burnt power supply plug... is this bad?

[yeedog]

I was cleaing out the dust in my computer tower and noticed that the power supply plug to the motherboard was burnt. More specifically, the plastic surrounding the pins which is plugged into the motherboard had burn marks around them. It was only on a few of them and not the whole thing.

Is this something i should be worried about? I have a Enermax 350 Watt power supply that's about 1.75 yeas old..

Thanks!

 

[nick1985]

uhhh????? i would be worried.....

 

[yeedog]

wanna be more specific? Like what would cause this? Is it something that needs immediate attenting, since who knows how long it has been like this and everything was working fine.

 

[4fingerwu1]

I just deal with the same thing
Four of the prongs were burnt out
I had to replace the motherboard and the PSU
The computer kept crashing on me whenver I ran anything that required any juice
You dont happen to have an ecs k7s5a motherboard do you?
Ricardo

 

[yeedog]

nope i have an Epox 8K7A. I actually have been down on that computer since yesterday. I the computer won't even post anymore, well it tries to and fails thus it restarts and tries again. I ordered a new mother board and CPU earlier today, because will i thought the motherboard was bad and figured it was a good excuse to buy a new CPU.

I was just searching on google about this and come across somebody else that had this problem. He even posted pics that looks exaclty like mine, but not as severe. The pic is located at: Picture

Anyways, what happens is that the PSU is overloaded when a new component is added. The ATX burns out and plastic that melts pools in the P1 part of the motherboard. I didn't have it as bad as having pools of plastic in the P1 part, but I do have lots of stuff in my computer. Thought I would have thought a 350 watt would be surfice.

Here is what is in my computer:

NIC
GeForce 2 MX
Game Theatre XP
IDE Controller Card
fire wire card
SCSI card
4 hared drives (120, 80, 40, 24)
1 DVD rom
1 CD burner
floppy
3 case fans
T-Bird 1.4GHz'
Epox 8K7A motherboard

Does all that add up to around 350 watts of power??? I doesn't really sound like alot of stuff to me, but you never know.

Thanks

 

[amdskip]

Depends on your brand/model of power supply.

 

[yeedog]

Enermax Whisper 350W Switching Power Supply for Computers, Model EG365P-VE(FC)

 

[dcdomain]

Had the same problem: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=1003966

 

[yeedog]

ahh cool, well not cool, but ya so it was a bad pin on the power supply plug or on the connector on the motherboard? I actually have 2 pins 60% burned out and another 2 10% burned out.

So did you just replace the power supply and you were fine?

Thanks

 

[dcdomain]

Too late for that... had to replace both.

 

[McCarthy]

Had the same power supply.
Same burnt plug.
5v kept getting lower and lower, finally computer was unstable...noticed plug when I replaced PS.

Enermax wouldn't warranty and in return I won't ever say a good word about them. But after fixing their **** job of crimping the connectors on the PS plug wires I got it working. Wires don't get hot anymore. If you want to deal with the hassle of taking those wires out and carefully uncrimping, stripping, cleaning and recrimping is up to you. As a stranger I'd say to get that hazzard out of your house and get a different PS before your motherboard gets damaged or you start a fire. But definately address it. After mine got hot the wires corroded, which decreased conact, which increased resistance, which made it get hotter. Only a matter of time.

 

[lenjack]

A pin with poor or intermittent caontact can cause arcing which can do this. Sometimes the arcing will fuse the connections together, making it impossible to remove the connector.

 

[yeedog]

thanks for the replies. I'm just going to trash the PSU and get a new one.

Any reccomendations for a 400 watt PSU that is quiet? The Enermax I had while claiming to be whisper quiet, was anything but that. The outtake fan was quite loud.

I heard Antec PSUs were good, anybody have a reccomendation on that brand or any brand really.

EDIT: oh yeah, I have an AMD XP 2100+ CPU Type B

Thanks!

 

[freebee]

PS should still be good. My epox mb is just like that....burnt out all the 5v pins. A little crimping, little cleaning and the PS is fine. Its actually either a short in the MB or a design defect. Fairly common problem actually in the 8k7a. Lots of people have experienced it.

 

[yeedog]

hmm so if i just cut off the connector and crimp on a new one it would work fine? Is that hard to do? Would I need some special tools for it? Where would i find a replacement connector?

So it's the motherboard that is bad most likely? I'm getting a new one anyways, since i thought the motherboard was dead to begin with. Too late to cancel the order now as it was already shipped.

 

[NokiaDude]

Dude, just get a new Antec PSU, look for the models with the adjustable Pots for each rail. I'm using an Antec SL300S, purrs like a kitten, just a little hotter than my old genric one.

 

[titanz117]

i dont know if u need to go out and buy a new motherboard and cpu. first i would just try to changed the powersupply. unless u were due for an upgrade and had the money. i just bought a antec sl350 from bestbuy for 69.00 (got my parts early and couldnt wait 3 days for newegg to ship it ) the antec works great makes no noise amazing psu

 

[McCarthy]

If you want to save it and are acceptably good with a soldering iron the way I'd suggest is to get an ATX extention and use it's male plug. Cut the female end off it, the male end off your current and then solder and shrinktube the wires themselves. The crimped connectors are flimsy, only meant to be crimped once and if done right that's fine, but taking one apart like I did really isn't an advised way.

Hmm, mine was louder than hell too, others swore theirs really were quiet and I have to believe most were telling the truth. Wonder if there was a production run of loud ones with lousy connectors (I had 2 of the molex plugs push out just from attaching to drives and another was so loose it caused problems). Not that I'm saying I'd buy one now, even if it was quiet, and maintained voltages and the connectors were worth a damn this Enlight 300w is still half the retail price and works like a mule.