PSU Blew up

kam

kam

Member
Hi all :)
So basically yesterday I was on my computer when I heard a sound that sounded like a fan was rubbing something. So as I got up to turn on my light and crack my case open, I heard crackling/banging sounds and I saw sparks coming from inside my computer. I stepped back and then it stopped, my computer shut down a and I started to smell a burning scent...I quickly ran over and unplugged my PSU and waited for a bit just incase there was actually something that could harm me exposed inside the case. So about 10 minutes after I just said f*** it and I unplugged it and opened it up. My fear was that my GPU got fried by a wire getting caught up in a fan on the GPU and it going haywire and exploding. As I opened it I didn't see any immediate damage, no wires were broken, the cpu fan wire wasn't broken or anything, my GPU looked fine so I naturally put my hand on the case and PSU to discharge myself and the PSU was very hot. I unscrewed it and took it out and noticed pretty much straight away the the burning scent was coming from inside the PSU. I didn't want to open it because I'm no electrician and you should never open one if you have no clue what you're doing (me) so I gave it a shake to listen if anything was loose inside and indeed there was. I tried to empty whatever was making the rattling sound but it wasnt coming out so I shined a light inside and saw a small piece of metal that looked like it broke off and my guess is that it touched an amp or something which shortened out the PSU and fried it completely. So the PSU is in the trash and my question is, is there a possibility that my other hardware could've got fried? I.e motherboard, GPU or CPU? I know the ram and cpu are pretty much a 'lifetime no break' thing so I'm not too worried about them, but what about my mobo and GPU? If anyone knows anything about this kind of stuff I'd be happy to hear because I don't want to go and buy a new PSU to find out my whole system is dead.
Thanks all! :)
 
you could look at the printed circuits on all your hardware but realistically speaking you wont know for sure until you try another psu.
 
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aldan said:
you could look at the printed circuits on all your hardware but realistically speaking you wont know for sure until you try another psu.
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Yeah I know I won't know for sure until I get a new one, just wondered if there was any secrets out there I didn't know about. Thanks!
 
nope,no secrets.if you have had computers for a few years you tend to collect used parts.ive always had a psu to test with.
 
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aldan said:
nope,no secrets.if you have had computers for a few years you tend to collect used parts.ive always had a psu to test with.
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Yeah I have a few lying around but they're pretty old and I don't want to risk using them. Plus the highest watt PSU I have extra is like 300w so don't want to try it :p
 
Unfortunate that your power supply died. Sadly the only way to test to make sure everything is OK (besides looking for any obvious damage) is to get another PSU. Motherboards, GPUs and occasionally hard drives are going to be the things that would have most likely to have been affected. At least if you find out you do need to rebuild most of your PC you'll already have a PSU. :)
 
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spirit said:
Unfortunate that your power supply died. Sadly the only way to test to make sure everything is OK (besides looking for any obvious damage) is to get another PSU. Motherboards, GPUs and occasionally hard drives are going to be the things that would have most likely to have been affected. At least if you find out you do need to rebuild most of your PC you'll already have a PSU. :)
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Yeah thannks Spirit...kind of hoping I don't have to rebuild it all. On the plus side if I have to I can check out those new Skylake CPUs...:(
 
WhoX said:
Had that happen too, but with a cheap no name PSU. Lesson learned.

http://www.computerforum.com/threads/burning-power-supply.234684/
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Wow! I'm glad everything was okay! What's the new rig you bought/built him? Also, I should have took a picture because there was absolutely NO physically damage on the outside of the PSU. Not even a scratch. I shined a light inside a saw a single rice sized piece of metal falling about but other than that there were no wires damaged, no burn marks or anything so I am very hopeful that my system survived. The only concern I have is the sparks that flew about for a split second that could have maybe shortened out the mobo or a hard drive as Spirit said. I already have ordered a 750w EVGA SuperNova so that should be here in about a week and I'll post of a pic of how it looks inside my rig.
 
kam said:
Wow! I'm glad everything was okay!
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Thanks. :)

kam said:
What's the new rig you bought/built him?
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At first I bought him a used HP, but after I built his older brother a new PC for his birthday, he got the hand-me-down. Intel Q9300 quad-core, 8 GB DDR-2, AMD HD 7790, 2x 200 GB HD, 650 watt PSU and a LG 22" display. For his birthday I'll build him a brand new PC.
 
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WhoX said:
Thanks. :)



At first I bought him a used HP, but after I built his older brother a new PC for his birthday, he got the hand-me-down. Intel Q9300 quad-core, 8 GB DDR-2, AMD HD 7790, 2x 200 GB HD, 650 watt PSU and a LG 22" display. For his birthday I'll build him a brand new PC.
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Nice! I'm guessing the PSU wasn't some crappy brand this time around. :p
 
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