Apparently there was a leak at our house and water covered the desk, drawers and computer. For some reason only known to Thais, she wiped it down and thought she'd turn it on !!!!!!

Apparently it went bang and didn't work. Amazing.

More amazing is that she let her idiot brother look at it. She assures me that he took it to Somchai and Somchai and despite spending money on it, which he apparently paid (lies, the useless little git never has any money), they could not fix it. I get reasons as CPU kaput, fan kaput, etc. nothing makes any sense.

My guess is that it might be the power supply. Water could not get to the top of the unit and as the PSU is near the bottom, water could have got in there if it had been standing long enough or the water deep enough. It was protected from all other sides by a desk.

If it was the PSU then Bt500 should see it back in action. If it is something more serious, then it is throw away. It is a P4 2.93ghz 500mb RAM 80GB HD.

The things is that no PC means no skype which means no video of our daughter. So a solution has to be found. I'm presuming the 15" LCD is still ok so wouldn't need to replace that. A laptop might be of more benefit but this is a very temporary solution for a few months at most and spending money on anything is just a waste.

So, firstly, any ideas what could have gone bang. She says she heard it go bang and then not work.

Secondly, cheap options for internet access. Laptop or PC ?

In Buriram area.

Thanks

Could be lucky and just powers supply but also could be more, but a cheap power supply would be a good starting point. But make sure it is really dry, take the cover off and leave a fan on it for 2 or 3 hours to be sure.

If it's a PC then first step is disconnect the power supply from the motherboard, hard disks and other drives - just pop the cables from everything that comes out of the box that the mains plug runs into, and connect the cable to the lonely PSU first, then plug into the power unit or mains GPO, and one-handedly switch on and look and listen for the sight or sound of a fan starting up. If there's any sound or movement that sees an internal fan start moving, then your power supply isn't totally jiggered, and probably wasn't strifed by that wet turn on.

If your power supply alone is stuffed, then you will need another known working unit to test further.

Further means plug one of the disk cables from that PSU into the least important peripheral you have, such as a 1.44 floppy drive or any old CD-ROM drive, to see if that powers up. If not, then go through all the cables and if you're still out of luck then the chances are you've got a buggered capacitor in the PSU, but try the next least expensive peripheral to be sure. You've possibly already tried a second PSU by now, so process of elimination should indicate by which pairs work and which don't what exactly is phucked beyond repair.

If you have the PSU running with a fan whirring, and you have tested its output on some hardy peripherals, and they spin and dance like there's no tomorrow, then check over the mainboard very carefully visually after switching off and unpluigging the mains cable from the GPO or monitored PSU. Remove the RAM chips with a static strap carefully and inspect the sockets for dirt or moisture. Replace the RAM, plug the motherboard with the correct cables from the PSU. and try it.

If it's no go, then from all of that, you should be able to determine which out of your PSU, HDD, CD-ROM, or mainboard is working or not, and the rest is easy.

A PC can be built for as little as a couple of thousand baht if you are lucky that some equipment survived.

However, this means you know a thing or two about building PC's... if Somchai couldn't figure out how to make it work yet then I guess, if you are unable to fix yourself, you are SOL.

A hypothetical cheap PC:

1500 baht Mainboard: ASrock N68-S (everything built in, including VGA/sound/LAN/more)

1250 baht CPU: AMD Sempron LE140 (or Athlon II X2 240: 2000 baht. Much more powerful.)

800 baht RAM: 1 GB DDR2

500 baht Generic Powersupply

500 baht Locally made case (eg. Phoenix)

20 baht SATA to IDE converter cable

Total: 4570 baht

You can get laptops on the cheap now with decent specs. I have seen several around 14-15 k with good enough specs to last a few years with light/internet use.

The thing is that I am not there. If I was, there would not be a problem. So all of these options, though your thoughts are very much appreciated, are of limited use as she knows nothing about PCs. I hope that she can get it to someone who does know but who knows what her brother has done trying to fix it (or steal parts from it more like).

Of course, as it is only needed for internet, all of the current spec, though low, is enough to handle what is required. Spending Bt15k or more likely 20k on something which has no value and no use in 3 months seems stupid.

I've looked online and the specs on some laptops are so bad at the bottom end that I would replace them were they in a PC.

I'm just hoping for a cheap resolution.

I did notice on one of my regular visits up there, a guy selling used laptop/pc in the Twigit (sp) dept store in Buriram, couple hundred metres from Homemart, or is it Homepro? Was thinking about getting one for the daughter to play on as only 4-5k Baht. Anyway, will get more detailed directions from the wife tomorrow as she wouldn't appreciate me waking her up to ask.! Mind you, they might just be a load of junk

I did notice on one of my regular visits up there, a guy selling used laptop/pc in the Twigit (sp) dept store in Buriram, couple hundred metres from Homemart, or is it Homepro? Was thinking about getting one for the daughter to play on as only 4-5k Baht. Anyway, will get more detailed directions from the wife tomorrow as she wouldn't appreciate me waking her up to ask.! Mind you, they might just be a load of junk

You're on about (phonetically) Tweekit, just on the railway line near Home whatever.

Good call but I'll be honest, all Thai second hand electronics I've seen has been junk and massively overpriced. If she was in Buriram town then there is a computer place on Jira Road I used once who seem to know what they are doing but she is in the other house about 50/60km away, near her mother.

Anyone know a place in nangrong ?

Samre thing happened to me here water leak and pop. If your power supply went bang there is a high probability many other things got killed with it, dont waste any money on it. You can buy a nice desktop with lcd monitor here for around 10k. And by the way spending such a small amount for a computer to see your daughter as you claim doesnt seem all that stupid.

You can't fix the laptop if you're not there, whatever is wrong with it, since she already tried Somchai&Somchai... do you have a trusted friend there who could either get it fixed or get a new one for you? As thunder said above chances are it's not fixable anyway.

I hear netbooks for 14k baht work OK with skype, tell your wife to go and buy one and make sure that skype works in the shop, so they'll install it all for her and get it running, and she doesn't have to do anything.

I would not get a PC desktop because the likelihood of the external USB camera not working or stopping to work, and no one there being able to fix it is exceedingly high - as I know from my more computer-illiterate relatives. Then again if the computer shop is nearby, and would fix eventual USB camera issues, it would be OK. Less fragile, a desktop.

As for speculation as to what went bang - just tell her to keep the laptop and look at it when you are there. And BTW the natural instinct of anyone I know is to turn the thing back on to see if it still works. I have done it myself in the past, with a camera, and only because of that I now know that the best thing to do is leave it to dry for a few days before attempting to turn it on. Don't give her too much grief for that...

Edited January 24, 201016 yr by nikster