my psu exploded!!

spacegrass

spacegrass

spacegrass

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Joined
20 May 2006
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135
I received a new hsf today, the artic cooling freezer 64 pro.

After a titanic struggle lifting off the stock a64 hsf and cleaning the residue, I was finally able to attach the new beast of a hsf.

I then checked to see if any cables had come loose in my heroic struggle, but everything seemednd to be in order.

So I reattached all the cables, however I had not turned off the switch for the psu at the back and also the mains socket was on (there was someone sharing my wifi connection so I didnt want to kick them off).

On inserting the cable for the psu, there was a loud bang accompanied by a bright white flash. After I had recovered and cursed to myself for being such a nit, I gently opened up the case, couldnt see any smoke just a smell of burning coming from the psu.

Since I am no pc builder I have not installed the mobo in the other pc to check it...is there a chance I have broken it?

Also the psu itself was quite cheap from a company called sumvision but it was 500 watts.
 
sumvision
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And therin lies the problem.
Another cheapo psu bites the dust and probably destroys whatever was plugged into it. And another thing, a 500w cheapo psu can be about half the power of a 450w proper psu.
You live and learn. At any rate, you live... ;)
 
Note to self: Never plug things in with PSU still turned on at the back :(

On a plus note though, the only time i've seen a PSU go bang it only buggered the PSU and nothing else, but others are not always so lucky.

I hope you got lucky...
 
t31os said:
On a plus note though, the only time i've seen a PSU go bang it only buggered the PSU and nothing else, but others are not always so lucky.

I hope you got lucky...
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I'm afraid it doesn't have much to do with luck. If you buy a cheap psu you get what you pay for.
None of my psu's have ever failed despite being plugged in whilst on (by mistake) and being shorted out.

I'm curious as to why removing the stock heatsink was so difficult?
Were you doing it whilst cold or in the case?
Its much easier to take the board out and remove the heatsink while its still warm.
 
well I saw was a bright white flash, no smoke, and only a burning smell from the psu and nothing else.

I couldnt see any damaged circuits on the motherboard and the components looked ok.
 
Happened to me before when i changed to voltage when it was still switched on. Fortunately was just the psu which was dead. Then bought a Jeantech 400W which blow up first time. Was obviously dodgy. Then replaced that with a jeantech 450W :o. How stupid was I, that was fine. But then next week replaced whole setup went with Tagan 580 modular :D. Got it right in the end anyway. ;)
 
I managed to find a very old 230v psu which it states is an athlon psu, however it only allows for a htt of 133mhz to be used.

Also there is a four pin square motherboard connector that the broken psu has but this old one doesnt.
 
No. Not as bad as the worst ones but they regularly blow up and take components out.

Good makes are:
Antec, Enermax, Seasonic, Tagan, FSP/Sparkle.

Stop looking at overall watts and instead look at combined watts on the 12v rails. Thats the key number.
 
Joe42 said:
No. Not as bad as the worst ones but they regularly blow up and take components out.

Good makes are:
Antec, Enermax, Seasonic, Tagan, FSP/Sparkle.

Stop looking at overall watts and instead look at combined watts on the 12v rails. Thats the key number.
Click to expand...

That's probably a bit of an exageration, hyper etc don't seem to go any more than most of the other brands (and 18-24 months ago most people here would probably have said to avoid Tagan and Enermax like the plague due to problems with them).

As i've said a million times i've had expensive PSU's go on me after only a few months whilst cheapy ones have lasted years.
The better brand PSU's do tend to have better protection for the motherboard etc, but they still go wrong and sometimes you do pay a lot for the name.
 
Werewolf said:
That's probably a bit of an exageration, hyper etc don't seem to go any more than most of the other brands (and 18-24 months ago most people here would probably have said to avoid Tagan and Enermax like the plague due to problems with them).

As i've said a million times i've had expensive PSU's go on me after only a few months whilst cheapy ones have lasted years.
The better brand PSU's do tend to have better protection for the motherboard etc, but they still go wrong and sometimes you do pay a lot for the name.
Click to expand...

Refreshing to see a sensible post when it comes to PSU's :)

I'm still using a £45 Hyper 480W to power my heavily overclocked system in my sig. Had no problems whatsoever.
 
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