Fried my computer. :(

Chris Bail

Chris Bail

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So, my wife said to me the other day, "Wouldn't it be nice to be able to watch videos and things from the computer on our TV in the bedroom" which is about 8 feet away from the TV. I thought this was a swell idea, and since the TV had two open HDMI ports, and the computer had an open HDMI port, I thought it would be as easy as plugging in an HDMI cable.

When I did, something arced, I got a shock, and now my computer and TV will not power on.

WhenI plug in the computer, and hit the on button, the cooling fans power up, and the hard drive sounds like it starts spinning, so I'm hopeful that I just killed the motherboard.

Unfortunately, the computer is a few years old now, so it will probably be much easier to by a new motherboard and chipset combo than to try to find a motherboard that plays nicely with my 4 year old quad core processor.

I'm still not certain if the cord was bad, or if there was a short at one or the other connector, but the fact that I got a jolt means there was some amperage going across where there ought not to have been any amperage.

Anyone have any thoughts? I'd appreciate it...as I type this out on my tiny netbook.
 
Sounds like one of those seemingly good ideas that turn out to be not so good after all. And it all seemed so rational and simple: and all in a flash, it wasn't. It's bad luck too. You have my sympathy but I can't give you anything else. Was there anything photographic on the computer that was really important and that you might have lost?

jesse
 
it might be the motherboard. might be something else. after the CPU and GPU selection, i'd say that the power supply unit is the most important unit of a PC. gotta get a good one if you're going to replace it. i'd suggest going with seasonic or corsair. good luck!
 
You say that the computer still gets power? Did you hook it up to your computer monitor again?
Do you have a separate VGA card, or do you connect the monitor directly to the motherboard? You should try both, and preferably another VGA card.

If the computer is indeed fried, and you saw jolting, then you should not try to use that PSU in another computer. The fuse inside the PSU should be fried and thus should not be able to give any more power to your HDDs or fans if it overloaded your MB.
 
Thanks for the input, all. I have a separate video card that my monitor was plugged into, and I plugged the TV into the HDMI going to the onboard video card on the motherboard. I'm going to start by replacing the motherboard and chipset, and maybe the power supply. I already ordered a new 3.3gHz six-core chipset and a board that supports up to 32gb of DDR3 RAM. I also found 16GB of RAM in 2x8GB sticks for a great price. Repair (upgrade) cost at this point $320.

I'm not sure if I need a new power supply. Since the HDD's and cooling fans all spin up, but of course I'll get new one if I need to.

Anyone see any danger in trying t ouse the existing power supply? I'm guessing if it's bad, then swapping out the motherboard and chipset just won't work. I just dont' want to damage the new stuff I just ordered.

Thanks again for all of your input.
 
Of course this is my main computer for photo storage and editing, so I hope the HDD's are good.

I back everything up periodically onto an external drive and DVD's (for the photos anyway) so if I lost some photos it will be a bummer, but not the end of the world. I put my favorite stuff up on my flickr account to at full resolution, so I have the important stuff backed up there too.
 
When you power up do you hear the usual beeps? separate VGA card or integrated? open up the computer and check. Do all the fans come on or only the power supply fan?
 
If you didn't mess up your HD, you can take it out and put it in something called a USB caddy. They're very cheap (unless you buy it at Best Buy, where it's not a best buy at all). The caddy allows you to use your HD as an external HD. You can then hook it to a working computer, it should recognize it, and you can then copy the files from it to the working computer. At least that's how it works for a windows PC. Macs I don't know about, but maybe a HD is a HD.
 
This highlights the necessity of back up. I backup to a local separate harddrive and onto the cloud using carbonite.com.

I hope your data is safe after your mishap and that your rebuild goes to plan.
 
It was an intel quad core CPU on the motherboard that came with my Gateway system. I don't recall what the onboard video was, but I'm hoping my nice video card is still ok. And the tv no long powers up at all. No lights, nothing. At least the tv was inexpensive...I can still catch Mad Men this week on my other tv.

I'm still going to check for a bad ground in the computer by checking for potential from the case to the ground in my wall socket to rule out a short somewhere else...I don't want to have this happen again.

I'm not too worried about the hard disks...PITA if they are toast, but at least I have the important stuff backe up.
 
I would be worried about your house wiring.
If the rooms are on separate phases and there is a ground/neutral fault - perhaps you got a lot of current flowing down the HDMI cable to ground.

Chris Bail said:
So, my wife said to me the other day, "Wouldn't it be nice to be able to watch videos and things from the computer on our TV in the bedroom" which is about 8 feet away from the TV. I thought this was a swell idea, and since the TV had two open HDMI ports, and the computer had an open HDMI port, I thought it would be as easy as plugging in an HDMI cable.

When I did, something arced, I got a shock, and now my computer and TV will not power on.
Click to expand...
 
It's an old house, so maybe something there. The devices are in the same room, but different receptacles. I'll have to check that out as well.

I did some google research, and it looks like this is relatively common, but with no clear pointers about where the problem usually lies. That's disheartening.
 
Chris, not sure what caused the fault, but I'd check whether your outlet is grounded. The pathway through your skin and into the floor is very resistive relative to a working ground. A grounded outlet wouldn't stop the short, but it can reduce the chance of you getting shocked and hurt.
 
Thanks for the advice. The computer wasn't home brewed, other than my cracking the case open to add two sticks of RAM and a new fancy video card a year or so ago. The plug for the TV is not grounded, nor is the outlet. It is still an old two-prong only. The computer was plugged into a surge protector into a three prong outlet in my office area. I have not yet checked that the ground at that outlet is OK.

The HDMI was not running through a wall, just plugged into the TV, then into the computer and laying on the floor between the two.

A bit of good news is that my hard drives are OK. I borrowed a Hard drive dock and removed the HDD's from the case and checked them. My files are all there.

I agree that the HDMI should not have had any appreciable voltage across it, but it did. Not sure which end it was on, but I've seen a lot of online stuff about similar problems with TV's and set top cable boxes getting fried through HDMI. It's disturbing.
 
Chris Bail said:
I agree that the HDMI should not have had any appreciable voltage across it, but it did. Not sure which end it was on, but I've seen a lot of online stuff about similar problems with TV's and set top cable boxes getting fried through HDMI. It's disturbing.
Click to expand...
All appliances contain layers of protection even from a wire polarity reversal. However, if the plug is a three prong type and if you have powered only from a two prong receptacle, then a protection layer was compromised. If another protection layer has a fault, well, HDMI harmful voltages can result.

Worse is the so called protector that can distribute harmful voltages to other wires. Also harmful can be a CATV wire that is not properly earthed where it enters the building - another protection layer that may have been compromised.

One way to avert failures from compromised or failed protection layers is to power every interconnected electronics box from the same power strip. Not a surge strip. A superior $4 power strip from Wal-Mart that must have one important feature. The 15 amp circuit breaker.

Well, we could better understand why you had damage by first identifying what has failed without disconnecting or removing anything. The analysis starts by measuring voltages on six wires inside the Gateway with a digital multimeter. A tool so 'complex' as to be sold even in Harbor Freight for $5. Those numbers can either identify what has failed. Or point to where to find the failure.

If you try to fix it without first identifying the failure, then you are likely to only relive the same event. Either find the fault before fixing anything. Or just start replacing good parts until something work. Those are your only two alternatives. If you choose the latter, then the former is not reliable or helpful.

One likely voltage made possible due to circuits inside the power strip is 60 VAC on that HDMI cable. But without definitive numbers, then every recommendation can only be wild speculation.
 
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