PSU died with a bang, replace fuse?

E

edwinbradford

n00b
Joined
Oct 17, 2008
Messages
22
Everything was running fine for a couple of years then this morning I pressed the Power On switch and there was an electric sound like CRACK or just a bang if you like and the computer is dead. It sounded like the CRACK came from the Power On switch but I'm not even sure, it surprised me.

I narrowed down the current total power failure to the fuse on the PSU with a multimeter. My question is should I replace it and refit the PSU? I was all fired up to do it when I found this post saying replacing a fuse on a PSU is a bad idea. He seems to be saying that PSUs have Over Voltage protection that only works once so if you replace the fuse you won't be protected, but then don't some PSUs have user replaceable fuses so I'm confused :confused:

MY PSU is a Seasonic S12 (Model SS-650HT). I'll have to resolder a new fuse as its not easily replaceable. I'm outside warranty and anyway wouldn't want to wait two weeks for a return PSU. If it is OK to fit a new fuse, according to that thread 10A appears be correct?
 
I would be concerned that something is wrong with the PSU, which is why it blew the fuse in the first place. So putting a new fuse in means, you'd just blow the fuse (best case) or blow whatever was wrong with the PSU and take out your computer components with it.

Might be fine, but I wouldn't chance it over the cost of new PSU.
 
Yeah just spend a few bucks and grab one of the new high end PSUs out there... the Seasonic X series are EXCELLENT and there are some sales at newegg...
 
Fuses don't just blow for no reason. Often, when a fuse blows it is because some other part of the PSU has failed. The SS-650HT is a fairly recent PSU, so it might still be under warranty. Try contacting Seasonic and see if you can get it replaced. If not, then purchase a new PSU yourself.
 
J. Cyrus said:
the Seasonic X series are EXCELLENT
Click to expand...

Excellent? my a$$ ( have you ever had an x750? or just talking on the reviews you see on the Internet? have you heard those beatiful sounds: "pop" "bang" have you seen those shiny blue sparks? :eek: only missing smoke and fire:D) .


They are Good, but no such a thing as excellent and that goes for all psu brands out there; mine died in just only 2 months of light use ( and that isnt OK and it wasnt a faulty or improper electrical installation in my house ) .


My RMA replacement is coming, i just hope that it doesn't fail as the first one:rolleyes:
i still dont know if the rest of the rig is ok:(

And no, isnt right to accept the quality of these products from these companies and pretend that nothing happened and keep spending and wasting time and money on rma's shipping that would not necessarily occur in the first place.
 
Mackowitz said:
I would be concerned that something is wrong with the PSU, which is why it blew the fuse in the first place. So putting a new fuse in means, you'd just blow the fuse (best case) or blow whatever was wrong with the PSU and take out your computer components with it.

Might be fine, but I wouldn't chance it over the cost of new PSU.
Click to expand...

It's the same as with the fuses in your house's electrical wiring; if one of those fuses blows you don't just try to turn the circuit back on without first trying to determine what caused it to trip in the first place. The fuse rarely is the issue, usually it's because something shorted out.

In the case of a PSU it could that one of the switching MOSFETs or other major components blew up, causing a short which the fuse caught.
 
Hmm, now I'm not sure. I spent the whole day yesterday researching PSUs which wasn't easy on this 15 year old Mac which I've had to pull out. Cost of a new fuse and a few bits of wire $10, cost of a PSU, actually I'm in the UK so its about $200 for an equivalent model.

Personally I suspect the wiring in this apartment is the cause as I've had 3 PSU related problems on two computers in 7-8 years and I read yesterday good PSUs are meant to last for 10-15 years, sorry I didn't bookmark the site. If my apartment wiring is the cause, there's nothing else wrong with the PC or PSU and fixing the fuse will fully repair the PC as there is nothing else wrong with it. What I don't want to do is spend that much of my hard earned money on a new PSU only to find that one goes in a year too.

Sorry, I remembered after I posted that I should have said, the switch in the apartment fuse box was tripped when the PC blew, cutting off power to everything on that ring. I just had to reset it, shame my very expensive PSU doesn't have a reset switch or user replaceable fuse too.

I expect my surge protector in my leads to stop this sort of thing happening in the first place or what's the point of them? Obviously they didn't kick in. I'm going to replace the fuses in my PC mains leads with quick blow kinds that I discovered yesterday, maybe that will help in the future, its the same kind as the PSU has so it could help.

Anyway thanks everyone for the advice.
 
edwinbradford said:
If my apartment wiring is the cause, there's nothing else wrong with the PC or PSU and fixing the fuse will fully repair the PC as there is nothing else wrong with it.
.....
I'm going to replace the fuses in my PC mains leads with quick blow kinds that I discovered yesterday, maybe that will help in the future, its the same kind as the PSU has so it could help.
Click to expand...

