[Tomi888]

Hi, my dad has a computer which is Windows XP. He started it up and about 5 seconds later it shut down and along with it, it turn off our main power and the computer is not starting no more.
It is hot at the back of the computer and he thinks it fried itself.

Dose anyone know what happened and why?

[Absolute-Zero]

If the computer failing tripped the main power breaker in your house then the smart money is on the PSU (Power Supply Unit) letting go.

The least you can hope for is that, when it failed, it only took itself out and nothing else along with it. The fact it seemed to trip the breaker for your house's supply seems to indicate it may have been a bit more serious, though.

Your best bet would be to get a new PSU and see if that resolves the problem. If the computer still fails to start after that then there's every possibility that the PSU failure has affected other components in the machine.

[Tomi888]

We tried a different PSU but it still didn't start.

[Absolute-Zero]

Sounds like there may be bigger issues, then. Take the motherboard out and check to see if there's any obvious failed components. You can also check the controller boards on your HDDs for similar. They occasionally take a hit when a PSU fails. You can get replacement boards from various online outlets.

Other things that may have died are the CPU and memory. Both of these are needed to bring the machine up from a powered-off condition.

[JabbaPapa]

Note that it's unusual for normal PSU failure to affect other components in a computer -- replacing the PSU should work, but more extensive damage cannot be ruled out given the heat that was generated.

EDIT - just saw previous 2 posts.

[JabbaPapa]

Sounds like there may be bigger issues, then. Take the motherboard out and check to see if there's any obvious failed components. You can also check the controller boards on your HDDs for similar. They occasionally take a hit when a PSU fails. You can get replacement boards from various online outlets.

Other things that may have died are the CPU and memory. Both of these are needed to bring the machine up from a powered-off condition.

I'm thinking it might be cheaper, easier, better to buy a new computer and add the hard drive from the old one as an extra drive, than to repair this one. Of course, that depends on this computer's specifications.

It is usually only worth changing the individual components on a custom machine, but not on a factory-built brand name rig.

But given that this is a XP-era machine, an introductory-level Vista desktop rig will likely cost less than repairing the old one, and will likely be faster.

It just sounds like a dead computer at this stage, and you should be thinking about getting the hard drive into a new box so that all your data is saved.

If your dad has been keeping his data in the "My documents" folder, it would be best to plug that drive into a working desktop machine with XP installed and save that data to a personal folder before moving the drive into a Vista rig -- because Vista's security features would prevent easy access to data in the User Accounts folder from a separate Windows installation. Alternatively, install XP onto the old hard drive on a new Vista machine (assuming you have a copy of XP --- if XP has never been manually reinstalled on that machine and you have a Windows sticker on it, it should be possible to install XP Home OEM onto a new machine using that product key, given that technically you have never used that license for XP) and use VistaBootPRO to create a XP/Vista dual boot on the new rig -- this would ensure that something similar to your dad's old environment existed on the new machine, for whatever purposes, for example if he has software that's not Vista-friendly, or he prefers XP, or whatever.

[Tomi888]

My dad took it to a computer store and they fixed it. They said when you upgrade a computer you have to upgrade the PSU aswell. That is something we didn't do.

[yeshuas]

My dad took it to a computer store and they fixed it. They said when you upgrade a computer you have to upgrade the PSU aswell. That is something we didn't do.

What all was wrong with it, in the end according to the computer store?