Plugging in a mouse made my PSU explode.

S

SamuraiInBlack

Supreme [H]ardness
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Or at least, that seems to be the case.

Sunday night I bought a few things for myself, namely a Coolermaster Stacker 830 being one of my choices.

I had everything transferred from my old case to the new one without much of a hitch, other than stripping one of the screws into the case, now leaving my new 18x Samsung DVD burner permanently stuck in there. (Yes I could've stayed screwless, but I just didn't feel secure enough in doing that)

After a bit of a time trying to get the case switches to work with my board (and yes, I did RTFM on my board's manual for the pin layout), I managed to get it up and running. Well, time to plug everything back in right?

A moment of laziness occurred to me and it is now one that I regret. I tried plugging my USB mouse (Logitech Dual Optical) into the front USB ports on the top. Well, all of a sudden my computer shuts off, there's a spark out of the USB port, there's an audible pop from the power supply, and my computer shuts down. It refuses to boot back up even with the top USB ports no longer connected to my board.

One thing I also noticed is the possibility that I may have somehow crunched the power cord's internal connection on the inside of the power supply, as I can wiggle the power cord connected to the PSU and it has a noticable amount of wiggle room now that I didn't notice before. I am thinking that while plugging in my USB mouse, I managed to shove the case back far enough to do some damage to the PSU by moving the cord just right, so now the PSU is broken off internally.

Where did I go wrong?

I also tried plugging up the case connectors to my old case and even that won't turn on. So I think the button panel itself is fine. Although I could be wrong. I don't have a multimeter handy to determine these things.
 
Sounds like the onboard USB headers on your motherboard had a different pin configuration than the ones on your case. Specifically one or both of the ports could have been connected backwards.

I've seen it many many times, and usually the moment you plug something into the USB port there are sparks, smoke, and bad things in general.


It could have been completely power supply related though the spark from the USB ports tends to negate that. What PSU is it?
 
It was an Allied 500W.

Just got a Silverstone 500W, the ST50EF-Plus. Thing fired up for about a second and died. Enough to get the CPU fan spinning. Now it won't turn on again. This time though I had only the essentials plugged in.

Now if I put my ear to the Silverstone it makes this weird buzzing noise. It's faint but you can hear it.

I'm hoping to the techno gods that it's not because in my tired, overworked, and somewhat absent minded state of mind, I didn't plug in the 4-pin connector (usin gthe adapters of course since I have an older board). I intended to only plug in the main connector and that one but I forgot that one. I didn't plug in the USB connectors this time, thinking that I might fry something again. Turns out I might've done that anyway. :(

And now I'm at a loss of what to do. I hope I didn't just piss away a hundred bucks on a power supply only to kill it. HELP!? Please!?
 
pull the psu from the case. Put a paperclip between the GREEN and BLACK wire on the big 20 or 24 pin. turn the button on the back, on. it should spin up.
 
I'd be worried I pissed away an entire system.

I had a problem tonight building a budget box with individual USB headers that were improperly labeled and colored. I ripped a USB cord out of an old Antec case I'm never going to use again, it was the block'd USB connector with all 9 pins in a 10 pin block ready to plug in.
 
kent said:
I'd be worried I pissed away an entire system.

I had a problem tonight building a budget box with individual USB headers that were improperly labeled and colored. I ripped a USB cord out of an old Antec case I'm never going to use again, it was the block'd USB connector with all 9 pins in a 10 pin block ready to plug in.
Click to expand...
god damn i hate those individual ones.
 
Bbq said:
pull the psu from the case. Put a paperclip between the GREEN and BLACK wire on the big 20 or 24 pin. turn the button on the back, on. it should spin up.
Click to expand...

I just tried this to both power supplies. They both turn on and work.

So now I am scratching my head trying to figure out what could be doing this. Could my board be fried? Is something stuck underneath and shorting something?
 
SamuraiInBlack said:
I just tried this to both power supplies. They both turn on and work.

So now I am scratching my head trying to figure out what could be doing this. Could my board be fried? Is something stuck underneath and shorting something?
Click to expand...
sounds like it killed the mobo. does it have any status lights on it that would turn on?

also, did you install one too many mobo supports? i did that once and got a nice little short.
 
None whatsoever. I doubt the ethernet jack lighting up when I plug in a cord is going to be sufficient proof. That's about the closest thing I have.
 
SamuraiInBlack said:
None whatsoever. I doubt the ethernet jack lighting up when I plug in a cord is going to be sufficient proof. That's about the closest thing I have.
Click to expand...
that would work.
 
Clear CMOS and try again.

Unplug or switch off the PSU and then locate the CMOS reset jumper, usually located closest to the onboard battery. Move the jumper from pins 1 and 2 to pins 2 and 3 (or vice versa) for 5 - 10 seconds, and then replace it in it's original position. Restore power to the PSU and try powering on the machine again.

