spt_mnu_detail.php?UID=113

Light codes
5 4 3 2

0 0 0 0

0 0 0 1

0 0 1 0

0 0 1 1

0 1 0 0

0 1 0 1

0 1 1 0

0 1 1 1

1 0 0 0

1 0 0 1

1 0 1 0

1 0 1 1

1 1 0 0

1 1 0 1

1 1 1 0

1 1 1 1