Help!!!

[Megadeth_Guy01]

Omfg I need help really bad right about now. I took apart my PC as I do monthy to clean out all the dust, etc, and to tidy up some cables. I took everything apart carefully and put them on anti-static bags that I had. Once I was done and finished re-assembling my system I powered it up and noticed a few things right away. One, my heatsink's fan was spinning unusually slow and I couldn't hear it as I usually can. It's the fan on a Thermaltake Volcano 12, and it spins at 5000RPM normally so you can hear it in the next room over sometimes. The second thing I noticed was that when my motherboard tried to detect any IDE devices it would sit there idle and not find my HDD or CDRW drives. Nor can I get into my BIOS while it is looking for them. When I unplugg them both I can get into my BIOS, but for some reason when they are plugged in I can't detect them. Has my PSU gone bad??? Please help soon someone I need some help very badly.

 

[JTY]

Sounds like you've got an IDE cable on backwards.

 

[Ice Czar]

or another config problem check the jumpers

in the BIOS what does the Voltage read?
and what did it used to read?

 

[Megadeth_Guy01]

Could someone lock this thread up? My problem was solved... err pinpointed in General Hardware.

 

[Ice Czar]

now where is the educational value in that?

I think I now have reason to believe the PSU was the suspect here. I tried to turn the system on again about 10 minutes ago to hear a loud "crackell... POP POP!!!". I then immediatly powered the system down and unplugged it and then smelt my first ever burning silicon. It was horrid and the stench still wreaks in my room. I was like... "Holy jeezuz, I hope that wasn't my CPU or graphics card. I then took off the side panel and smelt around for the strongest area that smelt like burning crap and it led to my poor CD burner. The sucker smelt worse than a Russian Hooker on hot summer day. After some speculation I deicided to open the burner up to see a few transistors/chips with brown and black bubbly areas with holes. Blasted Raidmax PSU, I'm not going to try and power it up again until I order a new PSU and install it. How does an Antec True 380 sound? Or should I consider a different manufacturer?

Wow, well it turns out my HDD is borked as well. I don't know how I'm going to pay for a new PSU, CDRW and now HDD. Thanks alot Raidmax, I swear it should be illegal for manufacturers to produce shit PSU's. Or at least cover the damage's their shit product creates.

Yeah, I think my messing with it had some effect on it. But, what could I have possibly done to make it fry my HDD and CDRW? I'd like to find this out so I don't do it again along down the road sometime.

now if you would have mentioned RAIDmax here we would have all taken you far more seriously
what you described here were classic config symptoms

as to what might have triggered a doorstop supply to go over the edge
temperature, surge\brownout , or the total crossload
(likely the long term effects of all three)
cheap supplies are a self fulfilling prophecy, since they exagerate so much when you load them near their rated capacity, your actually overloading them for your likely operating temperature

a basics course
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/psu-methodology.html
but more importantly the crossload section
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/psu-methodology_13.html

and some rather technical links (thanx to Super Nade)
Stability:
-PSU Instability

- Chaos i.e random power fluctuations and associated phenomena

-Input EMI Filter problems

if you still want me to lock this, go ahead and ask one more time and I will

 

[Ice Czar]

an excerpt from Power Supply Instability
Causes of power supply instability and methods to prevent it occurring in manufacturing and field use.
@ SMPS Technology Knowledge Base by Jerrold Foutz

Problem

One of the most embarrassing things that can happen to a power supply circuit designer is to have their "finished" design go unstable during manufacturing or after delivery to the customer. This happens quite often and it is not too surprising. Switching-mode power supplies are one of the toughest circuits most engineers will ever have to stabilize. The reasons are:

The power supply can operate in different modes, such as the continuous and discontinuous current mode, presenting different control loop parameters in each mode.

The input voltage can appear in the gain of the feedback loop, changing the gain characteristics as the input voltage swings over the wide operating range typical of many applications.

Load variations affect the location of poles or zeroes associated with the output filter.

The effective value of components contributing to poles and zeros, such as inductors and the load resistance, can vary as a function of line and load variations.

The circuit can contain both real and complex right-half-plane zeroes that migrate as a function of line, load, and temperature.

Many of the components affecting circuit poles and zeroes are nonlinear, such as swinging inductors.

Many of the components affecting stability have large variations in tolerance as purchased and over operating temperatures and system life, such as electrolytic capacitors.

