Power failure killed PC?

I have 3 PCs. A week or so ago there must been a power glitch of some kind. I came home to find 2 of the 3 PCs had rebooted, and my large LCD clock was "flashing ". My microwave ovens, which always need resetting after a powerfailure, however, still had the correct times.

My 3rd PC is dead. Nothing happens at all when I try to power it on. Could it be the power supply? If so, how could I make that determination? What else could I check?

Thank you.

 

You can buy a power supply tester for $10-$15 or you can swap power supplies or one of the EE types around here may be able to give you some instructions with a volt/ohm meter. Could be that you had a "brown-out" which in my experience can be considerably more harmful than an outage or a surge. I take it that you are not running any battery backups? Good Luck - I hope its minor.

 

Is that something you could get at a "Best Buy ", or a "Radio Shack "?

Thanks

 

Not Sure, but doubtful. You can get one here.

 

I think you need to start with the power supply. If you have a second PC, use the power supply to try the affectet PC. This will clear the issue of power supply and lead us forward.....

 

<...If you have a second PC, use the power supply to try the affected PC...>

Yes, I agree. That sounds good, but it will be a few days before I can spend the time to tear the two of them apart to do the swaping.

Thanks.

 

May save you time.
Check the lenght of the main cables to the motherboard. You may be able to stand the cases in such a way as to strech the cables from one to the other without removing them from their cases. All you need is the motherboard connections to test if it computer starts (P4 computers have an extra power cable to the mobo).

Matt

 

For what it is worth -
My computer has a fuse, close to the power supply. I can see it from the back of the computer.

mopar