PC went "bang"!!

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annie0000

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Nov 25, 2017
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510
My son's PC has blown up how can I check what is wrong and if there is anything salvageable?

He and his brother changed the motherboard and CPU, it initially shorted but they seem to have resolved that and it's been running fine for a few weeks. Last night it went bang. There was a smoky smell and it shorted the house sockets. He said that prior to it blowing he was doing a windows upgrade. Any idea if anything is likely to be salvageable?
 
Solution
kanewolf
Unknown. "Bang" is probably internal to the power supply. Could the initial "short" have contributed? Possibly. All you can do is visually inspect everything for burned or blackened plugs and parts. If a visual inspection is clean, then install a high quality power supply like a Seasonic. Connect it and see what happens. Be prepared to pull the cord from the wall.
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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May 29, 2013
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Unknown. "Bang" is probably internal to the power supply. Could the initial "short" have contributed? Possibly. All you can do is visually inspect everything for burned or blackened plugs and parts. If a visual inspection is clean, then install a high quality power supply like a Seasonic. Connect it and see what happens. Be prepared to pull the cord from the wall.
 
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annie0000

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Nov 25, 2017
8
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510
Thank you. I'm just waiting for him to tidy his room and I'll take the PC out and have a look. What do you think could have caused the initial short? Thinking that we may need to find that out so that it doesn't happen again.
 
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annie0000

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Nov 25, 2017
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510
That was my thought. I did ask elder son to check that after the first short and he said he had, but who knows....he's supposed to be the knowledgeable one, I'm just his middle-aged mum. I'm away to collect it now and have a good look at whether there is any obvious damage.
 
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annie0000

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Nov 25, 2017
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510
Thank you. From first glance it seems to be clean of any burns or charring so it may be localised to the PSU. I'm going to take it all apart anyway and check the spacers as I remain unconvinced that all is well with those. Is there likely to be damage to the CPU or graphics card do you think? <realise I'm asking how long is a piece of string but asks anyway...>
 
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tsnor

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Nov 20, 2008
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Glad no one was hurt. Hope most of the equipment survived.

Some PSUs are known good, some are bad others are in-between. This list might help find a replacement. There are no police for power supply specs and the "$20 on sale, $40 regular price" PSUs often have very incorrect specs. Don't trust them, trust reviews by places the tear down power supplies like hardwaresecrets and jonnyguru.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

In a reasonable PSU a short causes the PSU to shutdown, not explode.
Reasonable PSUs give proper voltage with low ripple.
I'd stick with a tier 1 or tier 2 power supply. You can find $50 units in tier 1 and 2.

 
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tsnor

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Nov 20, 2008
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+1 "Be prepared to pull the cord from the wall."

Or use a power strip with an on/off switch. The power button on a PC is a signal to the MB, it does not cut power and is not useful if something is shorting. The on/off switch on a power strip will cut power, as will pulling the cord.


 
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annie0000

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Nov 25, 2017
8
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510
Thank you for the info about the switch, all uk sockets have a switch but this was also run through a socket strip with a switch and I'll use that too.

PSU was a CIT Pentium 4 500U - it'll be a reasonable age though as my son bought this from someone at least 3 years ago and it would be a year or two old at that point.
 
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DavidVioMC

DavidVioMC

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Apr 25, 2016
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CiT is a really bad company and I always tell people to stay away from it, they're made cheaply, which is why they're included in a lot of the new PC Cases for sale when it says 'Case + xxxW PSU'

I would recommend a EVGA PSU, as far as I know, EVGA has one of the best PSU protection systems, if they do blow up, the PSU will try to save another components from itself shorting out or such.

 
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annie0000

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Nov 25, 2017
8
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510
Thanks again. I've now ripped it apart and the motherboard standoffs were all present, maybe it was nothing to do with the new CPU/Motherboard at all and it was just it's time to fail. Anyway, I'll get it all clean and tidy ready for a new PSU.
 
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annie0000

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Nov 25, 2017
8
0
510
Hi All, thank you for your help with this. Just to update you, we got a new power supply, no EVGA in stock locally and son was desperate to see if he still had a PC so we picked up a Corsair and installed it and put everything back together again. Appears to be no damage to anything else and we also installed an extra hard drive and it's all working like a dream. :)
 
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