Fixing a Viewer's BROKEN Gaming PC? - Fix or Flop S4:E6

So I'm pretty sure my computer got electrically fried. I was using my PC normally without running anything too intensive, and the computer just randomly shut off, as well as my monitors that were plugged into the same surge protector. The power flickered on and off as if we had lost power in the house, but it appeared to only be the outlet that contained my computer setup. I

assumed that my computer was protected because of the surge protector, but I did not replace it. I moved to a different spot on the power strip, hoping the strip wasn't the problem. This entire thing happened a second time, exactly like the first time. However, this time the computer did not turn on, sadly. I'm not sure if it's the CPU or motherboard that may have gotten fried.

The computer looks fine. There are no visual signs of burning, and the PC did not smoke whatsoever. I have no idea what happened to it or what the issue may be. I tried to plug the computer into a different outlet, and it did not turn on. This here is that viewer's broken gaming PC, and if what he says is true, this thing should not power on

at all. And I'm probably not going to attempt to power this on because of what was just described. If indeed there was a power surge of some sort, which it does sound like there was, and I'd really like to have the power strip on hand as well, because that could tell us a lot more about what we're working with here. Unfortunately, I don't have it. Then

I do not want to risk powering on this rig or attempting to, and damaging something else. If the power supply did its job in this case, it should be the only thing fried. So that's my angle of attack. I'm going to just replace and test this separately. We're going to isolate it from the rest of the rig so as to avoid any potential damage with other

components later. They may already be damaged, but again, it's not a risk I'm willing to take at this point. And this is something many of you have pointed out in the comments of previous Fixer Flop videos as well. So this one should be a lot of fun then, at least for me as the troubleshooter. I know it's bad news for the owner, but we're going to

hopefully get them back up and running here very soon. I do hope you will stay with me. To get rid of that annoying Windows activation watermark, head on over to VIP SCD Key. Purchase a Windows 10 Pro OEM key for a fraction of the price of retail. Just use a secure payment method like PayPal, enter your product key into your PC settings window, and say bye-bye

to the watermark. And be sure to use our offer code SKGS for a sweet discount. Hey there, and welcome to Fixer Flop. If you're new, just know that all the work you see us perform here is done absolutely free of charge to the owner of the rig in question. We do not charge these viewers a dime so long as they're okay with us filming these processes

and uploading them to YouTube. We typically, typically have maybe a pre-roll sponsor like the one you just saw, or at least a product sponsor of some sort. We might have one in this video depending on how it goes and what needs to be replaced. But to be completely frank with all of you, we make much more money on that side of things than we ever would

charging labor, let's say, and maybe a small parts upcharge for working on these rigs. And that's why we do this for free. And it's really because of all of you and your viewership. So thank you very much for that. I'm going to jump straight into troubleshooting. The very first thing I'm going to do, like I said again, is remove the power supply. I want to test

that separately. And then I also want to try powering the system on with a totally different PSU that I know works. You got to smile, buddy. Smile. There you go. Remember, Oma and Opa are watching, okay? Yeah. All right. You going to help Dada with the fixing the computer today? Yeah. Okay, let's go. He wants to make some extra cash today. I want the big monster

truck. Okay, I need you to push the power button right there. Push it down. There you go. Okay. And then push this button. There you go. The fan's turning on? Yeah. Wow. So that means the power supply is actually okay, at least according to this. This isn't bestowing any major load on it. It's just checking voltages, but all looks pretty good so far. So now I'm

wondering if the power strip he had the system plugged into was the thing that kicked the can when he had that surge, if that was what it was. That might have saved all of his components, including the power supply, which is why maybe it's reading okay so far. So now we're going to use our known working power supply. It's a 450-watt fanless unit. This we're going

to connect to his rig, and we're just going to still assume that that power supply is bad. If we can get the system to turn on with this unit, and we're also getting positive feedback from our tester on the original unit, then I'm at that point might be inclined to put that back in here and see if the rig works as it was when it arrived.

It's again, very possible at this point that that surge protector was what died. All right, buddy, I want you to go ahead and turn that switch on right there. Got it. Okay. And then we're going to actually, I think we can just push the power button. Oh, that was up top. Sorry, but I'll let you do it next time. Okay. All right, it does look like

the system is firing up, and this is much further than I believe the viewer got on his own. Some of these fans aren't spinning. It's just because the hub is not powered on. The CPU cooler fan is, however. So this looks like a full-on post. I saw the debug LEDs up top cycle through all of the colors, and I think we've got a post here. So

I'm going to go ahead and power the rig back off. And now at this point, I kind of want to try the old power supply again. And from my readings with my tester, it looks fine. So maybe nothing at all is actually damaged. It turns out because we've got to plug the big cable into the back here. Remember the one we just took out? So we've

got to plug it back into this one and then connect these cables back to this original computer. How do I connect? Where is it? I think it's back over there. Okay, I'll go get it. Okay. All right, so now we've got our portable monitor set up just in case the system does post with the original power supply. Go ahead and turn the power on there, buddy.