Long power source leads or added system filters, such as EMI filters can have a dramatic effect on system stability criteria. See Input Filter Interaction.

Added load capacitance, including high quality decoupling capacitors shorting the ESR of the power supply output capacitor, which may be contributing a stabilizing zero, can effect stability.

Minor loops inside the power supply, like those causing emitter follower oscillations or power MOSFET drive resistance instabilities, may go unstable over the range of purchasing tolerance or variations caused by manufacturing, temperature, and age. These can go unstable with little noticeable effect on output observables (except perhaps radiated EMI in the Megahertz range), but can alter the feedback loop by causing saturation of components or DC level shifts in interior states and can greatly degrade field reliability.

Things like the magnetizing current in the magnetics can affect stability.

Switching noise can affect stability and stability measurement. One of the industries first challenges with switching-mode power supplies was trying to measure small gain and phase signals in a noise environment much larger than the signal. See personal anecdote below.

Chaos can occur in these circuits. See Chaos and personal anecdote below.

A common and totally inadequate defense against the above is often to analyze the circuit at nominal input voltages and load and verify the analysis with a measurement on the breadboard using a resistive load and laboratory bench supplies. No wonder switching-mode power supplies often break into oscillation during manufacturing or over the life of the product in the field.

Relevance

Applies to any circuit with a feedback loop, but keeping switching-mode power supplies stable over the life of the product in all environments is far more difficult than most feedback loops.

Solvability

No complete solution, but the risk can be reduced greatly. What is needed is a practical strategy of analysis, measurement, screening, and follow-up. There is a tradeoff between cost and risk in all of this. The elements of such a strategy are discussed under solutions.

 

[Megadeth_Guy01]

Ok, yes well. I guess we can leave it open for the sake of other PSU mishaps. Now, can we pin the blame on my misconfiguring, or the PSU's shitzyness? I knew RaidMax is a POS brand, but at the time of purchase it was my only option.

 

[BillR]

I then took off the side panel and smelt around for the strongest area that smelt like burning crap and it led to my poor CD burner. The sucker smelt worse than a Russian Hooker on hot summer day.

And then we need to help him with his social skills................

 

[starhawk]

Ok, yes well. I guess we can leave it open for the sake of other PSU mishaps. Now, can we pin the blame on my misconfiguring, or the PSU's shitzyness? I knew RaidMax is a POS brand, but at the time of purchase it was my only option.

definitely the psu. definitely.

nothing raidmax makes is worth a thin dime on a diet.

 

[Ice Czar]

well even if youd had the jumpers on the drives all wrong it wouldnt fry anything
so the "blame" is actually on you for using a POS PSU and very likely overloading it
if you hadnt known it was a POS that would be a different ballgame

as far as "only options" go, you had the option of not using the computer till you could power it properly
you can now add the cost of the optical to that of the PSU and hopefully thats all though other components like the mobo and RAM might be degraded

what might of happened could have been this
Output Filter Overload @ SMPS TechKB

The output voltage overshoots when the load is removed or a short clears. When the load is remove from a switching mode power supply with a LC low-pass output filter, the only thing the control loop can do is stop the switching action so no more energy is taken from the source. The energy that is stored in the output filter inductor is dumped into the output capacitor causing a voltage overshoot.

Virtually every experienced switching-mode power supply designer has heard of some horror story associated with overshoot. The worst I heard was during the 1960's when a designer of commercial main-frame computers was working on a new prototype, which was powered by 60 Hertz saturable reactor switcher feeding a huge LC filter. A short occurred in the load establishing a large current in the inductor, and then the short cleared. The resulting overshoot destroyed all the logic circuits. It cost the program over a million (1960's) dollars. Needless to say, independent overvoltage protection became mandatory.

Because of many such horror stories, for many years you never saw a power supply without overvoltage protection. Now you do, indicating the lesson will have to be relearned the hard way.

though Im not sure if the RAIDmax employs that scheme one way or another
or if its the root cause of the issue

considering it was a "rebuild" an intermittent short (a short that clears) could have been a contributing factor

 

[Megadeth_Guy01]

Well, I could have waited to buy a decent PSU. But, it would have taken maybe a month or two to save up enough money for one. And the PSU has worked fine for over a year, so I thought I was all good lol. WRONG.