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Any hints for diagnosing the cause of a frying?

kamper

kamper

Diamond Member
Hi guys,
I heard a really loud blast of white noise from my speakers, then the computer shut down and I quickly smelled a sickly burning smell. I can see no visual damage like blown caps or anything but the smell seems to be coming from the power supply.

I tried turning the machine back on to see if I could get anything but there wasn't any sign of life.

What are some of the general things you'd do to find what caused the problem and which parts are salvageable?

I don't have many spare parts around and all other computers in the house are dells so there's little I can do to swap in parts but I will try and hit up friends if necessary.

Here's some specs if that helps at all:
Antec 430W TruePower
Asus p4p800de
p4c@2.8, stock speed
zalman 7000B alcu (newly installed but had been running fine)
 
Same diagnosis here - I've had that happen a few times and it's always been the power supply. 🙁
 
Definitely the ps, eh? At least that gives me a good place to start. My biggest concern was that I was going to start replacing expensive parts without knowing if they were really blown or not. Thanks. But the fact that so much energy was shoved through the onboard sound really makes me worry about the health of everything else 🙁.

Don't know if this is relevant anymore but I just plugged the hsf in to another box and it fired up nicely so that much is still good.
 
It's at times like this that I wish I lived in the States... or that newegg shipped to Canada.
 
PS most likely. Take it out, open it up and have a look. Most PS's only have 4 screws to remove. Chances are you'll see some fried caps in there!
 
Think it would be worth trying to get antec to replace it? Not so much because I want another antec psu but because it'd be cheaper.

Does anyone have any experience dealing with antec in such matters?
 
Antec 430W TruePower

Mine blew the same way after reading about the true 430 on the web I'd steer clear of that model completely.

I replaced mine with a superflower ttgi from directron and the rails are much better. it's also dang near 1/3 the cost.(looks like they have gone up in price ...I paid 37.00 for mine though.I am running 3 of these now.

Hope this helps.

http://www.directron.com/tt520ss4fanb.html
 
Antec has a three year warranty on it's PSUs. I would think that it would be worth it to RMA it. I have had good luck with Antec. I am on my third Antec PSU. Recently, I upgraded from a TruePower 430 to the TruePower 550.
 
Heh, after having you guys help me like this I don't think I could try to sell you the replacement 🙂 Unless someone really wanted it, that is 😉 I think I will go for the rma but also buy something completely different. At least I can end up having a spare one around.

Moving on from the power supply, what components usually get toasted in situations like this? Obviously the mb is high risk and I imagine the ram and the processor could've bitten it too. Do the video card or hard drives frequently get damaged?
 
From what I've heard, Antec is very good about RMA's. It wasn't a generic PSU, so your components might be fine. The PSU may have clamped off most of the surge. Anyway, if you're going to RMA the PSU, don't open it up.

Funny thing is, I have 5 True430's powering various different computers (running 24/7). IIRC Three are about two years old. The other two are about a year old.
 
What everyone above said. I recently had a PSU in our DVR system (this records 16 security cameras) do the same thing. Heard a pop sound, smelled something burning. Luckily it didn't kill anything in our system. It would be a HUGE pain in the ass. Not to mention losing a week's worth of surveillance.
 
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