Did my PSU just blow?

S

scubasteve101

New Member
I have a 420W Turbolink PSU that has been acting up lately. One of the fans on it has been making an intermittent grinding noise. It's been it's normal sounding self for the past 2 days or so but i've been smelling a hot electrical smell coming from the case. I continued checking the CPU/GPU temps every so often and they were nothing unusual but about an hour ago my whole computer randomly cut off. It attempted to restart itself but I cut the power for fear of the PSU damaging anything.
I'm assuming this means my power supply just blew up? Immediately after it happened I removed the side of my case and the PSU was very hot and I have not attempted to restart it since.
Is there anyway to test this thing to make sure it was the problem?
 
Its normal for the PSU to give a slight smell like that when New.

But if the temps are that hot (my PSU is cold to the touch) then i think the wiring wasnt done properly or a capacitor or something blew

Personally, i wouldnt use it or repair it.

Cause if the PSU spikes, then all your components will fry...

Next time, get a Quality PSU like Corsair, PCP & C or something along those lines...

Never skimp out on the quality of your PSU. It is the important part of your computer (your computer as a machine, not performance)
 
computer_freak said:
its normal for the psu to give a slight smell like that when new.

But if the temps are that hot (my psu is cold to the touch) then i think the wiring wasnt done properly or a capacitor or something blew

personally, i wouldnt use it or repair it.

Cause if the psu spikes, then all your components will fry...

Next time, get a quality psu like corsair, pcp & c or something along those lines...

Never skimp out on the quality of your psu. It is the important part of your computer (your computer as a machine, not performance)
Click to expand...

+1
 
yeah its definetly a sign that its failing or going to die, i had a psu, and unknown to me was that one of the fan blades of its 120mm fan had snapped off causing the fan jam, making the Psu overheat, and finally burn out.

I at first smelt that electrical smell, opened the case looked around, saw nothing, it was only after i put the case back together and had it running for about 24hrs that it finally died, it would boot and then cut out at random times. then after a bit of this it would not start at all.

seeing as one of your fans, seems broken....grinding noises.... it may be similar

from personal experience

if you got it under warranty id suggest going to get it replaced, if you dont got a warrenty new PSU's range from 45$ to about 80$ for a good quality one.
 
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Could be your fan is wearing out, and if it's not pushing as much air as normal the PSU could be overheating causing your smell.
 
Didn't blow up.

Slightly irrelevant but...

Few years ago, my dad bought a Gateway computer from the U.S.
He had his friend with him and they hat plugged it in and the monitar and everything and turned it on.
Then the PSU blew up, not smoke and bad smell, it actually blew up. Huge bang that nearly gave everyone there a heart attack.
It was a mixed fault of the people at Gateway and my dad, but the PSU was set the the U.S 110 V power settings but was plugged in to a European 230 V socket. So it overloaded and blew up.
 
scubasteve101 said:
I have a 420W Turbolink PSU that has been acting up lately. One of the fans on it has been making an intermittent grinding noise. It's been it's normal sounding self for the past 2 days or so but i've been smelling a hot electrical smell coming from the case. I continued checking the CPU/GPU temps every so often and they were nothing unusual but about an hour ago my whole computer randomly cut off. It attempted to restart itself but I cut the power for fear of the PSU damaging anything.
I'm assuming this means my power supply just blew up? Immediately after it happened I removed the side of my case and the PSU was very hot and I have not attempted to restart it since.
Is there anyway to test this thing to make sure it was the problem?
Click to expand...

1. Turbolink makes horrible units.
2. It shouldnt be a strong smell, if anything it should just be a slight smell from the dieletric grease and such used in the unit
3. If you have a digital multimeter, check the rail voltages and see if they are outside of the atx specs, but i would highly suggest getting another unit because those crappy power supplies can give out and blow other components such as mobo/disk drives/graphics cards/etc.
 
bomberboysk said:
1. Turbolink makes horrible units.
2. It shouldnt be a strong smell, if anything it should just be a slight smell from the dieletric grease and such used in the unit
3. If you have a digital multimeter, check the rail voltages and see if they are outside of the atx specs, but i would highly suggest getting another unit because those crappy power supplies can give out and blow other components such as mobo/disk drives/graphics cards/etc.
Click to expand...

+1

zanii said:
Slightly irrelevant but...

Few years ago, my dad bought a Gateway computer from the U.S.
He had his friend with him and they hat plugged it in and the monitar and everything and turned it on.
Then the PSU blew up, not smoke and bad smell, it actually blew up. Huge bang that nearly gave everyone there a heart attack.
It was a mixed fault of the people at Gateway and my dad, but the PSU was set the the U.S 110 V power settings but was plugged in to a European 230 V socket. So it overloaded and blew up.
Click to expand...

The word you are looking for is completely, not slightly.
 
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