psu scary moment

twist3d0n3 · 26 Aug 2009 at 10:27

hi all,

yesterday i was fiddling around with an inverter, choosing a place to stick it inside my case. the wire leading to the molex wasn't tight, but when i moved it to a position where it pulled the molex plug, i got a puff of white smoke and a hideous electronic burning smell come out of the whole where my case window will eventually go. i completely ******* myself thinking my psu was gonna blow, so turned my pc off straight away. after giving it a bit of time to cool down, i switched it back on to find everything was working fine. i played spore for a few hours to see if it was ok under load and all seems well.

have i dodged a bullet? should i get it tested to make sure it's not going to keel over soon?

Fenris · 26 Aug 2009 at 10:46

twist3d0n3 said:
have i dodged a bullet? should i get it tested to make sure it's not going to keel over soon?

I would sprinkle it with Holy Water and drive a Wooden Stake into it.

Besides that though, I would replace it, doesn't sound too healthy and I certainly wouldn't want it in my PC.

Speed · 26 Aug 2009 at 10:49

I guess the lesson here is that you shouldn't fiddle about with the electrics of a PC while it is still on, well all do it but still, not a good idea.

I'd personally RMA the PSU and backup your valuable data, but that's just me.

tuppers360 · 26 Aug 2009 at 10:53

Yeah Backup & Backup some more!!

twist3d0n3 · 26 Aug 2009 at 11:29

fortunately i've just had delivery of a 1.5tb hard drive this morning, i think i'll get on that backup mission post haste!

i'm still really curious to why it puffed out smoke tho, i've fiddled with wiring, plugging fans in etc whilst it's on and nothing like this before... worst comes to the worst, could it just be a blown capacitor? i know smoothing caps are used is psu's, which if it is one that's blown surely there would be a dodgy amount of ripple? i'm gonna check voltages in bios and just see if anything looks suspect and report back...

twist3d0n3 · 26 Aug 2009 at 11:31

aha - under closer inspection, i've found the wire i was fiddling with (molex to inverter for cold cathode) has a tear - could this rubbing against the shell of the psu be of concern? (i would assume it would just earth it?)