Why did the wires from my power supply to the motherboard melt

Rayn88

Distinguished
Jun 9, 2010
14
0
18,510
Hello,
i recently built a computer everything new except my hdd. in the specs for the mobo it says it needs a min. of 450w i have a 530w. the power supply has an led light also. at first when i tried to start the computer the fans and lights lit up for maybe a second thats with both atx connected. the 12 pin and the 4 pin. then i took the 4 pin out and it started up but wouldn't boot up. and there is a red switch on the back of the power supply that i think changes the output. because i can get the compter to turn on but the wires to the 4 pinstart smoking and i already melted some. then used electrical tape and taped them up. is the reason my wires are melting because i still don't have enough power?
 

magruder13

Distinguished
Nov 27, 2008
270
0
18,790
Your mobo may need 450w, but your HDD needs some, and your CPU needs some, and your fans need their share.

The red switch on the back... It says 110 and 220. A standard outlet is 110, if you put it on 220 i'm not sure what would happen. Nothing good though.

My advise, dont build something unless you know what you're doing.
 

Rayn88

Distinguished
Jun 9, 2010
14
0
18,510
I had feeling that it had to do with the power so i went ahead and got a 630w hoping that will be enough. it comes in today. but i still have the fear that it may not be the problem. I still don't understand why the 12 pin is fine but the 4 pin or cpu power over heated and melted I've been looking for the specs. i think it's 600w so does that mean that the 630w still wont be enough?
 
Its actually 24-pins and 8-pins connectors. The 24-pins connector supplies power to the motherboard, and the 8-pins connector supplies power to the CPU.

If you have a red switch at the back of the PSU, it is for selecting 220/110 Volts input. Whatever you did, if the wires (insulation) on the 8-pins connector melted, it means that there is a short-circuit somewhere that caused it.

DO NOT re-connect anything until the source of the short-circuit is determined and corrected.
 
I hope your new PSU doesnt have the red switch on it too. That is a sign of an older or crappier design.

Check your motherboard for bulged or burst capacitors, the extra power that melted your 4 pin connector likely damaged other components on your motherboard.
 

Rayn88

Distinguished
Jun 9, 2010
14
0
18,510
my mobo is an extrme design M4A88TD-V Evo/usb3 i'll try to get links i'm a lil pressed for time right now. i have a PNY Verto GeForce 210 graphics card. CPU is AMD Phenom II X4 955 X4. 2X 2GB ADATA DDR3 1333 for RAM. 3 diff. Fans
 

Rayn88

Distinguished
Jun 9, 2010
14
0
18,510
thank you guys for your input it helped out i figured out the problem only to run into another one. my mobo wont recognize my hard drive. am i wrong to think that all i should have to do is have everything plugged in correctly and start up properly so it will boot up to windows? the OS should be on the hdd right? i shouldn't have to try and install my OS with the disk like i am in order to try to get my hdd to be recognized should i?
 

asteldian

Distinguished
Apr 23, 2010
1,116
0
19,360
Make sure the HDD is in the Sata port, make sure the HDD is connected to the power supply.

If it is an old HDD from another computer then the fact it has an OS on it is irrelevant, you need to reinstall an OS else it will not boot.

You need to put the OS disk in your DVD drive, you need to go into the Bios and change boot order to DVD drive as first boot device and then go through installing the OS
 

Rayn88

Distinguished
Jun 9, 2010
14
0
18,510
i have done that and vista which i have says there is no hdd in any SATA port and i assure you it is there. i just got realised in my manual it says that NTFS is not supported in DOS invironment could that be why it won't recognise it should i convert it to FAT32?
 

ohiou_grad_06

Distinguished
Hopefully you didn't burn something....I know with one build I did, I cheaped on the power supply, took the motherboard out. Started not reading IDE ports, and there you had it. Could try another sata port, and a new cable to be safe. But it's possible you fried something on the board, or the hard drive itself.
 

fastx21

Distinguished
Feb 15, 2010
452
0
18,810
I don't think so your board is fairly current so there's no way it can't recognize a ntfs boot partition. Either you're doing something wrong or you're doing something wrong.

Set oyur sata drives to AHCI mode. And just boot with the HD and dvd drive, no extra ide drives if you had those connected. But as suggested I'm thinking you fried something as well.
 

Rayn88

Distinguished
Jun 9, 2010
14
0
18,510
yeah i went to justanswer.com and talked to another expert he didn't say i fried anything but he did say that i probably got a mobo that had SATA problems that didn't allow it to recognize hdd so i'm going to try to exchange it and i know that my hard drives are ok because i booted using both of them on my old computer which i'm on right now. i just don't understand why it will recognize my cd rom drive but not my hdd. amd it has to be the ports also because i go to install vista and it doesn't find it either.
 

Idlewild

Distinguished
Jun 5, 2010
16
0
18,510
Raidmax has notoriously terrible PSUs, their PSUs deliver two/thirds its rated wattage, poor voltage stability and ripple suppression, and full of cheap caps that will fail very fast.

Go for Antec, Seasonic, or Corsair.