PC Blew up

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Christopher Nelson

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May 15, 2014
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Hi Guys,

Looking for a little help here, We had a power outage last night in our area. when i got home the power was back on. Booted PC and we were working for a while perfectly. Around 11pm it froze for a couple of seconds and went off.. then It popped twice and i saw orange flashes and smelt smoke.
Took it apart but could not see any smoke and the smell went away pretty fast. I could not really see any blown capacitors or any smoke marks anywhere which was frustrating.
I am hoping its my PSU as i have an AM2+ board and i want to get this fixed today and they arent available on the high street and i dont fancy doing a complete cpu ddr3 Uprgade right now.

My question is though, there seems to be some power to the board as the USB lights on the back light up when the power cable is connected. would the PSU actually still supply anything to the board? will it be coming through a different voltage rail? or am i looking at a new Mobo?

i need to buy a new PSU anyway so i will find out tonight if anything else is fried, but wondering if anyone has any idea so i can grab an old mobo from someone on my way home.

Cheers in advance
 
Solution
esco_sid
a broken power supply is the most likely culprit and they can still provide some power to the motherboard when they are broken but it wont boot the machine
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mickypheonix

mickypheonix

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Mar 9, 2014
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hi Christopher Nelson
By the sounds of it your psu may have died , i wouldn't hook it up to another motherboard and would be hesitant about using it again , put your nose close to the psu fan powered off obviosly and see if it smells burnt , if so dont use it as you may damage your motherboard and or components
 
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avarice

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I agree with the assessment that you likely blew up your PSU and with luck the other bits are fine. To verify - you need to open the case and inspect the MB for any scorch marks (you did blow something up - it will leave a resedue at the very least). Also in inspecting the PSU - look for burnt redisue. Whever you find the burned bits - that is where the bulk of the damage was done.

If the New PSU does not solve your problem - the next step I would suggest is replacing the MB and then possibly the CPU.

Good luck.
 
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Azn Cracker

Azn Cracker

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Invest in a surge protector for the future. It may have saved your pc. but as others said. replace the psu. There are ways of checking if the psu is working without plugging it into the pc. check youtube for the paperclip method
 
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Christopher Nelson

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May 15, 2014
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Cheers Guys,
Seemed that it simply was the PSU thankfully, i replaced it and it managed to boot. I have a surge protector in the house so i will be hooking that up to my PC. I think i may have been touch and go on the PSU capability as i was adding hard drives but thinking that 700W would be ok. I suppose gradually it took its toll. I have gone for a 1kw PSU now so hopefully i should be fine.

Thanks Again
 
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westom

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1) So your computer is so hot as to also toast four slices of bread? Too many bogus assumptions are made.

Your computer probably consumes something less than 200 watts most of the time. And at rare peaks, it might consume over 300 watts. But since most computer assemblers do not know how to spec a power supply, we tell them to buy a PSU over twice the required power. Is anyone using their computer to toast bread? Of course not. Because no computer is consuming anywhere near to 600 watts.

2) Undersizing a PSU does not damage any PSU. Largest load is a short circuit. Standard test for all PSUs is to short all outputs together. Even that maximum load must cause no PSU failure. Your assumption of failure due to too much power is popular fable.

3) How much increased power due to disk drives? Each drive consumes maybe 2 watts. How many does it take to overload a 600 watt supply?

4) Some assume more watts is a more reliable supply. Too many watts can mean a less reliable supply. In some cases, operating a supply closer to a maximum load means less strain on the supply. Bottom line, more watts does not mean increased reliability - despite wild speculation that says otherwise.

5) Adjacent protector also does nothing useful. Zero reasons were posted to suspect a surge did damage. Otherwise plenty of less robust appliances also need replacement - such as clocks, dishwasher, GFCIs, dimmer switches, etc. How many other appliances were damaged by a surge?

That power strip only claims to protect from surges that typically cause no damage.

6) Most all PSU failures are due to manufacturing defects. A defective PSU can even boot a computer for years. We all saw a perfect example. Counterfeit electrolytic capacitors were a classic example. Electronics started failing even years later. A classic manufacturing defect best explains your failure. Unfortunately, the naive use what they were told in advertising to hype that into surge damage.

 
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