Help with My BFG 800w

L

lethial

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 22, 2005
Messages
149
Heh, I was just about to make a post about the same thing here... My brand new BFG 800W ES just blew last night, it too was on a UPS...

I heard a loud pop when I try to power up the computer (it was supposed to be on, but for some reason it has shut off, I am guess that we got a brown out in the apartment or something). I open my PC and was greeted with the nice burned silicon smell... After inspecting the PSU, it looks like one of the huge capacitors got one of its "leg" blown off, and the capacitor is now dangling on one leg like the Leaning Tower of Pizza (sp?)

I too would like to know what could have caused this... I had the system in my sig plugged into the same UPS for years now with no problem.

Ever sicne I got a new system:

Q6600 no OC
ABIT IP35-Pro
Corsair Dominator 2x1GB
Evga 8800GTX
Raptor 150GB
Hitachi 1GB
couple DVD burners.
APC Back-UPS 1250VA (this is one of those store only model)

weird things start to happen. Originally I had a Corsair HX620W for the system, but it has that weird "cannot bootup even to POST" problem with the ABIT board, so I decided to get the new BFG PSU.

It was working great for few weeks... :(

So, could some sort of weird mobo compatibility issue burn out a PSU? I know for a fact that the outlet that I am using for the UPS is flaky, hence the reason for the UPS (Often the UPS would switch to battery power due to brown outs). But being in an apartment I really couldn't do much about it, since I have already asked my landlord to take a look and it was "fixed" (prior to that, the ground is definitely short-ed)

Any idea what could have caused the PSU to blow out like this? If nothing else, gimme some ammo that I can use to tell the landlord to take a look at the outlet again :p

thanks
 
First off, PM me so I can get your PSU covered under warranty. ;)

Second, what color is the "huge capacitor" that's now leaning?

http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTIwNDA3MTk5MnVHVjMzUTVtTHpfM185X2wuanBn

If it's that brown one, that's the cap for the dedicated +5VSB circuit. If that blew, there's DEFINTELY a problem with the incoming juice.

Finally, what's the make and model of the UPS? Is it a standby UPS or line interactive? Does it even have AVR (automatic voltage regulation)? If it's not a line interactive with AVR, you might as well have not had the PC plugged into it at all. Those UPS's are good for desk lamps and cordless phones at the best. ;)
 
Oh, doh, I have already called the RMA department and have already shipped it out :( ( btw, what is the deal with the UPS Store discount? How much is the discount on shipping back anyway?) I should've shipped it to you so we can all find out what's wrong with it :)

I should have taken a picture, but the capacitor in question is actually that black one. There is no way I could see the brown one w/o breaking the warranty :).

APC BACK-UPS NS 1250VA is the one that I got.

I am not sure it is line interactive, but it does have AVR and it uses Stepped Sine Wave.

Edit: after some digging I think it is line interactive
 
I don't know anything about a UPS Store discount. Sorry. :(

Well, hopefully you'll have better luck with the second one. Hopefully, the RMA dept can get it back to me to have a look at because I haven't gotten a dead one back yet. ;)

As for the UPS: That's a good unit. It is line interactive and does have AVR, so even in the event of a brown out I'm not sure why it would blow the primary of a PSU unless either the PSU or the UPS were bad to begin with. :(
 
The UPS has been working for over a year now, so I think it should be okay.

I am just really worried that somehow my PC components (mobo esp.) is capable destroying PSUs :)
 
Well... probably not. If that were the case, the PSU would have died on the secondary side. The big caps are on the primary side. The primary and secondary are isolated from each other with nothing but the main transformer bridging the two. A short would not carry over through the transformer from the secondary to primary or vise versa.

So a failure on the primary side is either due to bad line voltage or a bad PSU.

And careful with assuming that something that's worked for over a year is going to continue to work as advertised. Not trying to say that the problem wasn't with the PSU, but most things fail AFTER the long haul. My last motherboard lasted a year before it died. My last hard drive lasted three years before it died. ;)
 
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