Exploding powersupply

[kallekill]

I bought a P4 1.6a about a year ago and I have been running it at ~2.1 Ghz with a FSB of 132. The memory/CPU ratio is set to 4:3 so I'm overclocking the memory pretty much. Everything has been running fine except that sometimes when I turn on the computer it goes direct into BIOS and says that the computer didn't start because of a wrong clock frequence. But when I restart it again everything is fine and I have had no trouble once it gets past POST. Well, a couple of days ago when I was turning on the computer, the power supply sounded strange and I leaned forward to see if I could see something on the back of the computer. Then there was a loud bang and fire came out of the PSU. The computer went dead and it smelled like something had burned. I have replaced the burned 300W power supply with a temporary 250W and it works fine now. Luckily nothing else was destroyed. When I turned on the computer the first time after changing PSU I got the message about wrong frequency. Is there a chance that overclocking the CPU caused the PSU to fry? I have not touched the voltage settings for the CPU.

 

[Doh!]

I think your psu would've gone kaboom even if you weren't overclocking. What brand is it?

 

[infinite012]

How many devices did you have hooked up to that 300 watt PSU? I've had emachine power supplies go bad, but never a name brand one like antec or the ones that come with SOHO cases.

 

[kallekill]

The brand of the PSU is PC Winner and is supposed to be a quiet quality PSU. I bought it with a quiet case that was rather expensive, ~275 $ (Translated from the current dollar/SEK value. I live in Sweden). I didn't have that many devices in the computer, and I never experienced any instability that could be caused by a weak PSU. I had 2 HDs, 1 dvd, 1 cd-burner and a GF 4 Ti 4200-card.

 

[screw3d]

$275 for the case and PSU ?? :Q

Never heard of the brand PC Winner though..in any case it's good to know that your PSU didn't take out your other components as well..

Good PSUs don't take out other components..but they don't blow up either!

 

[kallekill]

275 $ is pretty steep. Things are more expensive over here and it is a special designed case that is built to be quiet. The dollar is very low now too. It is about 8 SEK. When I bought it it was around 12.

The case has some sort of material which they call "magic fleece" on the inside of the case that dampens a lot of noise. The PSU (that exploded) was really quiet too. The case has rubber legs to avoid vibrations in the case. The company I ordered it from specializes in quiet cases and have all sorts of things to make cases quiet. Some of the things I didn't get because it would have been too expensive were "rubber bands" to hang the hard drives in to make them quiet and some sort of ventilation system to put on the back of the computer to make the PSU fan quit. The thing sucks cool air into the computer and separates it from the warm air coming out.

Overclocking the CPU shouldn't put more load on the PSU or is it? I am wondering if it could be my motherboard that caused the problem. That it sometimes says that I have a bad CPU frequency and that I can't overclock past 2.1 Ghz is a little strange. I had a lot of trouble with the board when I bought the computer because the computer kept on rebooting itself. Finally I found out that it was because the motherboard was incompatible with my IBM harddrive, so I had to get a new drive. The motherboard is a Asus P4b266-SE. I don't remember if I got the CPU frequency warning if I ran the FSB at 133 with the memory at 1:1. I'm going to try it as soon as I get a new PSU. I don't want to risk my borrowed 250 W PSU.