Loud pop followed by locking up.
 

OS: WindowsXP SP1
Processor: P4 1.6ghz
RAM: 256MB PC133 (2 sticks)
HD: 80Gig

I doubt the above is relevant, but it is requested so might as well include.

Just an hour before hand I had taken my hardrive and cd-rom out and put them back in (very easy 5 minute demonstration speech). No big deal, I have done it before and everything has been fine.
(just a note hookup was identical except I used a different power connector on the cd-rom, one that hadn't been used before)

Anyway I get it back to my room, hooked it up and began playing a game. About 10 minutes into it I heard a rather loud pop (spark?) which I don't think came out of my speakers. It followed up with my game locking up and me immediatly shutting it off.

I opened it up, switched out the power connector with the one it has always used (just because it fits better) and so without seeing any damage I hooked it back up.

That was 20 minutes ago and it seems to be running fine right now. Also the room was abit warm, I turned on A/C incase something may have started to over heat. It is 2 years old and I have noticed the CPU fan spinning up to help cool it off.


I think I listed about every single thing I can that could have been involved. Any ideas what may have happened?

Did you open your CD drive afterwards? This happened to my friend when she got her new computer and a CD had shattered....yes, shattered, in her CD drive. I thought it was very strange.

I've heard of cd's shattering before. Never anyone personally but someone tested and some with cracks shattered at extremely high RPM's.

As for that, no everything is running fine.

Some more thought into it is that *maybe* there could have been a surge that made my speakers pop (does it a lot with mini fridge) and I just thought it came from computer. Don't think thats likely cause it was louder than usual. Also that wouldn't explain the computer hard locking.


Edit: Spelling

nope, it was heat. That happened to me a long time ago when my main cooling fan failed. Heard a huge pop and everything quit responding - the power supply had overheated and tripped its breaker. Replaced the fan and everything was OK.

That would make sense, looks like it's time to order a new case fan.

Thanks

Might want to check the capacitors on the board as well. I've heard those can audibly pop when they go.

I would check your Capacitors all along the motherboard. If you are up to it, open your PSU (be very careful) and check to see if anything in there exploded.

Years ago me and my bro's computer popped EXTREMELY loud, and the computer turned right back on after it reset. We took the PSU apart and a Capacitor had blown into SHREADS, but the PSU still worked :)

Wow thats crazy that it would still work.

I will give it a better look down tommorrow just to make sure everything is normal. PSU, I'd rather not mess with, I hear they can pack a punch.

I've been playing CS (room is much cooler) and haven't had a bit of trouble.

Again, thanks for the help.

One of my best friends didn't take heed of my "don't touch the fucking circuit board inside the PSU" comment one night. His PSU fan had stopped working and he tried to replace it.

That was awesome :)

His arm turned red :)

I myself have been shocked by a LAN card once, but that's as far as it goes. Nothing too serious (computer related).

I did, however, grab a plug from the wall and my index finger and thumb slipped past the plastic and ran along the metal prongs (as they were still plugged into the wall a bit) and I almost fell over in pain. My arm BURNED for an hour.

Haha, gotta love lifes lessons. :D

Loud pops bad.

Did you smell any ozone afterwards?