Computer burned.

[Montek]

I purchased new case (with built in PSU) connectrd everything, then just plugged in power cable and nothing happened, coolers did not start spining not even cooler on psu, just cd-rom half opened, and while i was trying to close it, i felt smell of burned plastic.

Then i disconnected everything from mobo conencted my old PSU and started PC again just motherboard and video card, then i plugged in power cable and PC started, i could hear all coolers again and was happy for few seconds until i saw that yellow flame comming from back of my Radeon 9800 and same smell again.

I think new PSU burned something in video or motherboard, and when i connected it with new PSU my video card was already burned.

Now i disconnected it and plugged in my old video card and pc seems to start without smok except there is no video signal, i was afraid to connect hdd at this time to see if it start booting.

Could this happen because i connected front panel USB tray and/or power on pins incorrectly?

How do i check if its really PSU problem?
And can i expect company who sold me case to pay for or replace parts of my pc that burned due to their faulty PSU? I am ready to go in low court if necessary.


P.S. I am not in United States...

 

[MarcVenice]

The video signal input is probably lacking since the connection between the videocard and the motherboard is messed up.

And I'm not sure if said company will replace your damaged parts. Try emailing them, or the retailer where you bought your stuff from. A PSU might be not strong enough to power your system, but it should in no way be allowed to damage other parts. If emailing doesn't help, then try to get as much attention as possible and create some negative publicity for said PSU/CASE brand/retailer, they don't like that at all

 

[Montek]

Hmm it was 350W psu with 16A on power line, my old one is same, and it worked for that system for about 3 years without problem.
I dont like waste my time on publicity etc, price of question is not that high, can i just sue them if they deny paying for damaged parts and what are my chances to win?

 

[MarcVenice]

sueing will most likely cost 10-100 times more then simply replacing the parts. Just tell them, your PSU fried my PC, see what they say. In holland we've got something like a consumers organisation, they have a lot of 'political' pull and can really influence things pretty good, threaten to go to said consumer organisation if they don't respond in kind to your email about their PSU frying your PC. Often that will work.

 

[Montek]

Well there is lawsuits for 50 bucks debt etc. whats the problem if i make expertise and will have paper that proves that this psu was condemned and fill request to replace parts, if they dont do it i go to court, seen lots of examples on tv, should be easy.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: Montek
I purchased new case (with built in PSU) connectrd everything, then just plugged in power cable and nothing happened, coolers did not start spining not even cooler on psu, just cd-rom half opened, and while i was trying to close it, i felt smell of burned plastic.

Then i disconnected everything from mobo conencted my old PSU and started PC again just motherboard and video card, then i plugged in power cable and PC started, i could hear all coolers again and was happy for few seconds until i saw that yellow flame comming from back of my Radeon 9800 and same smell again.

I think new PSU burned something in video or motherboard, and when i connected it with new PSU my video card was already burned.

Now i disconnected it and plugged in my old video card and pc seems to start without smok except there is no video signal, i was afraid to connect hdd at this time to see if it start booting.

Could this happen because i connected front panel USB tray and/or power on pins incorrectly?

How do i check if its really PSU problem?
And can i expect company who sold me case to pay for or replace parts of my pc that burned due to their faulty PSU? I am ready to go in low court if necessary.


P.S. I am not in United States...

Umm actually they probably won`t replace anything without you sending them the items that wer destroyed....and thats a long shot!!

Also that is the very reason not too many people on these and other forums recommend buying cases that have the PSU included -- you have no idea what your getitng in terms of PSU also its age or the quality...

It is always better to purchase the PSU seperately!!

 

[JEDIYoda]

As far as sueing...you need to understand that why warrantys are very specific.....

I am inclind to laugh ...but I think your honestly would sue....in that case...good luck!!

 

[Montek]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

Umm actually they probably won`t replace anything without you sending them the items that wer destroyed....and thats a long shot!!

Also that is the very reason not too many people on these and other forums recommend buying cases that have the PSU included -- you have no idea what your getitng in terms of PSU also its age or the quality...

It is always better to purchase the PSU seperately!!

You mean not recomend right?

And psu has label saying build in 2007 also its new so whats problem, well go find cheap case without psu they all have one besides i have had exactly same psu of other model this one got 12cm fan my had small fan but same psu and almost same model.

About suing e.g. if you buy dvd player that will burn your tv wont you sue, i think its same with psu burning your pc components.

 

[montag451]

Can you prove that you didn't plug in your components incorrectly or not?

If you do go to court, and they happen to get some techie expert witness asking you questions, your case sinks.
Do you know what happens if you connected front panel USB tray and/or power on pins incorrectly?

