Power Connector from PSU to Epox 8KHA+ has melted?

[GokuFurinji]

Posting this for a friend as it's his PC that's just gone west

Just wondering what would cause the ATX Power Connector from his 235w Enermax PSU to weld itself into the Power Connector on his Epox 8KHA+ board?

The RED wires from the PSU all look burned inside the connector and thus have welded themselves to the point that the connector cannot be removed from the board!

We removed all the cards from the PC (SB Live, D-Link NIC, Advansys SCSI) and unplugged all peripherals (CD-ROM/CD-WRITER/DVD-ROM/Floppy/2nd HD) Leaving just an ASUS Geforce3,1st HD and a few CASE FANS with power. The machine would boot up then just loose power while booting, but the CASE FANS would still spin, then the PC would reboot itself without anything being touched? It would either then totally power off while booting or just keep the CASE FANS spinning again?

We eventually had to cut all the wires from the PSU to the connector to get the PSU and board free from the machine.

The question we face now is:

1. Was it the PSU that was faulty?
2. Was it the MOBO that was faulty?
3. Or was it the Connector on the PSU/MOBO that was faulty?

Anyone encounterd this phenomenon before?

 

[soulprovider]

As the heat was being generated at the plug, it's likely thats where a short occured. Lift out the board and check that theres nothing underneath it shorting out the pins like a screw or other metalic bits.

If your friend had just worked on the machine then there could be a wire strand or something that fell down into the plug or somewhere.

<b>Vorsprung durch Dontwerk</b>.....<i>as they say at VIA</i>

 

[GokuFurinji]

We didn't find anything under the board nor did we see any evidence of the board itself being burnt around the connector or any foreign items in the connector itself, only the red +12v wires showed any evidence of excessive heat.

He said it's been a pig to boot since he installed both PSU and MOBO nearly a year ago. When he switched the machine on it just would not boot, just hang. It would then need the RESET button pressing to make it boot? But now it's finally expired.

He's replacing the board with an Epox 8K5A2+, PSU with a 420W HiperPower Active PSU and replacing the case with a Xaser III, so let's hope this lot lasts longer than a year

 

[Teq]

You probably had a bad connection on that 12v rail from day one. It probably fused together because it was arcing, like a welder. That would also explain the poor stability and boot failures.

It could probably be fixed... the power supply connector could be replaced and the motherboard connector can probably be replaced as well... but you'd have to be pretty good with a soldering iron to do it.



--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[GokuFurinji]

I contemplated soldering a new connector on the MOBO at least, the PSU would need some fancy crimping tool which we don't have. But like my mate said, there's still no guaranteeing that some component on the MOBO or in the PSU hadn't been damaged and the same fault or some other fault would surface. So he opted to trust neither and thus bought new kit, therefore eliminating any doubt.

I think this is payback for his wife kicking a Robin out of his greenhouse!!

 

[Teq]

Yeah that's probably the safest thing to do.

I've changed connectors before and they work ok. You really gotta run the diagnostics before you trust the board again, though. Of course, when you start soldering on a mobo the warranty is toast.



--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[GokuFurinji]

I rang him up this morning to see if any bits of his new kit hade come, but thay hadn't. He's also binned the PSU + MOBO so that's the end of the story, can't tempt fate now

Thanks for all the input guys.

 

[rcj187]

you were running all that from a 235W psu????? sheeesh im suprised you didnt blow the psu
get at least a 350w for his new system!
if you want my guess you simply overloaded the psu although i would guess that the psu would die before the damge you described occured. oh well sh*t happens

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by rcj187 on 05/01/03 04:00 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Hesman]

But with Epox 8kta3+ pro. Seems like Epox use connectors with too thin pins on the board connector. Asus connector are a lot thicker and make a better and tighter fit for for most psu connector. I certainly got a bad combination with my MB and PSU, the platic at the psu connector melted at one side of it. But it was still usable, I just tightened the "she contacts" at the psu connector so they now get a better grip on the mb connector pins.

 

[khha4113]

With all those components and peripherals he had in his comp, apparently the Power supply (235W!!!) was overloaded!

Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.