Computers Amperage

[spaceman1701]

Hi,
If my computer theoretically went over my PSU's amperage, what would happen?

 

[CDdude55]

Hi,
If my computer theoretically went over my PSU's amperage, what would happen?

Happens all the time, granted, if it's to high a spike it could be an issue but generally if it's a small raise over standard spec then i wouldn't worry.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Hi,
If my computer theoretically went over my PSU's amperage, what would happen?

World economies would crash, earthquakes, floods ..... Oh nevermind, that's December 21st 2012

Depends on PSU....cheap ones fry sometimes if ya get half way there..... really good ones can handle a bit extra ... figure out what ya need here...

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

[inzone]

It would all depend on the psu and by how much you went over. All good quality brands have an over-voltage feature that allows a spike in the voltage , however they are not designed to run at the spiked level. The thing that would happen is the Pc could shut down or the application/game would crash , the video card could shut down. On some of the cheaper noname budget models they could blow up , start smoking , catch fire.

 

[ko888]

Hi,
If my computer theoretically went over my PSU's amperage, what would happen?

A properly designed and built power supply would have an OCP (i.e. Over Current Protection) circuit on each rail that would shut down the power supply to prevent any damage.

Improperly designed and built power supplies will usually self destruct and may destroy any device that is attached to them like your motherboard, graphics card, hard disk drives, etc.

 

[inzone]

Hi,
If my computer theoretically went over my PSU's amperage, what would happen?

This is one reason why I always advise people to get more of a power supply than what they need so there is ample extra watts , voltage and amps to spare. It never hurts to have extra and it really doesn't cost that much compared to replacing damaged components.

 

[spaceman1701]

Hmmmm... My theoretical question had to do with a friends computer... (I know that's not very theoretical).

His computer would suddenly black screen when playing a game. The more power it took to run the game the faster the black screen. The computer wouldn't crash, but to use it he would have to do a hard shutdown. I was thinking it could be a bad PSU. It is an HP computer. I don't really know the quality of the components they use... could the PSU be his issue?

 

[spaceman1701]

Best answer selected by spaceman1701.