Fried PSU?

[Winter09]

Ok, I noticed a few days ago, my lights for power and hdd on the front of the case weren't working anymore, oh well no biggie I thought. Well I shut down my comp tonite, but when I went to power it on again....nothing. I figured something might be wrong with my front panel so I hooked the connectors up to my other comp, hit the power button, and nothing. I then decided that I would try to boot up my first comp by using the power switch of my second one. So I got it all hooked up, hit the power button, it powered up, but sparks started flying in the PSU. Qucikly shut off the PSU with the rear switch. I let it sit for about 30 mins, and, hoping some miracle may have happened, decided to try and power it on again. The fans came on for a few seconds and then died. That's when I started looking for a new PSU, and I came across a webpage that had a tip for seeing if the PSU was dead by connecting the green cable and a ground cable in the mobo power connector with a paperclip and plugging in one fan. I decided to give it a go. The fan in the PSU and the fan I hooked up both worked. I then hooked up another fan, but just the first two continued to work.
So my conclusion is that the PSU is pretty much, but not totally, fried. it seems to have some juice, but very little. Anyone have some other tips for testing if a PSU is alive? Also I wouldn't mind any tips on how to get my power switch and LEDs working again as well =)
Thanks in advance!

 

[Zepper]

Power switches and LEDs are passive devices - as long as they are hooked up right, they either work or not. Most likely there's nothing wrong with them. It's possible that in its dying, your PSU took your mobo with it. For your sake, I hope not...
.bh.

 

[amdskip]

Sounds like motherboard/power supply related. Test them out on different systems to determine which is at fault.

 

[Winter09]

I hooked up my other power supply (known to be working) the the nonworking computer. It comes on for just a few seconds then shuts off =(
I fear the worst (whaaaa). I haven't tried hooking the first power supply up the the second comptuer yet, should I try that to check the first power supply?
Also what exactly does all this mean, it the mobo gone? what about the CPU and RAM, and drives, etc? do I need to check them all to see if they are dead?
Thanks.

 

[Winter09]

Nother update, I put the new power supply into the old computer and nothing so it seems as though the power supply is dead for sure. A friend suggested that I try flashing the bios to the new mobo before I count it out for sure. Does this sound reasonable to anyone? Also how would I go about flashing the bios (it's a Phoenix bios btw)?
Guess that's all for now....
Thanks.

 

[Winter09]

ok I put the old psu back in the old computer so I could at lease mess with that, and now that doesn't eve turn one. Did I just somehow effectively null 2 systems?? This is f**ked up and driving me nuts =/

 

[Winter09]

I was reading some other sites and some ppl were saying that a bad BIOS chip would cause the computer to just come on for a sec then go off again. Is there anyway to test if a BIOS chip is really dead or is it just a 50/50 chance type thing when bying a new chip?