Have you tried resetting CMOS? I can't say that this looks good, though.

-
rim stood up, at show-n-tell, and said:

Hi,

Today, when I switched on my computer, it did an explosion noise
and let out a (charming) little blue cloud from the PSU. With the
corresponding acrid smell.

Clearly, a capacitor had exploded inside the PSU. (I opened it to
confirm it. It *was* a small capacitor, but now it was all over the
place...).

I swapped the PSU for another one, which is known to work properly.

The trouble is, that when I switch the computer on, the keyboard will
briefly flash its 3 leds once (as usual), the CPU fan start up, but
the disk LED will stay dimly alight. No beep, no image on the screen.
I tried to remove every card, disconnect all the drives. With the
same result. I even tried to switch to an old PCI low-end video card.

The best part is that if I hold the power button for a few second (3
or 4), the computer will power down.

I wonder what it really means :
a) the motherboard has suffer from a voltage spike and is utterly
fried;
b) the CPU was the victim for the surge.

Any insight/first hand experience will be appreciate !

--Richard.

PS : Any recipe to get rid of the acrid smell ???
:-))

--
Strontium

"I thought I'd lost you, somewhere. But you were, never, really
ever there at all. And, I want to get free..."