What happens when a PSU blows?

BlackDragon · 9 May 2007 at 21:10

So what happens when a PSU does die? Does it take out the rest of your PC, or does it contain something to prevent it from damaging all the other precious components?

Just curious to know

Jonny L · 9 May 2007 at 21:12

IIRC it has a safety feature, however, this doesn't always work and so your pride and joy goes !!BANG!!

Jokester · 9 May 2007 at 21:14

Could be anything from just the PSU failing to work again, through to killing your MB, CPU etc, to all out fire

.

Quality PSUs will generally just die without taking anything else with them.

Jokester

Defcon5 · 9 May 2007 at 22:03

Ill be able to tell you in a few days, as my Hiper is currently making a high pitched capacitor whining noise, the mobo VRMs are at 80C and whenever the PSU is loaded it drops power to my GFX card! Happy days!

IAmATeaf · 9 May 2007 at 22:24

Defcon5 said:
Ill be able to tell you in a few days, as my Hiper is currently making a high pitched capacitor whining noise, the mobo VRMs are at 80C and whenever the PSU is loaded it drops power to my GFX card! Happy days!

I hope you're not still using it :eek:

frosty03 · 9 May 2007 at 22:29

just dont leave your comp on if nobody is home or it might take out your house if you're really unlucky...

ins0mn1ac · 9 May 2007 at 22:31

BlackDragon said:
So what happens when a PSU does die? Does it take out the rest of your PC, or does it contain something to prevent it from damaging all the other precious components?

Just curious to know

£10 says he owns a Hiper.

Defcon5 · 9 May 2007 at 23:15

IAmATeaf said:
I hope you're not still using it

Well im getting a corsair 520, but im not ordering it til the P182 is back in stock, so itl be another week.

Itl be fine!

BlackDragon · 9 May 2007 at 23:15

Nah i own a zalman :-p

RaiderX · 9 May 2007 at 23:24

Defcon5 said:
Well im getting a corsair 520, but im not ordering it til the P182 is back in stock, so itl be another week.

Itl be fine!

cant be as bad as my old PSU, heard it sparking when my GTS was underload and it would eventually just cut out and let me turn it back on, got a thermaltake 680W purepower now

Cyber-Mav · 10 May 2007 at 01:03

RaiderX said:
cant be as bad as my old PSU, heard it sparking when my GTS was underload and it would eventually just cut out and let me turn it back on, got a thermaltake 680W purepower now

which psu did u used to have?

St0rmer66 · 10 May 2007 at 01:15

Cyber-Mav · 10 May 2007 at 01:16

St0rmer66 said:

now thats got to be a qtec.

Cupra · 10 May 2007 at 01:42

Cyber-Mav said:
now thats got to be a qtec.

ive seen a qtec 650w running a gts and an e6600 fine but i wouldnt do it personaly

Margaret · 10 May 2007 at 05:08

I'll never forget buying a faulty Tagan from OCuk then sending it back through RMA and getting another faulty one back. Both went boom within 1 day of recieving.

Steered me away from Tagan ever again! Got a nice 500W AKASA which is doing great so far (Got this rig in December), touchwood.

pastymuncher · 10 May 2007 at 14:25

When my Hiper blew it made a loud bang (change of pants time), cloud of black acrid smoke and the bloody thing took out a brand new motherboard that was only a week old. :mad:

SameSuspect · 10 May 2007 at 14:34

my sisters cheap one just started smoking

kkthxbye · 10 May 2007 at 14:34

how many ppl do leave there computers on when no ones home, i do it all the time my self, i like coming home wiggle the mouse and back to what i was doing. I think they are to leave on 24/7. whats ** thoughts?

semi-pro waster · 10 May 2007 at 14:47

kkthxbye said:
how many ppl do leave there computers on when no ones home, i do it all the time my self, i like coming home wiggle the mouse and back to what i was doing. I think they are to leave on 24/7. whats ** thoughts?

It depends on what I'm doing but I have done previously yes, if I'm not downloading then I'll normally switch it off but probably 99 times out of every 100 if you have decent components you will be fine. I turn it off to save a bit of power rather than from any real expectations of fire etc.

St0rmer66 · 10 May 2007 at 16:22

Also this thread reminds me of when I was drunk at a friends house a couple of years ago. His PC was on so we could listen to music etc. I was looking round the back of his tower and saw a switch on the back of the PSU which I switched as I read the label saying 240V/110V. It made a horrible whining noise so I put it back to 240V realising that it was going to bugger it up very quickly if it was getting the wrong voltage. But then being drunk I decided to show someone else what it did and tried it again.. except this time instead of whining it just went BANG! There was a flash of light from it and then a big cloud of smoke.

I replaced it with one of my own (of course for free) that I had spare and it turned out to be quieter than his previous one anyway. Importantly, it was auto switching for the voltage so he would never have the same problem again

.