Might want to refer to what Zero82z said:
Zero82z said:
Fuses don't just blow for no reason. Often, when a fuse blows it is because some other part of the PSU has failed. The SS-650HT is a fairly recent PSU, so it might still be under warranty. Try contacting Seasonic and see if you can get it replaced. If not, then purchase a new PSU yourself.
Click to expand...

So replacing the fuses might not work since it's probably a temporary fix at best.
 
Well that was pretty spectacular but well worth it. I decided to ignore everything everyone said, of course ;), and go ahead with a fuse replacement. First of all I soldered a solid wire (read no fuse at all) in where the fuse connections were to see if the PSU would power up and let me check the voltages before going to all the trouble of buying a new fuse and components.

Standing well back, I threw the swich on the mains and there was an almighty bang this time accompanied by spectacular smoke effects :D. That was a great experiment. I now know conclusively that the PSU had totally had it to put it mildly. For anyone else in doubt, found a great thread that said if the PSU fails with a bang and or smoke, its likely a capacitor failure and you should ditch it.

So maybe there's nothing wrong with the mains here and my expensive PSUs are just lasting less than 5 years before they fail in which case I think its outrageous given their cost. Incidentally, I did have the mains checked here by an electrician when I moved in a few years ago and he gave it the all clear.

I have to order a new PSU today. Not, emphasis *not* at all impressed with Seasonic. OK they get fantastic reviews everywhere but you'll understand my doubts. Incidentally, it is outside warranty and anyway I couldn't wait two weeks for an RMA turnaround.
 
Either you're the world's unluckiest bastard when it comes to quality PSUs or there really something weird with your electrical setup. Or you're somehow mistreating your PSUs or putting them through too much stress in bad environments. Surge protectors don't necessarily work BTW in situations like these. Generally a UPS is recommended for these kind of situations.
 
Ha. Next time buy a 50$ voltage regulator and plug your power into that. Take the apartment electric wiring out of the equation and never plug directly into the wall.
 
Thanks for the advice, so whats a "UPS" and a "voltage regulator" or are they the same thing?, Do you have any links or ones you recommend? My PC is under pretty good conditions. Its in a temperate climate, away from the sun and artificial heating and there's plenty of space for air. Its a Lian-Li case so as you can see I thought I was buying good quality products throughout the whole rig so they would last. The PC is not clocked and has the best coolers I could get after reading the reviews. Durability is way more important to me than anything else as I can't have downtime. So when one of my components lets me down I feel very angry with the manufacturer :mad:

Incidentally, I found this thread. Seasonic do fail even though its a low rate. My complaint is as they cost more I expect reliability in return, otherwise I could just go buy some cheap one.
 
Many UPSes have built-in voltage regulators, but they are not the same thing. There are also line conditioners, which are basically a more advanced version of voltage regulators that can correct the output waveform as well.
 
There must be something killing your psus, so many good psus dying in a short time is too bizarre. I'd get a decent line interactive ups, which will automatically fix up your voltage if it goes out of spec. If your psus are still dying while on the ups, than you're obviously murphy.
 
OK thanks for the pointers, I have a rough idea what they are, I did a bit of googling, problem is googling on this old Mac is a bit slow. I'll have to do some more reading. For the time being, I ordered a Corsair TX 650. Made by Seasonic again but I can't find anyone with a bad word to say about Seasonic so I'll give them another go. This one is a single rail unit, my S12 was multi-rail, I can't pick modular as I tried one a few years back and it wouldn't fit into my Lian-Li case. The TX650 was half the price of the Seasonic X-650 and as I'm having to fork out for an unexpected repair, price matters.
 
I have stuck with PC Power & Cooling units for years and never seen or even heard of a failure. I have heard them called the Porche of power supplies and I can agree with that.
 
R-Type said:
I have stuck with PC Power & Cooling units for years and never seen or even heard of a failure. I have heard them called the Porche of power supplies and I can agree with that.
Click to expand...

You sure love hearing your PSUs 'roar', I imagine ;)
 
edwinbradford said:
Hmm, now I'm not sure. I spent the whole day yesterday researching PSUs which wasn't easy on this 15 year old Mac which I've had to pull out. Cost of a new fuse and a few bits of wire $10, cost of a PSU, actually I'm in the UK so its about $200 for an equivalent model.

