so my computer turned off by itself. and the light that indicated that it was running was on. however the computer really wasnt running. it wasnt making any noises. and so i held on the power button and it made this noise and my power supply started smoking. well i bought a new power supply with more watts and i installed it. but the problem still comes up. the light that supose to indicate when the computer is on is on but teh computer is not on. if that makes sense.. what do you think could be the problem?

Do the fans work?

Is there a BIOS POST?

Any BEEPS?

If no BEEPS and you remove the RAM does it BEEP then?

umm. when it broke. the fan didnt work. but the new one, once everything was installed. nothing worked. nada. just the light was on. but the computer wasnt on. whats a bios post and what are beeps? but i do remember tha when i was holding the power button, before it blew up, that there was like a lot of beeping..then it blew up.

The BIOS POST is the Power On Self Test run by the Basic Input Output System.

It is your motherboard starting up and checking itself before any Operating System loads.

Every BIOS has a BEEP code. One BEEP usually indicates "All is well".

Other BEEP patterns indicate different problems.

Which fan didn't work? The CPU fan?

Unfortunately it sounds like the motherboard was burnt out as well.

im not sure which fan stopped working. but if i had to make a guess it probably was the power supply fan. if thats what bios post is then i think my computer when into that mode and then i restarted it. and then it wouldnt turn back on.

One quick test is to remove all the RAM sticks and then try to power on the computer.

If it does not BEEP a lot then the motherboard is probably history.

yep. i took out the ram and plugged in everything and i didnt hear any beeping. r.i.p motherboard. since im gunna hve to get a new mohterboard. do you think you can tell me what exactly a motherboard does? im computer ignorant.

It is the foundation of a system.

It determines what type of CPU you can use as well as RAM and graphics.

In general the price range would be $100 > $300 US for a PC system.

The newer the motherboard the most recent components it will run.

The latest high end run SLi graphics and RAM in dual channel as well as Core 2 Duo Intel processors.

It all depends on what you want the computer to do as to how much you spend. If you want to move over your old CPU and RAM and graphics card etc. you need to verify that the motherboard is compatible with this other hardware.

hmm thank you very much for all of your help

No problem. Let us know if we can help further.