Yup, the fucker popped like a firecracker when I hit the power button. There was a puff of smoke from the fan and that was it. Well, there was a lingering smell of burnt haddock for a while too (seriously).

I'm going to rip out the hard drive to recover any files I haven't backed up recently, but I'm wondering whether this is something I can fix before salvaging bits from it for a new unit?
Does anybody have any idea why this might have happened?

Jesus hates you.

Gramsci wrote:Jesus hates you.

No, Jesus is a fucking Luddite and he hates digital technology. He thinks I'm a pro tool.

Unplug it.

Can't tell from here, but it sounds like the power supply unit (PSU) died. Before you go harvesting out drives and whatnot, unplug it and see where the scoring/smoke marks if any are.

In a minitower config, the PSU is a grey box toward the top, encompassing one fan, the power cable inlet and switch. Drives and motherboard (mobo) are connected to it by four-strand wire terminating in white plastic clips that connect to the drives and motherboard. The PSU is hung in the frame by screws like anything else.

If visible damage/scoring is localized in/on the PSU and not elsewhere like the mobo, you may be capable of getting a replacement supply, dropping it in place of the old dead one and returning to normal. This process can be a faster way to recover than migrating drives and rebuilding a boot image, etc.

It does carry risk of course of buying a replacement power supply and installing it and finding that the mobo or drive firmware was cooked after all. That's your call.

I suggest these steps

0) Unplug it

1) swap out psu, which will probably cause you to disconnect the power feed to the mobo and drives (because the PSU has no modular connections itself usually, just hardwired strands that lead to those aforementioned white plastic clips.)

2) in any case, disconnect the hard drives power and data cables (tag which cables went to what)

3) connect the mobo power feed to the mobo

4) power on to see if the motherboard is okay. Okay means it does its power-on self test and then complains about no drives. If you pass the above steps, reconnect the hard drives power and data cable and power on again. You just might not have to buy anything else or spend any more time.

Did you unplug it?

Unplug it.

Those drives are backed up, right?

-r

Intel or Athlon?

If it's an Athlon and it popped and smoked then my guess is that the CPU fan failed and the CPU exploded.

warmowski has made some good points. Dunno what kind of PC you have, but the cheaper PCs always seem to skimp on the power supply, so that's a likely culprit.

Adam CR wrote:Intel or Athlon?

If it's an Athlon and it popped and smoked then my guess is that the CPU fan failed and the CPU exploded.

If the event occurs right at power-on, it isn't likely chip-fan related.

Of course, it is possible. Do Athlons like to get too hot?

-r

I think that was an Athalon dig by an Intel zealot.

Rimbaud, I agree with Rob and others, it's probably your power supply.

Take it out, get a new, beefier (higher wattage) one, and then follow Rob's steps. You want to hook up the fewest things possible to test it so you decrease the risk of ruining something else if it's not the power supply.

Let us know how it goes.

when buying new PSU ask for a quiet one, even if it costs a few more bucks. some of those with higher wattage tend to be really (well, as for PC PSU) loud.

russ wrote:I think that was an Athalon dig by an Intel zealot.

Not at all!

I couldn't care less what's under the proverbial 'hood' of a PC, but it's true that Athlons run much hotter and (apart from the most recent chips) don't have the automatic power-down that Intel chips have.

If the CPU fan stops, the CPU pops!