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Shorted (?) My PC

606 Views 10 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  crjdriver, 
N
Hello!

I think I killed my PC. That's a little dramatic but I have never had something like this hapoen before and I am very stressed about it. I think I may have shorted it but I also don't know exactly what that means. Details below.

I have this old external cd drive that I was trying to use. It has two ports in the back (picture attached). I plugged the righthand one into the pc via a usb cable, and it wasn't working (the disk drive is probably just old and broken). I had another cable that fit into the lefthand port, so I plugged that in, and when I plugged the cable into the wall the whole computer shut down. I can't get it to turn back on.

I bought the computer pre-built from Ironside and have put in a request with their support team but I don't expect to hear back until Monday. I don't know much about any of this but now I'm certain that I shouldn't have been connecting the PC to wall power in 2 different places, even via another device. I would appreciate any advice you have to offer.

Thank you,
Nat

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Johnny b
NatCurrey said:
............. I had another cable that fit into the lefthand port, so I plugged that in, and when I plugged the cable into the wall the whole computer shut down. I can't get it to turn back on.
........................
Click to expand...
Was that cable, the cord from the original power supply?

Was it the correct voltage?

There could be an issue of polarity.
Those symbols below the left side port of your CD drive, designate polarity and should match identically the symbols on the power source you used.
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N
Johnny b said:
Was that cable, the cord from the original power supply?

Was it the correct voltage?

There could be an issue of polarity.
Those symbols below the left side port of your CD drive, designate polarity and should match identically the symbols on the power source you used.
Click to expand...
It wasn't from the original power supply, I think this was for a laptop. The polarity symbols do match though.

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managed
The power supply in the picture is rated 19 Volts but I think the drive only needed 5 Volts and that's what caused the damage.

It's hard to say what was damaged, probably the motherboard and possibly other parts as well.

You could get another motherboard and try the other parts in it, there is some risk though, if any of those other parts got damaged they could damage the 'new' motherboard.

To be totally safe you will need a new PC.
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N
Okay, thank you. Huge bummer.
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managed
If you want to take a chance you could get a motherboard on Ebay and try the other parts in it.
Do you know what motherboard you have now ? It will be written on the board somewhere if you don't already know. With that info we can tell you what sort of board you will need.
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N
I have a warranty so hopefully I can have Ironside replace it. If not I have the list of parts so I'll go off that. Do you have a good tutorial for replacing it should I need to?
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managed
I didn't know it was under warranty, see how that turns out first.

If you do need help setting up another motherboard later just start a new thread here in the Hardware forum and we will help you with it.
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N
Thank you! This help means a lot, definitely less stressed now
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managed
Glad you're feeling better about it. Good luck with the warranty. :)
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crjdriver
I would not volunteer any info when you return the system for warranty. If they ask what happened, then you have to tell them. Remember customer abuse is NOT covered under warranty. Plugging in a disk drive that you know has the wrong pw supply, would definitely qualify as abuse.
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