Desktop Compaq Presario
 

A few weeks ago I gave some friends a 4 yr old Presario and hooked it up for
them with a Sony monitor. They had gotten on line and were using it
successfully for a couple of weeks when their power went out. When the
power came back on the computer showed a black screen. Nothing was coming
up.
What I would like to know is: if a computer CPU is damaged by an electric
surge, what components are usually damaged and unrepairable? Thanks for
your response.
Derek

Desktop Compaq Presario
 

Derek Lawler wrote:
A few weeks ago I gave some friends a 4 yr old Presario and hooked it up for
them with a Sony monitor. They had gotten on line and were using it
successfully for a couple of weeks when their power went out. When the
power came back on the computer showed a black screen. Nothing was coming
up.
What I would like to know is: if a computer CPU is damaged by an electric
surge, what components are usually damaged and unrepairable? Thanks for
your response.
Derek


First, did you turn the computer back on. If the computer loads Windows
fine (You hear the Windows Chime) but no picture, try a different monitor.)

Second, is the computer plugged in a Surge Protector or the wall outlet?

There is no way to tell what components are damaged in the newsgroup.
Even a bad outage could head no problems and a small outage could cause
damage.

Desktop Compaq Presario
 

They already tried using a different monitor to no avail.. The unit was
plugged into a cheap surge strip. We took the cover off the tower to see if
any obvious burn marks were present but there was no evidence of
overheating. We will take it to a local repair shop and have them look at
it.
It would be a good thing if there were fuses that could be replaced but for
some reason they aren't designed that way. Thanks for the reply.

Derek

Desktop Compaq Presario
 

When the power came back on, there was probably a power spike that jolted some
part of the computer. I'll assume that the power supply is bad and needs
replacing. If the power supply is of good quality, a fuse inside blew out, and
the rest of the hardware is OK.

If replacing the power supply does not do it, you're faced with replacing
components one at a time until the system runs.

Modern Presarios use standard power supplies, so testing it with another power
supply is the best step to take... Ben Myers

On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:42:14 -0500, "Derek Lawler"
wrote:

A few weeks ago I gave some friends a 4 yr old Presario and hooked it up for
them with a Sony monitor. They had gotten on line and were using it
successfully for a couple of weeks when their power went out. When the
power came back on the computer showed a black screen. Nothing was coming
up.
What I would like to know is: if a computer CPU is damaged by an electric
surge, what components are usually damaged and unrepairable? Thanks for
your response.
Derek

Desktop Compaq Presario
 

Thanks Ben. We still have it at home so might try checking each component
for continuity, resistance etc. ----as if we know what we're doing. Wish
there was a salvage yard for computers to go to the way we do with cars.
There are probably quite usable parts we could cannibalize.
Derek