Always shut down a computer first using the Shutdown menu to insure things
turn off properly. Simply pulling the power plug can be damaging both for
your data and for the hardware (especially the power supply). Your programs
needs to close correctly in order to protect them from corruptions, and that
is what the Shutdown menu does. The Shutdown menu also allows the power
supply to shut off smoothly and safely once the software is done running.
You can get arcing and voltage surges that can damage the power supply if
you just unplug the computer while it's running. As for testing the power
supply, there are test kits you can get from places like Fry's Electronics.
The kit will simulate the load of the computer to the power supply so it can
gather usable data without damaging the power supply. Another quick idea is
to assume the power supply is shot on each computer and replace them, and
see if that fixes your issue. If your symptoms go away, you solved it. If
not, you have a mainboard to replace. For some people that is easier and
cheaper then a test kit.

Kenneth Whyman
[log in to unmask]
"Chance favors the prepared mind."

On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 9:31 AM, aung-maw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear Kenneth,
>
> appreciate your advise.
> I will try to test power supply.
> Recently no power black out. but, sometime I off the power plug.
> I am not sure whether we off power plug when this happen.
> But remember just one fine morning turning on the PC and found dead.
> Two PC are different spec. but both are P4 pentium.
> Thanks again.
>
> regards,
>
> Aung Maw (HP 94569849)
> Wanbin Enterprise Pte Ltd
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kenneth Whyman" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 1:50 AM
> Subject: Re: PC break down
>
>
>
>  Those are some very diverse symptoms. They could be from bad mainboards,
>> or
>> they could be from bad power supplies. Swapping the mainboards between the
>> cases won't help you isolate what is wrong here. Better to test the power
>> supplies on the bench to make sure they are good, then bench test each
>> mainboard with just onboard video and RAM in place with a third, known
>> good
>> power supply. Did you recently suffer any power glitches like a surge, a
>> brownout, or a blackout? Also, what are the specs on these two machines?
>> Do
>> they use identical components?
>>
>> Kenneth Whyman
>> [log in to unmask]
>> "Chance favors the prepared mind."
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 10:11 AM, Aung Maw <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>  Dear Sir,
>>>
>>> My home got 2 PC...
>>> recently, both PC can't work just a few days different.
>>>
>>> 1st one: When power ON it start to boot up as normal. On the half way it
>>> suddenly stopped everything.
>>> press power again, it start again and stop suddenly. Sometime, it stop
>>> immediately after beep sound.
>>> sometime it stopped when windows is about to load. sometime it stop while
>>> POST and RAM checking....
>>>
>>> 2nd one: Totally nothing come out. No beep, no monitor signal.
>>> Before pressing button, when power up, its power and HDD light on.
>>> Optical
>>> drive light on. CPU fan is turning... hear a little sound from HDD. Thats
>>> all. Nothing happened after that. both HDD and Power light is still on.
>>> When press power button for a few sec. Both light goes off. but Ethernet
>>> card and MTB light is still on.
>>>
>>> I tried swap CPU and RAM between two PC. Same thing.
>>> I tried reset CMOS .. No different.
>>> IT seems that CPU and RAM has no problem.
>>> But both motherboard can be spoiled???
>>> Is there any other possibilities.
>>>
>>> Can advise anything???
>>>
>>> Thank you
>>>
>>>                 Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
>>>              articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
>>>                         http://freepctech.com
>>>
>>>
>>                 Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
>>              articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
>>                         http://freepctech.com
>>
>>
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