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Bires
10-19-2005, 07:36 PM
I was called to a friends' place last week because their puter stopped working. I did the swapping dance and determined that their PS was dead and the motherboard too.

The mobo was a ESC Via chipset with a 2600+ on it. OK. No biggie-the cheapazz (e-machine) PS killed the mobo. That I've seen.

Funny thing is I rebuilt their computer this afternoon (thanks Newegg), fixed up the software/drivers, removed spyware and tidied things up, and delivered it to find their keyboard was dead too.

So I figure:
PS death knell kills the motherboard and keyboard connected to it, or...
Keyboard short kills the motherboard and PS overheats.
(both would be new ones to me, after >10 years as a hobbiest, then pro, then hobbiest technician.)

Whattayathink?
shocky123
10-19-2005, 07:45 PM
Possibly... the PS could have gotten it's ground(0V) rail screwed up.. which could potentially cause the keyboard voltage to be offset causing a short.. but I thought keyboards were properly grounded and such..

Also could be some power surge of some sort that nailed most of their peripheals(sp?)

~Kyle
eSDee
10-19-2005, 07:55 PM
I have seen PS connectors break before so that is one slight possibility. Some cases don't protect the PS connector at all, which makes it easy to bend/break. However you probably would have noticed any kind of physical damage.

Or it could have been because it was an eMachine ;)
Bires
10-21-2005, 04:49 PM
...it could have been because it was an eMachine ;)

THAT goes without saying. :dead:

No physical damage to speak of. "It just stopped working."
oscarmadison
10-24-2005, 01:07 PM
Friends don't let Friends e-Machine:puke:
Grimm
10-24-2005, 02:53 PM
PSU kills motherboard... friend kills keyboard in frustration. :shrug:
No mystery there.
tupacboy
10-24-2005, 03:10 PM
e-Machine... i secretly laugh everytime i see one at someone's house... i mean.. they really thought they got a good deal...
Bires
10-24-2005, 04:19 PM
e-Machine... i secretly laugh everytime i see one at someone's house... i mean.. they really thought they got a good deal...

Oddly enough, I have the opposite reaction. Sure, they suck, but none of their parts are proprietary. They are all standard ATX-compatiable stuff. So, if something dies in them (which of course happens often) I can swap in my spare parts.
Markel
10-24-2005, 04:44 PM
e-Machine... i secretly laugh everytime i see one at someone's house... i mean.. they really thought they got a good deal...
Stephen Dukker strikes again. :hihi:
Markel
10-24-2005, 04:46 PM
Oddly enough, I have the opposite reaction. Sure, they suck, but none of their parts are proprietary. They are all standard ATX-compatiable stuff. So, if something dies in them (which of course happens often) I can swap in my spare parts.
In the last couple of years (especially since the Gateway buyout) eMachines has improved a lot, and moved away from their lowest-quality, non-compatible roots.