Err... can a blown PSU do this?

manveruppd · 27 Apr 2007 at 03:31

My Antec Neopower 480 recently blew up with a loud pop, lots of smoke, and the smell of burnt rubber. After a few scary hours I managed to borrow a PSU from a friend, plugged it in, turned it on, and breathed a huge sigh of relief to find out that everything was working.

Well... everything except my CPU fan...

A few angry beeps till I figured out that the fan wasn't spinning, and I switch off the PC, replace the CPU fan with another one I have, and turn it back on to find out that everything booted up normally and there was no apparent damage to any other component.

So my question is, how would my CPU fan just die like that? It wasn't plugged directly into the PSU, but into the motherboard. In fact the 2 fans that WERE plugged into the PSU when it blew are still working fine! But the Antec's protection circuitry obviously protected the motherboard from getting fried, so how come the fan that was drawing power off the mobo fry? You could say it was a random coincidence but I don't buy the odds, so anyone got any ideas on what happened?

PhillyDee · 27 Apr 2007 at 09:47

I would just be gald it didnt take the rest of the pc with it.

manveruppd · 27 Apr 2007 at 12:23

Oh believe me I am! :eek:

Doesn't stop me from being puzzled though... I mean if enough current went through the CPU fan to fry it, it should've fried the motherboard as well since the fan wasn't connected directly to the PSU! :confused:

MNuTz · 27 Apr 2007 at 12:29

manveruppd said:
I mean if enough current went through the CPU fan to fry it, it should've fried the motherboard as well since the fan wasn't connected directly to the PSU!

Surely that depends on what current they both can take.

If you had a 3 amp fuse running off a 30 amp fuse that normally only takes 3 amps then they are both fine, but if it spikes to 20 amps your 3 amp will blow but the 30 amp will survive.

manveruppd · 27 Apr 2007 at 12:41

THat still doesn't explain why only the Thermaltake fan died whereas my 2 case fans and Zalman graphics card fan are still spinning...

Phil2008 · 27 Apr 2007 at 14:18

Plus if you put more then 12v through a fan it will make it go faster, but if you did that with a motherboard, you would just bugger it up. :confused: