My brothers PC has died, apparently he was working away and it just died. I thought it was obviously a case of the power supply dieing so he bought one and put it in but still no joy. What else could have caused a PC to just die? (fuse in plug checked btw)

Short of the PSU. Motherboard I guess.

If the processor gets too hot it will just turn off like that, so check all the fans are working. Although in that scenario the computer will normally turn on if only for a few seconds before it overheats and cuts out.

Has he tried it with just the motherboard power in? Disconnect power from all drives and cards.

All good advice.

With the new PSU, it’s worth checking that he’s connected all the ancillary cables; modern boards often have secondary power connections for the CPU, graphics cards etc.

Look at the motherboard closely. Can you see signs of capacitor plague (google it)?

Does it power up at all? Lights coming on, fans spinning, sort of thing, or is it dead dead?

Fuse on the power lead.

Thanks all – described as dead dead no lights, nothing – I’ll get him to check for Capacitor Plague (new one on me, thanks)

Just got off the phone with him, no sign of capacitor plague but the new power supply he bought had a 20 pin motherboard power socket, while the motherboard only seems to have 16 😯

sometimes they use am 16+4 pin, so you can separate off the 4 pins you arent using.

this is if you buy a reputable brand, and not a cheap £8 jobby,of course.

If the motherboard and PSU cable are weldeded together – this is a bad sign.

He took it to a PC fixer chappy and it’s the motherboard apparently. Thanks for help.