Computer fried?, Multiple restarts, smoking PSU... WTH????

[AstaLaVista]

Sorry, didn't really know where this issue belongs.

Ok, so I may not be a computer genius or guru but I have been around them for over 20 yrs now and I pretty much know my way around them... I have built quiet a few of them from scratch as well.

Being said that, I have never seen or witnessed this before... it happened to my kids computer so this is hearsay.

One of my kids says he was on skype and playing an online game when the computer made a weird clicking noise and restarted on its own, when it got to the XP login, it made the noise and restarted again, all of a sudden he just saw smoke coming out of the PSU and he panicked (of course), yell at me and I immediately told him to unplug it.

I am going to take it to the office on Monday, clean it up and check for more clues but I was wondering if someone has experienced this before and has some hints as to what to do, expect or check further... this is definitely not how I wanted to start the New Year but it now gives me something to do I guess

PC is a few years old, perhaps even 10 yrs old but it was a very good built and my kids use it for homework and online playing. IIRC, it has Windows XP, 2GBs of Ram, OCZ 600w PSU, 9500GT

 

[Golden]

Ouch-bad luck mate

 

[xunile]

Power supplies go bad. I would just keep your fingers crossed that it didn't damage other components like the MB, even though with it being close to 10 yrs old and running XP it might be time to copy the data off it and go with a newer PC.

 

[AstaLaVista]

Yeah, that is what I was thinking but money is extremely tight at the moment so I guess I was hoping for a miracle... I will stay positive and hope for the best. I will know more on Monday when I go in

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I wouldn't worry too much about damage to the board and stuff Asta as the Power_Good signal would have dropped out at pin 8 on the 24 pin and any operation would have ceased immediately or when trying to restart would not have let the machine power up in any case.

See Voltage Rails - Power Supply 101: A Reference Of Specifications