Can a bad PSU take down other system components with it?

[chesss]

I'll be blunt. I have no desire for your 2 cents, if you had a couple of PC's frying where you think the PSU took down your mobo , I have no need of that as well. If all your knowledge comes from reading reviews and other opinions on the net, I again don't need your opinion.

Can a PSU really take down other PC components? Yes or no? can I get a real scientific answer to this question from someone knowledgeable please?
Googling reveals that there are some people who absolutely believe that PSU can fry the mobo and some people who claim that there is no way PSU's can magically fry system components.

So please for the love of science, a straight technical scientific answer to this question please.

Thanks.

 

[tynopik]

if you had a couple of PC's frying where you think the PSU took down your mobo , I have no need of that as well.

how about a motherboard, a slocket, 3 hard drives and a cd burner?

is that good enough for you?

or do you think it's just a coincidence they all burned out at the same time the power supply emitted a puff of magic smoke?

that said, it should be impossible for a modern, well designed power supply

 

[Makaveli]

maybe with a AT PSU from 1992 but that is very rare now unless you buy really cheap components!

 

[SparkyJJO]

Yes. I've seen it happen before. Heck I saw a bad PSU catch a hard drive on fire. My brother's crappy PSU took out his video card when the 12V rail went through the roof. Think about it - components rated for 12V input getting fed a horribly rippling 16-ish volts? Yeah that's bound to be able to cook something.

But this only holds true for a crappy one. A well designed PSU should never damage other components if it goes out because it should have the appropriate safety devices in place (OCP, OVP, etc)

 

[Zap]

Hello chesss, and welcome to AnandTech Forums.

You were indeed quite blunt. Have you asked your question at jonnyguru.com or badcaps.net forums? That's where the really smart PSU geeks reside, who can give you the technical explanation of why this can or cannot happen.

 

[PreferLinux]

Of course a bad PSU can do damage. How about I give you a bad PSU that applies the AC input to all the outputs? OK, not what you are asking about, but the principle is still valid.

If you have a nearby lightning strike, and get ~6000 V on the input (the theoretical maximum) with no surge protector, a bad PSU (which won't have a built-in surge protector either) would quite possibly let that pretty much directly to the output. Think about it. What will the insulation on the transformers etc. be rated for? 1000 V? possibly. 6000 V would blow straight through the supply, and probably give you at least several hundred volts on the motherboard etc. Is there any way that won't do damage? Maybe you don't like that either as it is involving a surge or similar.

How about no short-circuit or over current protection? If something malfunctions, it won't shut down, and more damage may occur from overheating, or even fire. OK, that is probably not the kind of thing you are thinking of.

If you don't like any of them, then how about a cheap PSU with non-functioning OVP, or OVP set too high? If that puts out high voltages, or high voltage spikes, there is nothing to shut it down, so the voltages could get far too high.

And finally, how about a PSU that keeps its output well within the required voltages, but has a huge amount of ripple? Possible that your HDD won't spin at a constant speed, which would cause trouble. And other things like that. Sudden jumps between voltages could give voltage regulators problems too, which could give you high output spikes to your RAM, CPU, chipset, GPU, etc.

In conclusion, it should not be able to happen because of how it is designed. But if it is well designed, is it really a bad supply? And no matter how well it is designed, when things go wrong, other things can happen that should not be able to.

 

[smitbret]

I'll be blunt. I have no desire for your 2 cents, if you had a couple of PC's frying where you think the PSU took down your mobo , I have no need of that as well. If all your knowledge comes from reading reviews and other opinions on the net, I again don't need your opinion.

Can a PSU really take down other PC components? Yes or no? can I get a real scientific answer to this question from someone knowledgeable please?
Googling reveals that there are some people who absolutely believe that PSU can fry the mobo and some people who claim that there is no way PSU's can magically fry system components.

So please for the love of science, a straight technical scientific answer to this question please.

Thanks.

Let's see, to break it down as scientifically as possible.....

Using Ocam's Razor and the binary system.......

I would answer this way......

1

 

[Rifter]

yes, i have seen it happen many times when i used to be a tech at a warehouse that sold crappy PSU's(Allied, L&C).

Seen them literally catch fire, take out mobo's, CPU's, RAM, HDD's, Optical drives.

 

[Leros]

During a lightning storm, we had a little power surge. I saw a spark out of the back of my PSU and the PSU was dead after that. Replaced the PSU, but eventually discovered that my RAM, CPU, and video card were dead as well.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've had one PSU overheat and meltdown. It was a P3 rig, with an L&C or Deer PSU. I later discovered that it had been my fault that the caps melted, because I had replaced the fan, and I usually run a fan molex wire outside the PSU, to be plugged into one of the molex connectors, and I had forgotten to plug it back in after a rebuild.

I've also had a client that the PSU blew up on. Said it smelled terrible. That was a cheapo PSU that had come with the case, a Dynex case+PSU combo from BestBuy outlet. Was UL-listed.

In both cases, the whole computer system was fine once a working PSU was installed. Thank goodness. I've heard horror stories of PSUs failing, and killing components.

I recently also had a UPS die on me, something is wrong with it. Thankfully, it also didn't kill the attached computer system.

 

[Mr Fahad]

Yes! a cheap (I'm talking about Cooler Master RS series) PSU can damage your other hardware like in my case when my PSU died it took my Motherboard and SSD with him(Both were shorted in the 5v section)... When I investigate, I found that a Toroidal transformer having both 12v and 5v windings in it got damaged and get shorted then the 5v rail got a 12v spike in it that damaged other components...

 

[Leeea]

Can a PSU really take down other PC components? Yes or no? can I get a real scientific answer to this question from someone knowledgeable please?

Since you wrote a somewhat insulting question, I feel obligated to put out the simple and obvious answer:

There have been many incidents of PSU's lighting on fire:

Google Search

Fires burn down houses.

House fire will destroy all of your PC components, including but not limited to cpu, mainboard, ram, keyboard, monitor, and PEBCAK. Afterward, said components will likely not even be recognizable in the pile of debris and ash.


Yes, a PSU can destroy PC components.

 

[MalVeauX]

Absolutely. And if any fuses, relays or resistors go down and there's no fault tolerance or that fails too, and it's still pushing current, it can easily destroy every thing it's connected to. People cheap out on power supplies but they're really something that should be receive more consideration in a build and quality matters on the PSU.

Very best,