IF that doesn't work try removing the board from your case and powering it up on your desk - possibility that the motherboard is shorting against the case somewhere.
 
Tried clearing CMOS to no avail. Will slide out the mobo and everything tomorrow if I get out of work at a decent time.

I'll give it a go tomorrow. I have to be up in a few hours for work. As far as the standoffs for the mobo go, I've only put in the ones that have a hole lining up with it on the board. All others I've left alone.
 
Well, I've pretty much confirmed that this sucker's dead. So it's upgrade time.

Went to Fry's and got myself a few parts:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Video card: eVGA 7600GT
RAM: OCZ 2GB DDR2 800MHz (model # OCZ2P8002GK)
Motherboard: Intel DP965LT

I'm pretty confident in everything but the board. But given the time constraints and that they were out of the Gigabyte DS3 that I wanted, I had little choice (The DQ6 was a bit pricey and I was kind of wary about the eVGA 680i board) So before I go slapping this thing together, is the DP965LT board any good for a sub $150 board, or should I invest in something better, if not now then definitely down the road? I don't know if I'll ever step up to quad-core until it's more or less mainstream so I don't care about THAT much future proofing. But what I do need to know is if this board will get me up and running or if I need to run it back to Fry's today and find something better. If there is a better board, suggestions are welcome.

Edit: Wow nevermind. Just read the thread over at Anandtech's and um..yeah. Going to get my hands on something better. Problem: What's good besides the DQ6 and the DS3 under $200? Also currently browsing the Enthusiast mobo listing to find something.
 
tons of things are good. what are you looking for specifically? biostar 965pt is real dirt cheap and great.
 
Well I know i'm SOL as far as getting two IDE ports so I can keep all my IDE drives, but I'm going to remedy that soon when I get a Seagate 750GB (SATA of course), and that'll condense all my hard drive space and free up the IDE port for my Samsung 18x. So that doesn't bother me.

So what i need is something rock solid stable, and will support my RAM. OCZ's page on the RAM I bought (Platinum XTC's) lists it as operating at 2.1 volts and that's going to be my primary concern - support for my RAM.

I'll have about $250 to spend on it if I return this one and grab a new one, so that should open some doors.
 
before you plug anything back with on your popped power supply, make sure you double check the voltages with a multimeter (3.3v, -3.3v, 5v, -5,v 12v, -12v)
you woodnt want to fry anything else
 
Rockjay420 said:
before you plug anything back with on your popped power supply, make sure you double check the voltages with a multimeter (3.3v, -3.3v, 5v, -5,v 12v, -12v)
you woodnt want to fry anything else
Click to expand...

Oh I'm good now. I've got a Silverstone 500W to replace it and it's running fine. I just need to overhaul the rest of my system because it's fried.

Hopefully my X-fi lived. :( Guess I'll find out when I go to install it.
 
SamuraiInBlack said:
Well I know i'm SOL as far as getting two IDE ports so I can keep all my IDE drives, but I'm going to remedy that soon when I get a Seagate 750GB (SATA of course), and that'll condense all my hard drive space and free up the IDE port for my Samsung 18x. So that doesn't bother me.

So what i need is something rock solid stable, and will support my RAM. OCZ's page on the RAM I bought (Platinum XTC's) lists it as operating at 2.1 volts and that's going to be my primary concern - support for my RAM.

I'll have about $250 to spend on it if I return this one and grab a new one, so that should open some doors.
Click to expand...
You shouldn't have any problem with ram rated at 2.1v on a nonintel brand board. The spd on the modules are all programmed relaxed and lower in frequency usually so that it can post 1.8v no problem. Then you can raise the divider and or timings and up the volts and be in business
 
That's one of the reasons why I am putting this Intel board back. After doing a bit of reading it seems 1.8 is the best it'll go, but some of the information is dated. Still, I'm not taking any chances. I didn't buy DDR2 800 so I could run at 667, y'know?
 
Alright. I'm getting very pissed off and frustrated at this point.

Got a new board, new processor, ram, and video card. I am now on an Asus P5N32-SLI.

The onboard LED lights up so I know it's getting power. But when I hook everything up, it still doesn't respond to the power button. The only conclusion that i have left now is that the panel for my case is fried somehow. How easy is that fixed? Because I wouldn't even have the slightest clue on where to begin or how to do that, other than possibly switch out the little PCB from my old case to this one and pray that it somehow works.

There is no way in hell I could've gotten the craptastic luck of having a DOA board on top of this. And no, I didn't plug the USB headers back in. I learned the first time around.
 
HAHA!!! I am the man.

I replugged my main ATX power connector and the additional 4-pin one, and that seemed to do the trick.

Thanks for all the help guys, seriously. I know I seemed a bit frustrated and irritable about this mess but working 6 days a week at 14 hours a day, averaging maybe 14 hours of sleep a week, tends to do that to you after awhile. Yes, I've probably flipped my lid at some point. My girlfriend kept staring at me as I grumbled to myself while I worked on it.
 
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