Personally I suspect the wiring in this apartment is the cause as I've had 3 PSU related problems on two computers in 7-8 years and I read yesterday good PSUs are meant to last for 10-15 years, sorry I didn't bookmark the site. If my apartment wiring is the cause, there's nothing else wrong with the PC or PSU and fixing the fuse will fully repair the PC as there is nothing else wrong with it. What I don't want to do is spend that much of my hard earned money on a new PSU only to find that one goes in a year too.

Sorry, I remembered after I posted that I should have said, the switch in the apartment fuse box was tripped when the PC blew, cutting off power to everything on that ring. I just had to reset it, shame my very expensive PSU doesn't have a reset switch or user replaceable fuse too.

I expect my surge protector in my leads to stop this sort of thing happening in the first place or what's the point of them? Obviously they didn't kick in. I'm going to replace the fuses in my PC mains leads with quick blow kinds that I discovered yesterday, maybe that will help in the future, its the same kind as the PSU has so it could help.

Anyway thanks everyone for the advice.
Click to expand...

You can buy a Corsair 650 Modular from Overclockers.co.uk, for 99.99 (thats about $129), and PSU's, if they make it to 10-15 years old, then the cooling fan is normally seized up way before 10 years, my dads old p133 was almost dead after 7 years.
 
R-Type said:
I have stuck with PC Power & Cooling units for years and never seen or even heard of a failure. I have heard them called the Porche of power supplies and I can agree with that.
Click to expand...
If you didn't blindfold yourself and stopped sticking your fingers in your ears and saying "lalalalala", you'd probably have seen or heard of a few PCP&C failures ;). Their PSUs are and were made by normal PSU OEMs, so their failure rates were never any better than other manufacturers'. Their current lineup is also pretty crap.
 
edwinbradford said:
OK thanks for the pointers, I have a rough idea what they are, I did a bit of googling, problem is googling on this old Mac is a bit slow. I'll have to do some more reading. For the time being, I ordered a Corsair TX 650. Made by Seasonic again but I can't find anyone with a bad word to say about Seasonic so I'll give them another go. This one is a single rail unit, my S12 was multi-rail, I can't pick modular as I tried one a few years back and it wouldn't fit into my Lian-Li case. The TX650 was half the price of the Seasonic X-650 and as I'm having to fork out for an unexpected repair, price matters.
Click to expand...
Actually the latest versions of the Corsair 650TX is CWT made.
 
Zero82z said:
If you didn't blindfold yourself and stopped sticking your fingers in your ears and saying "lalalalala", you'd probably have seen or heard of a few PCP&C failures ;). Their PSUs are and were made by normal PSU OEMs, so their failure rates were never any better than other manufacturers'. Their current lineup is also pretty crap.
Click to expand...

Haha, well I didn't say I was actively looking for failures.;) I do think they are higher quality than the vast majority of the units out there, although I have heard great things about the latest Corsairs.

And really although PSU's may have components manufactured at the same OEM, it really comes down to having a design that isn't faulty and spec'ing higher end components that can take the abuse.
 
R-Type said:
And really although PSU's may have components manufactured at the same OEM, it really comes down to having a design that isn't faulty and spec'ing higher end components that can take the abuse.
Click to expand...
PCP&C never did that. All their PSUs were off-the-shelf Seasonic and Win-tact units, no better than what those manufacturers sold under their own name or manufactured for other brands.
 
Zero82z said:
PCP&C never did that. All their PSUs were off-the-shelf Seasonic and Win-tact units, no better than what those manufacturers sold under their own name or manufactured for other brands.
Click to expand...

Worse was that PCP&C's insistence on putting an 80 mm fan into the PSU instead of a 120 overhead meant that often the base design got worse, thermal, sound and voltage regulation wise. 'Silencer' series indeed :D
 
Actually the latest versions of the Corsair 650TX is CWT made.
Click to expand...
It arrived this morning, says Rev. B4W, United Kingdom model, so who actually manufactured it then?

Actually I don't mind, CWT and Seasonic both appear to be highly regarded and as my Seasonic blew up I would be happy to have a CWT model but I would like to know if anyone can tell me.
 
edwinbradford said:
It arrived this morning, says Rev. B4W, United Kingdom model, so who actually manufactured it then?

Actually I don't mind, CWT and Seasonic both appear to be highly regarded and as my Seasonic blew up I would be happy to have a CWT model but I would like to know if anyone can tell me.
Click to expand...
CWT made it but more than likely they had specific versions for specific markets. Probably the U.K has different PSU standards than the U.S
 
I have to order a new PSU today. Not, emphasis *not* at all impressed with Seasonic. OK they get fantastic reviews everywhere but you'll understand my doubts. Incidentally, it is outside warranty and anyway I couldn't wait two weeks for an RMA turnaround.
Click to expand...
Err...would you rather have a cheap model that fries your computer AND the PSU when it suffers a catastrophic failure?
 
edwinbradford said:
Well that was pretty spectacular but well worth it. I decided to ignore everything everyone said, of course ;), and go ahead with a fuse replacement. First of all I soldered a solid wire (read no fuse at all) in where the fuse connections were to see if the PSU would power up and let me check the voltages before going to all the trouble of buying a new fuse and components.
Click to expand...

