Did my power supply just blow up?

M

MTXR

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 4, 2000
Messages
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I just turned on my desktop and within 2 mins of the computer being on, i heard a weird noise like a fan went out and all of a sudden i see slight smoke or dust being blown up and then a weird smell like a fire extinguisher went off..

Did a capacitor blow up? My motherboard looks ok. I hope that didn't fry anything else.

Anyone know?
 
sounds like you let the magic blue smoke out. now the fun starts of figuring out what else it took down with it. sorry pal...my condolences

edit: wait a second you didnt say if the computer stayed on or not
 
The computer stayed on, I immediately hit the switch on the back of the PSU to turn it off right when I noticed there could be a problem.
 
Tagan 480W PSU

Model: TG480-U01.

-----

Anyone know much about the Pro82+ and Mod82+

The only reason modular PSUs are more expensive because they are modular?
 
I've blown up two power supplies. Both went with a loud noise. One a big POP the other sounded like a gunshot, with sparks. With both the system went dead imidiatly and I lost no other componants.

Dont know if that helps any :) my experiances with blown up system componants.
 
My friends PSU died about 2 months ago when I was at his house. He was showing me some youtube videos and the PSU popped and smoked. Didn't hurt anything else and hopefully its the same with you.
 
I wonder if I wasn't home and that happened if it would have been enough to burn down my house?

I am paranoid now to leave anything in my place on while I am away....
 
I doubt the PSU is dead if the machine continued to run -- with PSU failure you get an immediate loss of power pretty much always. Recheck the motherboard -- an IC or capacitor probably failed somewhere on the board, or possibly on your graphics card.

Do you have a multimeter? If so, plug the PSU in to the wall (not connected to your equipment) and short the green wire to any of the black (ground) wires to start it, then use the multimeter to check and make sure it is still putting out the proper voltages.
 
MTXR said:
I wonder if I wasn't home and that happened if it would have been enough to burn down my house?

I am paranoid now to leave anything in my place on while I am away....
Click to expand...

Over the years I have been lucky in that not much else was damaged when the smoke was let out. There's always the possibility that more could be damaged, even the entire house. Still, unless there are unusual circumstances the chances of the house burning down should be very small.
 
silent-circuit said:
I doubt the PSU is dead if the machine continued to run -- with PSU failure you get an immediate loss of power pretty much always. Recheck the motherboard -- an IC or capacitor probably failed somewhere on the board, or possibly on your graphics card.

Do you have a multimeter? If so, plug the PSU in to the wall (not connected to your equipment) and short the green wire to any of the black (ground) wires to start it, then use the multimeter to check and make sure it is still putting out the proper voltages.
Click to expand...

I looked around on the motherboard and graphics card and didn't see anything. I smelt around the computer looking for the smell that I was smelling and it definitely smelled like it came from the PSU....I have it detached from the computer. Then i thought to myself did i just inhale some toxic dust from a capacitor or something....

I am so paranoid about the whole thing... i always have heard of power supplies and computer parts failing... but i have never had it happen to me in the 10 years or so i have had computers.
 
MTXR said:
I wonder if I wasn't home and that happened if it would have been enough to burn down my house?

I am paranoid now to leave anything in my place on while I am away....
Click to expand...

As long as you keep the back of your comp away from any real flammable sources I think that's about the best you can do if you're going to leave it on. I wouldn't be that paranoid about it, as mtrupi aleady said the chances of it catching a house on fire is very small.
 
even though it might be a small chance, i am still paranoid....

At first, i totally thought my water cooling loop finally for the first time in 3 years sprung a leak and that my whole computer is going to be trashed.
 
I came home one night to my room filled with smoke ><, PSU completely went and its figures that it just happened to be a week after the warranty expired. I was lucky that there was no other damage....
 
I have installed the new PSU its is a enermax pro82+ 625W. I lost some fan controllers and so I had to shift some fans around..

I decided to stress test the system, and to my amazement, my system is running cooler than ever with 5 fans less than before.

The heatsinks on the motherboard and the components no longer heat up as much and don't make a high pitch noise like it is stressed out.

Does this mean that before I had inadequate power and that was stressing my components making it heat up more?

I think i am noticing that a good adequate amount of power really helps the system remain cool and stable. What is everyone's thoughts?
 
Or it could be that you didn't have a proper airflow setup inside your case. having a ton of fans doesn't mean that your case is adequately cooled.
 
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