Power supply went

[Amasov]

So Thursday night I was sitting at my PC playing a game. Nothing was really happening. It was a nice, quiet night. Suddenly, I started to smell something strange, almost like what an iron smells like when it's being used. Then, I hear a strange sound -- like someone threw a plastic box full of thumb tacks onto a surface -- which is then followed by a plume of smoke shooting out the back of my tower. Yup, my computer's power supply committed suicide. This is the first time this has ever happened to me.

Luckily, when the power supply went, it didn't take anything else with it. The motherboard and all other components survived. I was very lucky.

I ordered a new power supply (and it glows!), which should get here tomorrow. I'm real good with a computer, but I have never actually installed a power supply before. Hopefully it's not too tough.

Anyone else want to share some computer horror stories with me?

 

[sojourner]

My current computer eats video cards. I'm on my 3rd in 2 years. I think it just likes to have the latest and greatest.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I had a homicidal P/S that did take the motherboard with it, so you're really lucky in that respect.

Still, keep an eye on performance when you put the new P/S in. Make sure there aren't any after effects.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Be sure to use NOSMOKE.COM when you get your next power supply.

 

[Yoda]

I've had a power supply or two crap out on me, or rather more often on my family over the years. Crappy proprietary Dells and the like.

When putting together a system the power supply seems like a great place to save a few bucks, but really it's the worst. Even if the thing doesn't explode you may end up with stability issues just from inconsistent voltage and the like. And when you're getting blue screens because your power supply sucks, usually you end up looking at everything but your power supply when trying to troubleshoot.

 

[farmkid]

Between me and the rest of my family, for whom I'm kind of the go-to tech support guy, we've had a few power supplies need to be replaced. Usually, the computer just doesn't boot one day and it turns out to be a bad PSU. One time, however I turned on the computer in my kids' room and there was a loud pop, accompanied by a flash and a small puff of smoke coming from the back of the computer. That PSU was absolutely dead. I put in another one I had laying around, and nothing happened. Thinking the first PSU had taken the MB with it, I replaced that too, but it turns out the dead MB fried the second PSU, which in turn fried the second MB. Yep, that one PSU ended up killing two MBs and another PSU before I just chucked the whole lot and started over. Fortunately, they were all spare parts I had laying around, so I didn't buy any of the parts that met their demise.

When I opened up the first PSU, I found the base of a capacitor mounted on the circuit board but the rest was missing. There was what looked like finely shredded paper all over the place. That capacitor had popped like a kernel of popcorn.

 

[Amasov]

There's a great computer repair shop up the street from me. Given that I was unable to see what the extent of the damage was when the PSU went, I had to have them take a look at it. I'm really good with computers, but when it comes to PSUs, I'm clueless. They tested everything and assured me that everything is fine. But this computer is approaching three years old and I'm already starting to think about replacing it sometime within the next year or so.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I once had a monitor (CRT) catch on fire. That was fun. The image "snapped" several times (flickered on and off with a loud "snapping" noise), then sparks shot out the back, and then smoke and fire. YAY.

 

[Amasov]

Wow, that's insane. When my PSU blew, my friend said to me, "Did you try plugging it back in and turning it on?"

Yeah, I'm not running the risk of further damaging my PC AND myself, thanks.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Well, you could always plug it in, short the power-on pins and measure the voltages with a voltmeter.

 

[publiusr]

Wasn't it William Gibson (who ran out of Blade Runner screaming) who thought computers would be these cooly humming constructs of fine crystal--but was disgusted when they turned out to be kitchen appliances that made disgusting little noiseread/write error**
I/O ERROR

 

[FordSVT]

My last computer killed the MB when the power supply blew. It was almost five years old, it was time to get a new one anyway, but still.

On the other hand, it stepped up the purchase of my shiny new i5, 8GB RAM, GTX560 computer by about six months, so there was a silver lining.

I've had really good luck with computers over the years, to be honest. Dells in the family, mostly, never had a problem with any of them even after years of continual use.

 

[Geckothan]

A fried motherboard from a PSU failure is pretty damn lucky considering the possibility of fried HDDs.

