[Bjarnemoon]

Ok ... so, I made a bit of a mistake ... I brought my HP Pavilion 9900 with me to the UK -- meaning a 230 volatage power source instead of the 110 voltage provided in the US. There was a small button on the back of the PC which I knew I was supposed to switch but ...darn... I forgot . So --- I plugged it in and.. load pop... followed by burning plastic smell. Of course, no reaction now from trying to start up the computer,etc. The question I have for you is ... what exactly did I destroy from sending 230 volts into it, is it fixable, and to about what cost? Thanks for your advice!

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Hi,

Well at a minimum the psu (power supply) inside the computer is a gonner. It is very hard to tell what else without having a good look inside and this dpends if any signs of damage are apparent to the naked eye, they may not be.

The best way to check the other parts such as ram, mobo, cpu, hardrives ect. would be to test them in a test bed that most computer shops have.

I very rarely recomend this but unless you have the means to check every component without having to purchase multiple parts I would take it to the shop.

I don't want to discourge you it could just be the psu but with out testing its just to hard to tell

Rick

[Doby]

Hi,

Well at a minimum the psu (power supply) inside the computer is a gonner. It is very hard to tell what else without having a good look inside and this dpends if any signs of damage are apparent to the naked eye, they may not be.

The best way to check the other parts such as ram, mobo, cpu, hardrives ect. would be to test them in a test bed that most computer shops have.

I very rarely recomend this but unless you have the means to check every component without having to purchase multiple parts I would take it to the shop.

I don't want to discourge you it could just be the psu but with out testing its just to hard to tell

Rick

[WhatThe]

Hello

There are a couple of things you can check without taking your PC to the shop.

Unplug the power from the MOBO and look at the connector on the mainboard, sometimes if the MOBO has been fried by a power surge there will be obvious black marks.

The smell you spoke of can be useful aswell, you can try and determine where the smell is coming from, the power supply is certainly dead so remove it, and see if you can detect any fusion smell coming directly from the MOBO.

Pull out your RAM and see if it stinks to.

Just because they dont smell bad does not mean they are OK. But if any of your compnents have an obvious fusion smell, then they are almost certainly stuffed.