Can anybody please tell me what the signs are of a "fired" processor please

Dave, November 2009

There must come a time when you will eventually give up - the effort and cost put in so far are laudable... You have changed the PSU which was my earlier guess and other things too.

Worse case - when you made the short with the external hard drive connected - is that nasty voltages have run up inside the machine and destroyed or partially destroyed several chips and sundry other components.

Given the potential for serious and widespread damage to the guts of the machine it may be best to take it to a computer doctor or to the computer graveyard - piece by piece replacement is achieving little success for you.

You believe the PSU to be Known-Good - the Monitor is very probably sound - the whole of the rest of the machine is suspect and it might all be fried following the short.

There is always the desire to give up-beat help to people when answering questions on here - you know - positive messages of don't worry etc. Sadly I'm not able to do that this time.

I think the rule of holes may apply...

It does to me with this problem...

Sorry...

Peccavi, November 2009

hi , yes i meant fried , i was told it might be fried , the system starts up for about 10 seconds then cuts out , no signal message on monitor , i've changed everything that i was told it could be, motherboard, graphics card, tried new ram, tried a different psu (worked on another pc) but nothing helped. I know you tried to help me on this before Peccavi but I'm still here lol , below is a copy of my 1st message from before if that helps anybody to help me...................

Is it my motherboard ?
Hi , can anybody help please? I had a external hard drive connected to my pc via usb which shorted out, my monitor froze & had to switch off by mains switch. I tried to restart it but didnt get the usual quick beep on start up and the monitor displayed no signal, though the fan was on and the dvd opened & closed. I was advised to take the memory out & listen to any beeps, it gave a constant beeping with no break, but I cant remember what I was told if this happened......,I think I was told it may be the graphics card so I put a different graphics card it but that made no difference, could I have destroyed the motherboard completely ? or is there anything else I can test to find out the problem ? I have a basic knowledge on PC's but I'm no expert so please help me in common English
Thanks to all that can help

Dave

Dave, November 2009

Nothing happens.

The term used to be Fried as in overcooked but no matter Fired means much the same thing. Processors are particularly susceptible to overheat failure and static discharge damage - given the millions of junctions inside them a processor chip has lots of potential failure points.

You do not mention the symptoms you have - what may appear to be a broken processor may be something else - proof positive of a defective processor may be difficult without substitution or sophisticated test aids.

I know little of modern processors - the last one I fixed was probably 35 years ago.

Peccavi, November 2009

I think you mean 'fried'.....splitting, signs of burning, smell etc. Or sometimes no signs at all!

John, November 2009