Computer will no longer power on

[zolale]

Hi! I am new here! I am pretty good with computer software, but hardware not so much.

So, I went to power on my PC, and heard a brief electrical sound, and then a small burnt smell. Can you recommend steps to take?

I bought a new power supply and compressed air to clean the inside (it wasn't too bad, but definitely could use a clean, and CPU fan seems a little dusty). If I try to power it up after cleaning, can I just leave the just essentials? That is to say, not power on the optical drive or secondary HDD (it was the primary, but a friend upgraded me to a SSD a couple of years ago).

Thanks kindly!

[Lisa_maree]

Hi

Does the old power supply smell burnt like the smell you describe as a small burnt smell. If So what power supply make and model is it. Also what power supply are you installing. 

I would leave the drives disconnected and just start the computer with the motherboard connected first if the screen displays anything, then  connect the SSD and see if the computer boots then connect the other drives.

[Geek-9pm]

How old is your PC?
Was it a factory  model or home made? 
What CPU does it have?

[zolale]

Apologies for the delay.

Lisa_maree: It's been a little while, so I cannot tell where the smell came from anymore. Old PSU is OCZ ModX Stream-Pro 500W. The one I bought is a Corsair 550W TX550M.

Geek-9pm: It is from 2011, home made, it has a Sandy Bridge i5, Quad Core, not sure which exactly.

[Lisa_maree]

Well the good news is the old supply is fully protected so if anything goes wrong with the power supply it will shut down to protect the other computer parts.

When you swapped the power supply did you replace all the cables, the cables from the power supply to the computer components. Modular cables can be wired differently between PSU manufactures.

Also you could try using just the motherboard power and the cable supplied for the cpu power and see if the computer starts.

[zolale]

Apologies for the delay! I will try in short order.

My friend who built the computer seems to think the MoBo and all (save for external components, like the old platter HDD) are dead. I think I will upgrade with his help, but would like to potentially see if I can get it to boot so I can assess some old projects I have on the go (video editing for example).

[patio]

You do NOT need to get the old HDD to boot to save/use your data...put it in a workin desktop as a slave drive and retrieve all your data...
The PC is dead...the HDD isnt