Dr Nick

Hi everybody!

Yesterday morning I noticed a funny smell which I initially attributed to the chinese take away I had the night before. However, when I got home yesterday evening it was much stronger. Whilst it was difficult to trace the source of the burnt chinese food smell I later discovered that my PC was not working properly.

I have traced the source of the problem to the power supply which appears to be working but is not. And it smells of burnt chinese food. Swapping it into an otherwise functinal PC stops it working. Therefore it must be the power supply.

However, it looks like it may have taken out a few of the other components with it and this is where i am hoping you can help.

Is there a sure fire way to know that the mobo is dead. I think it is. It is a MSI 745pe. It was rather expensive! Is there a quck test? Systematically swapping out individual components will take time and I don't like to move the CPU once its in situ. Thermal compound hardens over time and I dont think you ever get as good a contact if you remove the CPU and then reseat it.

Cheers!

ps Is it true I can replace the PSU with a 350 watt one? I thought the minimum for a P4 3ghz was 400 watts