impleri

Last Wednesday, my computer shot a spark out of its back (I’m assuming the power supply was the culprit).  I’ve ordered some new pieces, but wanted to know if there was a way of testing the parts at home (I’ve got a really nifty multi-function meter) to see what’s salvageable.  For instance, If I hook up a new power supply to a stripped down system (motherboard, cpu, and ram), do I run the risk of frying the power supply?  The problem seemed to start a few weeks ago when the system would seem to build up static electricity (yes, I installed the mobo correctly).  The system became sensitive around the front case fan (I had a total of three: one on the side, one in front, and one in the rear) and any sometimes touching the case would (1) cause a static discharge and (2) a system reset.  Since I didn’t have much time to fool with it beyond trying to figure out where that was coming from, my solution was to not touch it.  Well, Wednesday, it finally froze completely and would not shut down (even after attempting a hard reset), and my touch to the switch caused the fireball (it was cool, except for the dead system part).

So, here are some questions for other geeks:

1. Could the case (or the case fan) be contributing to the imbalance in static electricity?
2. Can using a new (and assumed good)  power supply on a possibly fried motherboard (or cpu) screw up the power supply?
3. I know that I can run memtest86 for the ram, but what about any tests for the motherboard and cpu?
4. I’ve got an external adapter for the hard drive (so I can transfer my data if it works without screwing up a system), but are there any good tests for it?