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Computer up in smoke litterally.

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Hello.

Recently I was using my computer and everything was fine, then it just shut off for no reason. I tried to power it back on but it tries to start for about 1/4 second (CPU Heatsink light/fan basically blinks) and then nothing. So, I figured it was my power supply Silverstone 650W.

I installed a new power supply and tried to start it up, then I got a big puff of smoke from my video card (all 5 capacitors blew).

System Specs:
- Windows XP SP3
- Asus A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939
- AMD X2 4400 Socket 939
- 1 GiG of Corsair DDR RAM
- Nvidia 7800GTS
- Powersupply Silverstone Zues 650W & Corsair 750W

I have 24pin power, 4 pin (8pin of PSU) and extra 5V attached to motherboard.

Questions:
1. Why did my computer shutoff and not power back on?

2. Why when swapping PSU my video card goes up in smoke? Did I give the motherboard too much power? Can I mess up placing the 8/4pin power connector on the board giving it too much power?

3. How should I fix this? I don't know if I wanna put another video card in there if it might go up in smoke?

Thanks

S

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sounds like it is time for a new computer...
1- Maybe there was a brown-out or current spike and your PSU didn't filter it properly (maybe there just wasn't built-in protection for it). Sometimes you need to let the capacitors bleed their power for a couple of seconds/minutes before you can start again. It happens when overclocking.

2- I'm thinking that accumulated energy in caps + extra jolt of power from a possibly still unstable line might have caused this. It's hard to tell without a multimeter.

3- Buy a new vidcard, by the looks of it. Also, this might be a good time to bring it in to the shop so that they can thoroughly check every component to see what's fried and what's not.

Reply to antiacid

+1

Not sure if it's worth paying the shop to verify that MB and CPU and RAM though. It may be cheaper to just replace them with better parts for about 100+200+50. Socket 939 can't be upgraded any more,btw.

Reply to aevm

I'll get a cheap v-card and try it out. I don't need another system (currently have 10 computers) but this one was a simple system that I used a lot. Hopefully a new v-card will get it working.

Is there anyway to screw up putting the 4pin power in?

Reply to snipster4

I'm sure if you really wanted, you could manage to

Reply to antiacid

So if I install a new v-card it shouldn't get fried right?

Reply to snipster4

The story makes me want to lecture you about buying quality PSUs... well, I do that a lot.

I'm frustrated today though, because you bought very high quality PSUs.

What do you mean by this statement?
"I have 24pin power, 4 pin (8pin of PSU) and extra 5V attached to motherboard." What is this "extra 5V" you speak of?

Reply to Proximon

proximon: High quality psu can die just as much...I once bought two antec that died a month apart from each other, same defect Those QA guys sometimes have extended lunches or sick days

Reply to antiacid

I fixed the problem by replacing the video card that had 6 capacitors blown with a new card is seems to be running fine. Not sure why it happened as I do have a good PSU and it seems to be working fine..

In regards the the 8pin connector is splits in two so you can connect the added 4pin power to your motherboard along with the normal 24pin.

Reply to snipster4

I would also invest in a decent spec UPS with line conditioner.

Clean power is king.

Here in South Africa the quality of our power is extremely questionable and I run practically all my electronics (Computers, Surround sound, TV and Cable) on a UPS.

It's worth the piece of mind, just not fun to have 6 UP's screaming at 3am during a power cut

Reply to ex-dohc

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