nzKAOSnz

ARGH.

The ppl i living with at th moment have just bought an upgrade kit, (x3) consisting of a biostar mobo and 2.4celeron cpus, 256ddr, and a 80gig.

Numbers one and two went in ok, number 3 however......

Installed Mobo (cpu and ram were on the board when we bought it - new(apparently))
Hooked up all connectors (identical to the other 2 computers)
Plug power in and hit the switch.

Fans start spinning etc but nothing on screen
~10s later - still no pic, funny smell.
Quickly pull power connecter out of comp, and open lid
met with a cloud of smoke.

check all connections, nothing looks wrong, mobo still looks good (apart from the slowly disapating cloud of smoke).

plug back in, hit the switch, watching mobo. cept the fan does about a 1/60th of a rev b4 stopping. same with psu fan

unplug atx connecter and power switch button and plug into old mobo, and viola! it goes. Back into (aparently new) mobo, and still nothing.

take cpu and ram out, into my motherboard, and no problems! So we have one cooked motherboard.


day 2 (monday):
He took comp, as we had it into comp shop, and they sed that it all was looking good apart from the undeniable fact that the mobo was fried.
THEY say that it was because the psu was underpowered for that computer, (250W) which cooked the mobo. Then sold him a 350W psu


Qn 1: BUT, if it was underpowered, wouldnt the psu burn out, rather than the mobo?

Qn 2: When i took the cpu out of the "new" computer, the greyey stuff on the cpu had half transferred to the back of the heatsink. the same as my 1 yr old 1.7 celeron.
Usually, how long does the grey stuff stick to the cpu?
Would this point to the fact that these computers mite not be as new as the comp sales place was trying to suggest?
(will try for pictures tonite)

Qn 3: What the hell caused it????

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