New P4 (w/hyperthreading), SATA hd, 512 Mb ram, on a Foxconn m/b new (used a few months); ran fine with SuSE 10.2. I loaded Mandriva Spring 2007 edition. On reboot power shut down. Nada. Kaput. No response when turn on power. The Mandriva loaded & ran fine on an older pc (w/AMD Athlon).
Opened case, but no obvious smell of burnt parts.
I tried another power supply, a 400W (original was 350W).
When I push the power button, the power light on front panel lights for a fraction of a second. Fan on chip tries to move.
If the chip were burnt, would it behave this way, would the POST repond, at least? Or, should I assume that the 400W power supply is faulty and purchase another? Is there a simple way to test the power supply without connecting it to another pc? Do newer power supplies contain an overheat sensor which may be open?
Any advice appreciated.
Tom

It seems unlikely that an operating system change is causing such a problem--especially since it was fine until reboot.

Did you change any components about the time you started having problems? Did you change any BIOS settings?

It could be a failed ATX power switch on the motherboard (or a loose wire, for that matter).

If the problem was a loose heat sink on the CPU or a failing heat sink fan, it would probably stay on for a few seconds before it shut itself down to protect itself from overheating. Your description sounds like it's faster than that--a fraction of a second. Still, you should check.

The power supply is a likely candidate, and I have heard of people purchasing new ones that did not work. It doesn't happen often, though. Usually there are other signs for failing power supplies like random reboots before it fails completely. If you want to test it, You will probably get the most reliable results if you have a service shop look at it. There is a way of measuring the voltages with a meter, but a common voltmeter in the vicinity of static discharge sensitive components seems a little risky to me.

Cogar is correct. You can't blame hardware failure on software. The software only comes into play AFTER the computer's hardware has successfully started and the BIOS has posted.

As a caveat, there are 2 types of software that could conceivably cause a hardware failure:
- invalid BIOS update. This is not a function of any OS that I know of, as you must download BIOS update software and flash files from the mainboard manufacturer, and you'd know if you were doing this.
- A system burn-in was being run. Burn-in software is typically intensive on the system's hardware, such as memory and CPU testing, and is typically only run during testing of new hardware. This type of software can cause your chips to heat up a bit, but with normally operating heat dissipation (heat sinks and fans), this should not be an issue.

I recommend that you examine your hardware and cables for shorts and bad components.