 

[farmkid]

That's true, a fried motherboard is certainly preferable to a fried hard drive. I suppose that's another reason why frequent backups are a good idea.

Still, though, I've never heard of a hard drive being fried by a blown PSU, but I've heard a number of cases of the MB dying in that way. I can't see any reason why a hard drive would be immune to that, but perhaps they're just a bit tougher than the motherboard.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

A bad power supply can indeed either toast the logic board or fry the motor in a hard drive, though if the motherboard is killed first, it's probably not passing power to any peripherals after that. If the motherboard is not regulating power correctly, of course, it could destroy any peripherals connected to it, as well.

 

[Amasov]

I installed my new PSU and was relieved to find out everything else is fine. It's been a full week now my computer is running fine. Nevertheless that was a real traumatizing event. I'm not comfortable leaving my PC on when I'm not home or even overnight. I shut it down every single night now.

 

[23skidoo]

Ironic I should discover this thread the same day I'm reading about the death of Encyclopedia Brittanica which people are calling the true death knell of print. At least books don't have power supplies that spontaneously commit suicide...

But the reason I'm posting is to relate a situation that occurred to me a few years ago that would have burned my house down. I bought a new computer - a Mac - but I left the old PC plugged in. In part because I did occasionally need to get things off its hard drive, and also just out of laziness.

I was working on my Mac when I heard that same box of thumbtacks sound come from the PC on the next table. And then the back of the computer burst into flames. I shudder to think what might have happened if I'd been out or in the bathroom when that had happened. It truly was a "right place, right time" scenario.

Take this as a cautionary tale. If you have a PC you aren't using regularly, unplug the thing. If you have a machine that seems to go through power supplies, I'd recommend doing the same, not just shutting it down. That fire was my traumatizing event and so I don't trust PCs at all. (I've never heard of desktop Macs doing the same because they work differently, though I know one guy whose Macbook laptop went pyro once).

Alex

 

[RAMA]

So Thursday night I was sitting at my PC playing a game. Nothing was really happening. It was a nice, quiet night. Suddenly, I started to smell something strange, almost like what an iron smells like when it's being used. Then, I hear a strange sound -- like someone threw a plastic box full of thumb tacks onto a surface -- which is then followed by a plume of smoke shooting out the back of my tower. Yup, my computer's power supply committed suicide. This is the first time this has ever happened to me.

Luckily, when the power supply went, it didn't take anything else with it. The motherboard and all other components survived. I was very lucky.

I ordered a new power supply (and it glows!), which should get here tomorrow. I'm real good with a computer, but I have never actually installed a power supply before. Hopefully it's not too tough.

Anyone else want to share some computer horror stories with me?

Its easy!

 

[Geckothan]

Ironic I should discover this thread the same day I'm reading about the death of Encyclopedia Brittanica which people are calling the true death knell of print. At least books don't have power supplies that spontaneously commit suicide...

But the reason I'm posting is to relate a situation that occurred to me a few years ago that would have burned my house down. I bought a new computer - a Mac - but I left the old PC plugged in. In part because I did occasionally need to get things off its hard drive, and also just out of laziness.

I was working on my Mac when I heard that same box of thumbtacks sound come from the PC on the next table. And then the back of the computer burst into flames. I shudder to think what might have happened if I'd been out or in the bathroom when that had happened. It truly was a "right place, right time" scenario.

Take this as a cautionary tale. If you have a PC you aren't using regularly, unplug the thing. If you have a machine that seems to go through power supplies, I'd recommend doing the same, not just shutting it down. That fire was my traumatizing event and so I don't trust PCs at all. (I've never heard of desktop Macs doing the same because they work differently, though I know one guy whose Macbook laptop went pyro once).

Alex

Don't buy cheap PSUs or pre-built machines from manufacturers that use them (which is pretty much all of them). It's very rare for a high quality PSU to literally blow up like that unless you've poured beer in it. Server-grade PSUs with gigantic single 12v/5v/3.3v rails are the way to go.

 

[sevenstars]

This thread has officially scared the hell out of me.