psu blew up - possible reasons?

unwashed potato! · 13 Jun 2009 at 11:41

just had my psu blow up on my pc which couldn't have come at a worse time. I am probably going to have to replace it but before i do i want to make sure it isn't still in warrenty as i have seen some cheaper ones with 3 years warretny and this is just over 3 so hoping perhaps it has 4 years warrenty.

the psu is an enermax liberty elt620awt bought from ocuk. who do i contact to find out what warrenty it had?

if i buy another how can i find out what power will do? i know the 620w was way over what i needed as i planned to have it for future builds.

any chance a usb device being charge could have caused it to blow? a friend had plugged in their device and after an hour it blew up so seemed a little too coincidental to not be.

i'm looking at replacing it with this one if it's enough power for my system. how will i know if it will have the correct connections or are all the same?

thanks

fobose · 13 Jun 2009 at 12:08

It seems the enermax liberty PSU's have a 3 year warranty - I checked a few competitor websites and they all say 3 years / 36 months.

Depending on what spec your system is you might be able to go even lower on the PSU requirement. This is only a few quid cheaper, but I think it would be better than the OCZ PSU:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-017-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

I have been charging my phone via USB on my PC for the last 16 months!

Jinxter · 13 Jun 2009 at 12:45

Just out of interest - did your components survive the blow?

Mr-White · 13 Jun 2009 at 12:51

PSUs seem to be built as consumables so it's difficult to predict their life span. Generally they just blow without anything in particular triggering it. One job I worked at we could be changing PSUs days after they were installed. Although saying that my 550w Enermax lasted 6 years before I sold it on

MW

MikeHunt79 · 13 Jun 2009 at 12:53

charging a USB device will not cause it to blow.

I'm willing to bet it was an electrolytic capacitor that blew and these tend to go bad after a few years if they are poor quality or are in a hot environment...

unwashed potato! · 13 Jun 2009 at 16:28

fobose said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-017-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

how would i know what i need to power my pc? not at home at the moment but off the top of my head i think i have an ati xtx-1900, amd x2 4400, 2 corsair 1gb ram (unsure exactly what type), what i think was an asus a8r32-mvp, 2 sata hard drives, 2 dvd drives. i only ever used 3 connections when there was something like 8/10 connections so perhaps 400w would be fine?

again my other worry is that the pins wont work. Is the way to know the ATX part?

Jinxter said:
Just out of interest - did your components survive the blow?

unfortunately can't find out until i get a replacement. i know my main hard drive works still as it's in another pc at the moment.

MikeHunt79 said:
charging a USB device will not cause it to blow.

I'm willing to bet it was an electrolytic capacitor that blew and these tend to go bad after a few years if they are poor quality or are in a hot environment...

are they ever fixable? i was thinking perhaps selling it on auction site for cheap to recoup some of the lost money for the new psu

MikeHunt79 · 13 Jun 2009 at 16:44

Mammalian said:
are they ever fixable? i was thinking perhaps selling it on auction site for cheap to recoup some of the lost money for the new psu

Yep, they are fixable, I've fixed a few in the past. The only problem is very high voltages are involved, so you need to know what you are doing otherwise you could easily kill yourself in the process! :eek:

That said, if it's a generic PSU, it's not worth my time - I'll bin it.

If it's a good one (eg Corsair, Enermax, etc.), I may fix it if I've got a few hours to kill.

Bung it on e-bay or MM, spares repairs, someone may give you some money for it (tho I'm not sure how much)...

Infernum · 13 Jun 2009 at 16:48

Jinxter said:
Just out of interest - did your components survive the blow?

My corsair tx850 died the other day and am waiting for a replacement. Is there a chance that it has killed any of my components?

unwashed potato! · 13 Jun 2009 at 16:54

MikeHunt79 said:
Bung it on e-bay or MM, spares repairs, someone may give you some money for it (tho I'm not sure how much)...

i'd love to stick it on mm but my mm got removed when i first joined

do ocuk ever give it back?

thedinks · 13 Jun 2009 at 16:59

I remember when my enermax psu blew, it was on xmas day 2 days after i built my computer

It took about 2 weeks to receive a replacement from enermax.

gareth170 · 13 Jun 2009 at 17:16

dmarcisz said:
My corsair tx850 died the other day and am waiting for a replacement. Is there a chance that it has killed any of my components?

nobody would know mate, u will need try them.

about a year and a half ago i had a corsair psu which died and it killed my hdds + dvd rw drive. but it's different for every psu when a psu dies. maybe every component is fine..

it put me off buying the £100+ psu's. the current psu im using is cheap in money terms, which i've had for over a year and is still working fine...

Audigex · 13 Jun 2009 at 17:57

MikeHunt79 said:
The only problem is very high voltages are involved, so you need to know what you are doing otherwise you could easily kill yourself in the process!

I thought it was current that killed, rather than amps? (Not being pedantic, I'm genuinely curious)

MikeHunt79 · 13 Jun 2009 at 18:11

Audigex said:
I thought it was current that killed, rather than amps? (Not being pedantic, I'm genuinely curious)

Current is measured in amps.

I know what you're getting at tho, but there is a lot of voltage and current with PC PSU's, enough to kill (at least on the primary side, 240v).

It's really best not to even open a PSU if you don't know what goes on in there. I thought it would be a good idea to mention it before Mammalian tears open his enermax and starts stabbing it with a screwdriver while it's plugged in (or something similar)...