My parents brought home a computer from the family buisness that wont start. I dont have any information on the computer other than that its made by compaq and has a celeron processor. Both sound and video appear to be built in to the mobo (there were no cards visiblie other than one card with an ethernet port, and some ram). All of the plugs seem to be in nice and tight. My stepfather said when it died two fuses blew and there was a horrible stench.0

I hooked everything up and there is a light on the back of the powersupply that lights up. When i go to turn on the computer the power led turns yellow as it normally would when in sleep or hybernation. Also the led on one of the cdrom/burner drives lights up and the power supply fan spins. This makes it seem as though there is power going to all of the drives and makes me think that the powersupply is working. The rear case fan however does not work, and the computer shows no response other than these few led's and there is absolutely no signal going to my monitor at all. The harddrives dont show anysigns of starting but i am assuming that these wont spin unless the motherboard tells them to. At this point i think that maybe its the motherboard or processor.

However, when i went to turn off the computer via the front power button nothing happened, i assume this is another sign of a nonfunctioning motherboard. So I felt around the back for a powersupply switch wich the powersupply apparently doesnt have and i touched the back of the powersupply and I felt a little shock. This makes me wonder if maybe the power supply is shorting out on something. Im pretty sure they arent supposed to just shock you for the fun of it.

I am thinking that It is the mother board but maybe the reason the mother board is fryed has something to do with the power supply. Sry if there isnt enough information i dont have anymore and i doubt my family had the sence to keep any records on the machine. (i will check the stickers on the case to see if one is a model number though, then i might be able to get you some information of of compaq's website or else were ont the web.) Any help would be greatly appreciated. I dont really know much about hardware and most of my ideas were just guesses. Thanx again.

It does sound like the PSU, you could use a volt meter and see what the voeltages are at the connector to you motherboard, once you find out what make the computer is you can google the color codes for the different PSU wires. If the power levels are normal, and the fans attached to the motherboard aren't running then you probably do have a fried board.

And No...you should not be getting shocked by touching the case.

If you can't find out what make it is by a normal search of the case, you can open the case and there should be some information on the motherboard to identify it with, once again google is your friend here.

I tried to find a page that told me how to test a power supply but i couldnt find one. I found some information on the main power harness but nothing that told me HOW to check it. I dont even know how to start a powersupply without it being connected to the mobo.

Due to this innconvienece and my poor searching skills (i can at times have some concentration and focus problems), i decided to take the easy way about testing to see if this is truely a power supply problem and just hook up my spare powersupply i had laying in my room. (probably would have been easier to do this in the first place) I set it all up and tried to start the computer and i got the same problem. Its like the pc isnt even powering up. Or at least not the mother board. The signal goes to the power supply to start (power supply fans spin and the ps is sending power to the drives) Could this be a motherboard problem? A cpu problem? The motherboard has a set of instructions in the bios so wouldnt the pc still try to POST if it was just a cpu problem? Im not getting anything from it.

Im thinking motherboard. but i dont really know what im talking about.
Thanks for any help.

The machine can't POST if the CPU is bad. You also need working memory and a video adapter (built-in or separate card) installed, if either of those is missing all it will do is beep. The fact that you get no beeps (the case speaker _is_ connected to the mobo, isn't it?) seems to point to either the CPU or motherboard.

Your first power supply was almost certainly the cause of your problem. The trouble is that when a power supply goes bad it sometimes takes other components with it. The motherboard is the most likely victim.

If your confidence and experience permit, you can pin this down by substitution. First, test the memory module(s) by temporarily installing them in another motherboard. If they work, then you can test the CPU by installing it in a compatible, working motherboard. If it works, then the motherboard is the only thing left, it must be damaged.

Compaq motherboards are proprietary, so you would have to buy a replacement from them. Their website would have information in the Support section regarding your model. Good luck.

Alright thanks for all of the help. Im probably not going to go much further with this because it belongs to the family buisness and they aren't very computer literate (not that i am either), but they arent going to put out any money to fix it and will most likely either live without it or just buy a new one.

I might be able to check and see if the ram is still functional but im not sure about the processor unless it is compatible with my pc... i dont have any spare motherboards laying around unfortunatly

Thanks for all of the help... ill probably just see about salvaging whats still salvagable
thanks again.