Yesterday, as I was working on my computer, it died. Just as though someone had unplugged it. I knew I had a short, so I tried a new power supply cable. When I got the new one in, I hit the power button and the power supply unit popped and started smoking. I now know the short was in the unit itself. So I picked up a new power supply unit and installed it. The problem now is that I have power to my computer, but nothing works. For example. The power supply unit fan runs and the processor fan runs. The light for the CD Drives comes on for a quick flash then goes off. The green light that usually indicated the computer is on flashes on and off once. But I cannot get my CD drives to open and I cannot get a display on my monitor. What are the chances that when the power supply blew, it took my motherboard (or at least parts of my motherboard) with it, and how can I tell before I buy a knew motherboard?

It concerns me that you had a short but didnt do anything about it...

How did you know there was a short?

After it died....
You replaced just the power cord to the PSU and it blew smoke after that?

Seems odd...

Is the "new" PSU you installed after the problem started a used one from another source, or NEW...?

Does the CPU fan run all the time or does it only work when you hit the power button. Does the CPU fan plug onto the motherboard or directly to the power supply...

Is this an ATX board with the front of case power switch going to the motherboardor an earlier board where the power switch on the front of the case has 110/220 vac going to it?

Also the fact that the cd drive doors will not open...

If you unplug the data/bus cable and only leave the power cable connected to them will the drawer/door open?

Ouch...that one could cost you. Next time use either a VOM or DMM to check the out put of the PSU, and a continuity test on the power cord (unpluged). Most PSUs have DC voltages ranging from +3.3v to +20v, and -5v to -20v. If there was a short in the secondary of the psu you could have sent higher voltages to devices that don't respond well to that kind of treatment, and yes it could have killed your CPU and other chips. There is a multipin connector that goes to the motherboard from the SPU, which provides a number of dedicated circuits that go to user specific sites, so it is possibe to have some devices opperate while others will not. There are other dedicated circuits coming out of the SPU that go to such devices as the CD, fans,etc, and a voltage spike could have effected them as well. All of this is dependent on the voltage handling capacity of the diferent devices, and how wide spread the spike was. I have a friend who decided to play electician and put up a new dinning room light, what he didn't realize was that there were two different 110v potentials from two different bus bars producing 220v in this box, when he turned on the lights, they burned very bright, and very breifly. This is prety much what would have happened on a component level in your case. I wish you luck.

Your drives is more likely still good. Replaced Motheboard, computer will more likely work again, The same thing happen to me one before on my older p4 system, drives turn on won't open and nothing on the screen fans still worked. I replaced the motherboard, computer is good as new.

A while ago I had the same thing.

PSU died, slowly killed my MoBo.

hey , i put together a nice pc about a month ago geforce 7950 gt oc asus mobo 2 gigs of corsair ram xtreme gamer fatality sound card and a 500 watt psu from raidmax that came with my case . i usually leave my pc on and i occasionally turn it off or restart it. but one night i left it on and i went upstairs to go play a game and it wouldnt turn on. i switched power cords and all that and i took the psu out and called raidmax they gave me a test and it failed. it wasnt puttin power out. what could have caused this and could there be any damage to other parts of my pc?