![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
lost-in-space
n00b
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2005
- Messages
- 1
Trying to figure out where I screwed up.
I have, or rather had, an Antec TruePower 550. It's been running with no problems for the last two years now. Tonight I tried to swap in two new SATA hard drives and to upgrade to 2 GB of memory from 1 GB.
Added the two new 512 MB memory modules (Corsair, with heatspreaders) and the two new drives (had to use SATA to IDE power adapters since the PSU had no SATA leads). Powered up for about 3 seconds and the PSU emitted some brown smoke and the computer shut off. The PSU smells awful and is fried. I think the motherboard and other components are ok, but of course I can't tell until I get my replacement PSU. There are no obvious scorch marks or blown caps at least.
I'm trying to figure out how the PSU may have shorted out so at least I learn something from this expensive lesson. I checked to see if the motherboard was grounded properly - everything looks seated properly. My next best guess is that
1.) I plugged a non-fan lead into a fan connector - not sure if that would blow a PSU though.
or
2.) the heatspreaders on the memory modules were touching, somehow causing a short. I'm not really sure it would cause a blown PSU if they were touching however - I googled around to see if anyone had had a problem with memory modules with heatspreaders and blown PSUs and no one had.
Any thoughts? I'd like to avoid blowing the next PSU if I can, but I'm not sure where the probable culprit might be. Should I take the heatspreaders off the DIMMs? Would IDE to SATA power adapters cause a PSU to blow?
I have, or rather had, an Antec TruePower 550. It's been running with no problems for the last two years now. Tonight I tried to swap in two new SATA hard drives and to upgrade to 2 GB of memory from 1 GB.
Added the two new 512 MB memory modules (Corsair, with heatspreaders) and the two new drives (had to use SATA to IDE power adapters since the PSU had no SATA leads). Powered up for about 3 seconds and the PSU emitted some brown smoke and the computer shut off. The PSU smells awful and is fried. I think the motherboard and other components are ok, but of course I can't tell until I get my replacement PSU. There are no obvious scorch marks or blown caps at least.
I'm trying to figure out how the PSU may have shorted out so at least I learn something from this expensive lesson. I checked to see if the motherboard was grounded properly - everything looks seated properly. My next best guess is that
1.) I plugged a non-fan lead into a fan connector - not sure if that would blow a PSU though.
or
2.) the heatspreaders on the memory modules were touching, somehow causing a short. I'm not really sure it would cause a blown PSU if they were touching however - I googled around to see if anyone had had a problem with memory modules with heatspreaders and blown PSUs and no one had.
Any thoughts? I'd like to avoid blowing the next PSU if I can, but I'm not sure where the probable culprit might be. Should I take the heatspreaders off the DIMMs? Would IDE to SATA power adapters cause a PSU to blow?