My PC crashed today, in the most weird fashion. As it always does. The smell of a freshly burnt chip, along with my screams of panic - and the blue screen of death was staring me in the eyes the meanest way possible. "*&^# me!" - I said quietly, and went off to buy a new one... I am supposed to receive my PC tomorrow night. Hopefully, no data is lost.

That is my story of the day.

What kind of motherboard fried, and what one did you buy to replace it? Exact same one?

If not you'll probably have to end up formatting the drive because of different chipsets, and in that case you would lose data if you didn't back it up - but I don't see how you could lose data because the mobo bit the dust. Unless some corruption went through the IDE cable just before it died - but I doubt it.

Post back and let us know Art!

The guy I always ask for help tested the PC, he said he has never seen the case when USB ports were the ones to cause the problem first (I was recharging my Palm device and it required a lot of power, in addition we had power failure twice in the last 24 hours). So all that for some reason caused motherboard to burn.

I will go for the same motherboard (P4 S478 ASUS P4P800-SE 865PE AGP), because it won't require Windows reinstallation... Assuming it will actually work with my system, if it is the root of the problem in the first place.

I am really far from this subject, so I'll just see how it goes. I will let you know if the PC is functional again tomorrow.

Also, then, don't forget to look at the PSU. What Power Supply do you have? (Brand/watt?). A lot of times people skimp on the PSU when building a machine, I've even seen it happen in Gateway machines (particularly) where the PSU is cheap, fails, and can take a motherboard with it.

I have never had an issue with my Antec power supplies. Love 'em to pieces. Look for burn marks around the motherboard where the PSU connects.

Exactly. Turns out that where I live people make the mistake of believing the numbers (watts) on no-name PSUs, which leads to overloading it. the effects are stability problems (if lucky), or PSU fails, taking whatever components don't cope with the eventual power surge.

Antec is a well known, trusted brand. Got a Chieftec though when I bought my PC, for it was a few $ cheaper. My budget was quite limited. Each and every dollar counted.

I have a buddy who swears by Chieftec power supplies, I do own a big 'ol Chieftec case. I don't have anything bad to say about them.

Let us know how it's goin' Art! You must have a laptop or secondary computer to be postin' on HD?

Yes, I have a secondary computer, but I have no data on it, I can't even access my email at this point.

I thought it was the power supply myself, but we tested it - it was fine. I do have a brand new one just in case.

So I got my computer back. It seems to work properly with a new motherboard. The most important is that there was no loss of data.

Another nearly-expensive reminder to BACKUP, BACKUP and BACKUP your information on a weekly basis, and not just writing it in your agenda, and then being lazy about it...

Best,

HAHA Art!

And this is why I love Nero and my DVD Burner. I have it set to do a weekly backup overnight (Usually like Friday at 3 or 4 in the morning, when I know my PC will be on, but I'm not using it). Nero has a scheduler, so that it takes my "My Documents" folder (you can specify what folder) and burns it to a DVD. It works great. All I do is rotate my DVDs around so that if anything fails I can go back at least a week, and if I have to - up to 4. I got a free little Newegg CD case when I bought my DVD burner, and so I keep my backups in that.

Keep in mind, this is my personal backup setup - not the same method as the data on the servers.

i didnt know nero could do that , good to know.