Bad power supply - what are the consequences?

[stultus]

Hi all, my newly built computer made some terrifying sounds yesterday that I think same from the pwoer supply. It was a scary rrRRRRRrrr sound like something that was currently rotating decided it didn't want to spin any more. I figure it could have come from something hitting a fan inside my case, my hard drive(s), or the power supply. Now, it sounded like it was more from one of my new 30 gig HDs (less than a week old). I have them both in RAID 0 running Win2k. I didn't crash or bluescreen, so I don't think it could be them. (Is that a fair assumption?)

I blew a bunch of dust out of the power supply (300W standard that came in my Aopen HX08) with compressed air a week ago before I put in my new T-bird. I'm thinking maybe it did not like that for some reason.

If it is a bad power supply, what will happen if it decides to die on me? Is there a chance of any components being fried (mobo, etc)? If so I will order a new one today! Anyone know where I can get a great price on something in the Enermax whisper series?

Joe

 

[Tauren]

It could just be the fan in the power supply. Considering the cost of a PS, I would replace it. 300w costs only $40.

 

[hagbard]

Get the Enermax, the one that's in your case is probably one of those POS Antec supplies.

..hag

 

[jamarno]

I think you're right that a wire probably got tangled in the fan, but blowing out dust sometimes does get the fan dirty (don't just relubricate - disassemble, clean, and lube with light machine oil, not silicone oil or WD-40), and it doesn't help unless the dust is very, very thick on the heatsinks. Fortunately, when something goes wrong with a switching supply, it inherently almost always just shuts down.

Enermax supplies are good, like Sparkle, but neither is vastly superior.

 

[Azratax]

One of my friends reports having seen a powersupply burn out and fry the mobo, ram, and CPU. I would assume it surged when it overheated. The damn fool had not replaced the PSU fan, even though the PSU was emitting smoke... (i personaly think they deserve what happened for neglecting thier computer). What i would do is try to pinpoint what part was making the noise... I Would try first feeling whether all the fans are moving as much air as they are supposed to. If they all appear to be working, i would try disconnecting all drives with spinning parts in them, and then reconnecting them one at a time. It is worth noting that some cd drives make a rather disconcerting noise, even when they arnt doing anything.
-Az

 

[Bignate603]

go buy an enermax and save yourself some trouble.

 

[jamarno]

Most likely, the motherboard went bad, causing the power supply to send out too much current, and this eventually caused a short and took out the power supply because PC switching supplies don't have reliable overcurrent protection. Motherboards wouldn't fry so often if supplies had better protection and it triggered when any output overloaded rather than just have it lump all the outputs together.