PSU Smoking and GFX Card not working now

[ivtecm]

Yesterday my 500w powersupply started smoking up so I went out and bought a Thermaltake Lightpower 700w powersupply. After I finished rewiring my computer I noticed my graphics card wasn't working on my computer so I changed my input from HDMI to VGA to use the integrated graphics card.

I'm not sure what caused the original 500w powersupply to smoke up and why my graphics card doesn't work anymore. I'm unsure whether the graphics card isn't working because i've made a mistake in wiring the connection from my PSU to motherboard or if the PSU killed it.

Yesterday I also received a USB Wireless Receiver for Xbox which I plugged in the top USB slots I never use, could this be a reason for the PSU faulting? Sometimes when I plug in a USB device the metal surrounding the slots spark up a little which is why I mentioned the USB wireless receiver.

Below are the specifications of my system:

AMD Phenom X4 955 Black Edition 3.2ghz
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H
Kingston 2x4GB Ram 1333mhz
(New PSU) Thermaltake Lightpower 700w - (Old PSU) 500w
Sapphire Radeon HD6850 1GB GDDR5 Firmware flashed to HD6870

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Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[avenseth12]

What was the brand of your 500 watt PSU and how old was it? It sounds like it crapped out. Are the USB slots on your case? It sounds like you have a short in the wiring that is causing the spark. I would not use a USB device with that.

I bet when your PSU went out it took your GPU with it. If you can RMA the GPU and start over.

 

[ivtecm]

Thanks for the reply. The slots are on my motherboard that I use but the sparks also happen on the front panel USB slots of my case. I don't think the manufacturer will do anything as the card is flashed to 6870. ATM I gave the GFX card to the shop I bought it from and they are going to try repair it under warrantee but if they manage to fix it, they'll notice it's flashed and probably cancel my warrantee. If the PSU did damage my GFX card, do you think it would be repairable? Cheers.

 

[avenseth12]

If the PSU did damage the GPU it most likely will not be repairable. Sorry to say this but I would like into replacing the MOBO as well. It sucks but you dont want sparks flying anywhere with a PC.

 

[jaideep1337]

yes it sounds like your PSU took the GPU with it. It would be pretty hard to repair since the VRMs must be busted too

 

[twelve25]

Are you sure you ran the PCIe power plug(s) to your graphics card when you replaced the power supply? That would be easy to overlook.

you should not have any sparks, ever, in a computer. I don't know what's wrong with your USB port, but that's bad.

 

[ivtecm]

Thanks for the replys everyone.

Could it be the case causing the sparks?