Good job. And then push this power button up top. Oh, the system turns on. Everything looks pretty good so far. Debug LED for VGA is lit. What's up, bud? Where's the fan? Is the fan spinning? You see it? Okay. And yes, we have a post now. So it doesn't look like anything in this person's rig was bad. I can't see it. There's no fan in there.

at all to this rig, either with the hard drive or the NVMe that I suspect is connected here because it boots up super fast or with any of the other peripherals. All the fans spin, the lights turn on. This looks like a healthy rig. I was a little worried that since the power supply seemed to be fine, there was something else in here that was causing

the short or preventing the system from powering on. But literally everything that was connected before is connected now, and we're not having any issues. So I suspect had I tried powering this up for the first time without swapping anything out, that it would have done just this. It would have turned on without issue. I am still glad, however, that I took the precaution just in case.

You never know. There's a lot of money and hardware on the line here. Now, despite my very strong belief at this point, the power supply is perfectly fine. You saw it booted up and was idling no issue. We cannot stress this. We cannot put it under any sustained load without logging into the rig, which I'd prefer not to do. And it sounds like something pretty nasty

did happen to at least maybe the power outlet or the power strip connected to it that all of these components were also connected to. It's just it sounds like a pretty big cluster, and I'd rather play it safe. I want to replace this power supply anyway to give him extra peace of mind. This here is the Be Quiet Dark Power 13, and this 750-watt unit not

only is a nice step up in the wattage department, but also is 80-plus titanium certified. That in and of itself is an extreme feat. I mean, just the precision, the degree of engineering needed to reach an 80-plus titanium efficiency across the entire wattage curve, across the entire power demand spectrum, whether you're pulling 100 watts or 600 or 700, this is going to be an extremely efficient

unit. It's also fully modular, and it looks pretty darn good, even though that really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. It's Be Quiet. I'm not really surprised that they decided to fancy this one up a bit. It also comes with a new cable standard for some modern graphics cards, meaning you don't have to have a bunch of splitters and things that are not pleasant

at all. You can learn more about the Dark Power 13, by the way, by clicking the sponsor link below. I want to give a shout to Be Quiet for continuing to be a product sponsor of this series. All right, so the unit is now in. We'll get things wired up, secured from the rear, and then we'll try firing up one more time just for that extra

peace of mind. Moment of truth, then. Just going to power it on. Everything is set up the way that it should be. I even cable managed. That's how confident I am in this. Yeah, let's just go for it. So, all looks healthy out of the gate. All the fans are spinning. LEDs are on. And right away, this thing really wants to fire up. That's great to

see. So, that's our post, and it's probably going to load straight into Windows here. Um, yeah, again, this was an odd one. Ultimately, nothing was wrong with the rig, but for some reason, the viewer was still having issues getting the rig to turn on at his house, and that's what I want to discuss next. So, Investigator Greg steps into the ring and decides to ask the

owner of the rig, without any context, whether he tried powering the system on from a totally different outlet, and whether he tried powering it on without the power strip. It was important that those two variables be removed, because those two, I obviously can't account for, but they're really the only two others involved in this entire ordeal. If the system works fine at my house, then what

else remains at his house that could have gone wrong? And I think only those two things could have, unless that particular outlet has a dedicated breaker, and maybe it tripped for some reason, but I highly doubt that's the case. That's not usually how homes are designed. Usually, it's by room or by section of the house. So, his response to these things was yes to both. He

plugged the computer into a different outlet entirely, albeit in the same room, and then he also removed the power strip from the equation. That's when I spilled the beans and told him that everything works here, seems to have no issues running. I then clarified that despite the rig working here, he should still play it safe and consider swapping out the outlets themselves. It's possible maybe all

of those went bad. He said he could still get his monitors to turn on, which is interesting, but not the computer from the same outlet, mind you. So, maybe the cable involved? That usually doesn't go bad either, but you never really know. So, it's important that he just tries to start with a clean slate. Remove the power strip, buy another one, replace the outlets in the

room, triple check the breaker for that room, and then maybe replace the power cable. At that point, I mean, you're talking about dealing with the power company, whoever's sending the power to your house. Beyond that, there's not much more you can do. Also, try a different room in your house. Those would be my suggestions. I can't really try much else here because, well, everything I see

here works fine. It's really out of my control. So, that's pretty much where we have to leave this one. The owner feels a bit embarrassed that we had to go through the motions here only to find out that everything seems to work. That's not an issue at all with me. Don't feel bad about that. It happens to the best of us, and I'm certainly not the

best in this industry, but I've run into many of my own issues, and you guys have seen many of those on camera. I'm not afraid to show them. If I can make mistakes doing this for a living, then, of course, it's very possible that others who just dabble in this stuff could also overlook things that could lead you down rabbit holes that you really shouldn't be

down. In this case here, if the system was not powering on, maybe the first things we should have checked were the power cable running to the unit, maybe replacing that to rule it out, checking the power outlet, checking the breaker in the home, as well as the power strip if one was involved. A surge protector like that can and sometimes will take the fall for a

power surge. That's why it's called a surge protector. So removing that from the equation is also a good thing to do before concluding that something internally is wrong with your desktop. You want to sit right there? Okay. All right. So we got to end the video now, buddy. You got to tell everybody thank you for watching. Thank you for watching. And say hopefully you learned something.

Hopefully you learned something. Yeah, and so did I. I learned something too. So did I. Oh, you learned something? Yeah. What did you learn? I learned building your computer. Oh, you learned how to build a computer? Yeah. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Hey, everyone, thanks for watching. Like, subscribe and tell them to stay tuned for the next one. Okay. Stay tuned. Stay tuned for the

next one. For the next one. Bravo. My name is Greg. His name is Greg. Thanks for learning with us. Thanks for joining us. Hey, good job, buddy. Say bye. Bye.