 

[Markbnj]

Can you prove that you didn't plug in your components incorrectly or not?

How do you connect a PSU up, without cutting stuff, in such a way that it burns up components?

 

[JackMDS]

I hate to say it, but if the new PSU burned the components, you would see the Yellow Flame when you plugged it in initially.

The new PSU might be a DUD, but during plugging and unplugging you created a short somewhere and when you plugged back the old Functional PSU it burned.

Try to negotiate with the Vendor may be they would be nice about it.

If you want to go to court you would have to hire a technician that can evaluate the computer and would be willing to provide an evidence that the fault is the New PSU fault otherwise the other side would ask you question in front of the e judge and it would be easy to prove that you are None professional in computers and can easily Burned the thing out of your on mistake.

 

[lxskllr]

Did you remember to put the standoffs in under the motherboard?

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Did you remember to put the standoffs in under the motherboard?

Better yet, did he remember to put the standoffs in the right place/remove the standoffs from holes that aren't used for that particular mobo.

 

[Montek]

Originally posted by: montag451
Can you prove that you didn't plug in your components incorrectly or not?

If you do go to court, and they happen to get some techie expert witness asking you questions, your case sinks.
Do you know what happens if you connected front panel USB tray and/or power on pins incorrectly?

I dot have to prove anything except faulty PSU, its eough to make expertise of PSU if problem was not there then i can admint it was my mistake.

Originally posted by: montag451If you do go to court, and they happen to get some techie expert witness asking you questions, your case sinks.

You watch to much movoes, i go to civil court this cases that outcome is less than ~1000 USD i believe done there, and not hard at all.

Originally posted by: montag451Do you know what happens if you connected front panel USB tray and/or power on pins incorrectly?

That was one of my questions because i do connected USB tray and i want to know it it could be due to it or on/off, reset, leds connected incorrectly?
I do not believe connecting usb tray or power switch incorrectly can burn up your video card or your motherboard pc in matter of first 5 seconds without even starting up system. Can i be wrong?

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Did you remember to put the standoffs in under the motherboard?

Better yet, did he remember to put the standoffs in the right place/remove the standoffs from holes that aren't used for that particular mobo.

Of course i did, only put them where they was used on motherboard, they were same position in old case to... my only clue is that some screw is somewhere on botherboard or some piece of wire could felt between to contacts, though i used no wiere and not seeing any screws.

I going to check all components today and see whats works what does not....

 

[Montek]

What should i write in letter to manufacturer if i want to claim its PSU that burned most of my pc and i want money back for it.

 

[duragezic]

I doubt it is the new PSU. But I don't know how you would prove it anyway. Even in cases where PSUs have almost surely killed off components, I don't think these people were ever able to get the manufacturer to admit it and pay for the replacement items.

I swear there is a scare these days that even the most simple system that draws less than 120 W needs a $150 800 W PCP&C. Yes I'm well aware of cheap PSUs, even components being wrecked, and I never recommend them, but some stuff claimed is just ridiculous.

You used the new PSU, and even though it didn't seem to turn on the system, you still smelled something burnt? Then the old PSU turned it on, but started a fire?? That would seem to indicate both were bad, which is highly unlikely, so seems like another problem. What it is, I don't know.

 

[Modelworks]

Under most state laws they are only liable for the replacement of the psu that was faulty.
They can claim anything and everything that you did wrong to get the results that you got.

Normally plugging in the usb ports wrong will not get the results you saw.
Those outputs have fuses on the motherboard.

If you actually got flame then you are looking at quite a few amps, I would guess 5 amps or more. It seems more likely that one of the standoffs on the bottom of the board was touching a nearby trace. I have seen some motherboards very poorly designed that run the traces within a hair of the standoff points.

Good manufacturers are aware of the issue and provide ample space between traces around the standoff locations.

The fact the damage was centered on the video card makes me think that something wasn't getting a clean current path. Either the board was drawing power through the video card or the video card was acting as a ground to something on the board.

If the power supply was at fault I would have expected the damage to have been to the fets, voltage regs on the board.

As for spending tons of cash on a supply, its better insurance, but not a requirement.
I worked on power supplies for years and have seen some really good stuff on the low price market.

 

[lxskllr]

I connected the front panel usb ports backwards on a computer I built a couple of years ago. Surprisingly it sometimes worked as expected but I also burned out 2 mp3 players and a digital camera before I found the cause of the problem. I'm just saying that I don't think hooking up the usb backwards would cause severe issues.

 

[Montek]

I have hooked USB as it suppoed to be, though i heard hooking up floppy wrongly can do this kind of damage, though this was not case as well because floppy was hooked correctly.