I finally took the PC into Special Reserve and explained the situation and asked if it was either the PSU or motherboard, along with other minor probs the computer was having. The tech said that it was probably the PSU and ordered another one in. I came back an hour later and picked it up. I had to pay 30 pounds for the PC “diagnosis” and a further 9 pounds for the power supply. I took it home, installed it and connected up only the GeForce. I turned it on and it powered up! Now I attached the video cable and hard drive. It powered up but no video signal. Strange! I looked under the GeForce (where the fan was) as it powered up, and there was no movement at all. I was starting to worry that both the PSU AND the motherboard had died, so I phoned up Special Reserve and let them know. They replied that the GeForce was probably dead. I unplugged the ATX power cable from the motherboard and then put it back in (btw, the computer was not turned on at this point, but the electrical lead was plugged into the PSU and on at the plug in the wall). I suddenly saw a small white flash near where the ATX power cables were plugged in. Very worried now, I tried powering on the PC. The GeForce still wouldn’t work, but now the PC was running on dim power (like you get in power cuts where you get just enough power for the lights to be on dimly but not enough to power anything else). Now I have several questions that I need some help with.
1. Were both the PSU AND motherboard dead?
2. Could the GeForce have died when the whole computer went down last week or could it have died when I put in the new power supply?
3. Could what I did to the ATX power cables have shorted both the PSU and motherboard (the GeForce was dead BEFORE I tried this)
4. Should I really have to pay 30 pounds for Special Reserve to say that it was probably the PSU that was causing the problem?
Thanks once again in advance
-Marc Piano