People die, fires get started, property gets damaged because people do stupid things like this. The "live and learn" rule doesn't apply when your messing around with electricity. Seeing as you didn't know what a UPS was and you had to have an electrician check your wiring, it would in your own best interests to stop your tinkering before you get more training. Bypassing safety measures will come back to bite you eventually.
 
May be the capacitors. Fuses don't; usually bang. was there any smell?
 
R-Type said:
I have stuck with PC Power & Cooling units for years and never seen or even heard of a failure. I have heard them called the Porche of power supplies and I can agree with that.
Click to expand...

Yep most loud and annoying psus ever :D
Honestly pc power stuff doesn't fail that often, but it does fail, and none have ever actually been made by the company itself. Hello 100% rebrander.
 
Elledan said:
Worse was that PCP&C's insistence on putting an 80 mm fan into the PSU instead of a 120 overhead meant that often the base design got worse, thermal, sound and voltage regulation wise. 'Silencer' series indeed :D
Click to expand...

Well honestly the 80mm thing is kind of a myth too now. Seeing as a HCP-1200 with 80mm fan can somehow keep a 1200watt psu cooled pretty quietly. Just Pcpower has no freaking idea about fan speed regulation. They probably checked the box that said, KEEP IT AS COOL AS POSSIBLE even if it sounds like an airplane taking off. Obviously a 120mm is more efficient than an 80mm on a general basis, but there is an advantage to straight through air as well.
 
merliwolf said:
Well honestly the 80mm thing is kind of a myth too now. Seeing as a HCP-1200 with 80mm fan can somehow keep a 1200watt psu cooled pretty quietly. Just Pcpower has no freaking idea about fan speed regulation. They probably checked the box that said, KEEP IT AS COOL AS POSSIBLE even if it sounds like an airplane taking off. Obviously a 120mm is more efficient than an 80mm on a general basis, but there is an advantage to straight through air as well.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by those new Antec PSUs using an 8 cm fan and being quiet at the same time. The higher efficiency helps, of course, but it's still a lot of power to dissipate. Just shows that PCP&C didn't have the faintest clue what they were doing :)
 
Yahoo Answers isn't always trustworthy. There are overvoltage protectors that, like fuses, are good only once (they short instead of pop open), but they're found on motherboards and drive circuit boards, and the overvoltage protection in a PSU simply shuts off the power and can work repeatedly. Generally, if you replace a fuse in a PSU and it pops again, it means something on the high voltage side is bad, like the high voltage transistor(s) or the +5Vstandby regulator (you may want to check them with an ohm meter or diode checker for shorts). Otherwise the problem is more likely to be on the low voltage side. Be sure any replacement parts are of the same general type (MOSFET vs. bipolar, Schottky diode vs. regular diode) and at least meet the same ratings (amps, volts, watts, RDSon), and if the packaging is different, use the right hardware to for electrical insulation from the heatsink (some packages need nylon flanged washers for the mounting screw), which may not have been used with the original diode or transistor.

Seasonics aren't always made with the best capacitors, and I've seen OST brand in many of them. Try to replace with low ESR Japanese brands.

Some circuit boards are laid out so fuse holder clips can be installed and regular snap-in fuses used from then on. But sometimes the clips can cause a short or shock hazard, so inspect for this.
 
Last edited:
Replace that $0.30 fuse, or short it or whatever, and a whole lot more than $0.30 is going to go up in smoke when your computer is fried.

Stop being cheap, especially since you really do not know what you are doing, and get a functional new PSU.
 
Though modern capacitors don't tend to fail as violently as older ones did (yes i've seen people blow caps on purpose, i've also seen it happen by accident on a few occasions). On modern ones a pressure release tends to pop and you get some liquids/gasses out, on older ones they tended to blow the whole can of the capacitor off.
 
night_2004 said:
Replace that $0.30 fuse, or short it or whatever, and a whole lot more than $0.30 is going to go up in smoke when your computer is fried.

Stop being cheap, especially since you really do not know what you are doing, and get a functional new PSU.
Click to expand...

This. Don't roll the dice with your rig. Get a new one.
 
Replace it. Safest way. Unless you want something else to go bang. Then you will be spending more money anyways.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top