Psu blew up by magic?

Energize · 26 Apr 2006 at 16:45

I put the computer on its side and took the case off then a few mins later the psu blew all by itself, how the hell did that happen? The computer wasnt even switched on and I had a surge protector. I will never be buying crapakasa ever again. Q-tecs dont even blow when the pc is off.

vanandjuanunited · 26 Apr 2006 at 16:47

Nope it blew cos you took the case off - try taking the cover off next time.

Looks like the tilt shorted something.

Energize · 26 Apr 2006 at 17:22

How can something have been shorted when the pc wasnt on and everything is screwed in place so nothing can move? Surely if theres a short the fuse is supposed to blow and not the psu thats the what fuses are designed for. Talk about crap psu design.

basmic · 26 Apr 2006 at 17:27

Which PSU was it that blew?

I, personally, want to blame that Maxtor.

semi-pro waster · 26 Apr 2006 at 17:30

basmic said:
I, personally, want to blame that Maxtor.

Don't you dare

and it was an Akasa I believe from the original post.

Energize because of the capacitors your PSU will store power for a fair while after being switched off so that will probably be how it blew but what reason it did that for I have not the faintest idea. Unlucky though.

Energize · 26 Apr 2006 at 18:22

I thought fuses were supposed to prevent things like short circuits and stuff blowing up.

wilders · 26 Apr 2006 at 21:23

I guess you were just unlucky....

duncsharp · 26 Apr 2006 at 21:27

i bought a hyper and it did pretty much the same thing, had it plugged in and powered on, was installing windows then........ BANG!!! - all the lights in my flat went out

must have got a dogey one, anyway sent it back, got a refund and bought an enermax 600w liberty

never buying hyper again!!

barney · 27 Apr 2006 at 09:19

duncsharp said:
never buying hyper again!!

Then something good came out of the experience

To the OP as has already been said it sounds like there may have been something loose in the PSU and putting it on it side caused it to short out. The PSU holds a massive charge even if it is unplugged from the wall socket and can keep this charge for hours. This is why it is a very bad idea to take them apart unless you know exactly what you are doing (they hold more then enough charge to kill someone with a careless screwdriver).

Also if it was still plugged into the mains and if there was still power going through the cable there was probably still power going into the PSU even with the PC turned off.

Not a lot you could have done about it and its lucky that it was just the PSU and that it didnt take any other things with it.

pcoltrane · 27 Apr 2006 at 09:50

Even when your pc is off the PSU can still daw power. Think of the S3 standby state - every fan is off including the PSU fan, but the mobo ram usb etc still gets enough juice to do it's job ready to resume windows.

Also no fuse is going to help if an individual component shorts out. lets say a loose piece of metal (a screw, bare wire etc) fell into the psu as you tilted your machine over it could quite easily have shorted out something like the capacitors - hence the bang. If it was an alien object that caused the short you can't really blame the PSU. If it was a loose PSU component that caused the short - then yeah crapakasa indeed.

Marc

Energize · 27 Apr 2006 at 20:53

I thought the idea of fuses was so that if something shorts out, the fuse blows stopping the circuit and preventing damage, I didnt even know it was legal not to have them in the uk.