Explosive PSU? Now with pics!

petrusbroder

Elite Member
Nov 28, 2004
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I was building a new cruncher this afternoon (new motherboard from Foxconn - got it for less than USD10, an old AMD Phenom 9850, 4GBytes RAM, one HDD, one DVD, a new GTX450 - got that for USD 58) when suddenly there was a shotlike explosion in the computer room, where I was working.

I looked around, the router was OK, the visible computers too (checked quickly), the fan, the heat exchanger, all seemed working.

The I noticed the "burned insulation"-smell coming from under the table.
Under the table - well ventilated - was one of my more powerful crunchers (AMD 9950 @ 3.5GHz + ATI 5850) and it was not working.

The smell came from this cruncher so I pulled the power plug, the connections to the KVM and the LAN-cable. When I looked inside (I ran that comp without the side panel because of the huge Noctua cooler) I noticed that the PSU not longer looked as before - the case of the PSU looked somewhat skewed.

I took the comp to my work bench, tried to remove the PSU but it is stuck. So I just connected a new 750W PSU and started the computer. It booted into Windows, and started crunching BOINC using the CPU (all cores) and the GPU. I checked it carefully (stress test after checking all the voltages) and it runs well. I then shut down the computer.

The problem: I can not remove the old PSU without using force. The case is built like a Russian WWII Tank ... and I will probably have to use quite a lot of force, which means that I will have to remove the CPU-HSF, the HDDs (all 4 of them), The DVD-RW ...

... but not today.

I have never seen something like this. What inside the PSU would generate such force? Especially considering that there are such big "holes" in the case (the rear ventilation grill, the fan-intake is 120 mm). Any ideas?

Edit: Pics added - see below!
 
Last edited:

rabrittain

Senior member
Dec 28, 2006
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Hi Peter --

...just off the top of my head, and without being able to look at the PSU, I would say that a capacitor blew up.
 

Fardringle

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2000
9,197
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Yep. Capacitor in the power supply. Smells bad, but it's entertaining when it happens (under someone else's desk). ;)
 

Pokey

Platinum Member
Oct 20, 1999
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Yep. Capacitor in the power supply. Smells bad, but it's entertaining when it happens (under someone else's desk). ;)

Only when it is under someone else's desk.......... don't you just love that smell??

I was going to ditto on the capacitor idea..... unless you have a PSU with some sort of wet transformer. I've had fuses explode before but that doesn't seem likely in this instance.

Let us know if you discover the culprit.............
 

GLeeM

Elite Member
Apr 2, 2004
7,199
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4 or 5 years ago I had a shotlike sound from the computer. Could not find any blown caps and the computer continued working until last year!
 

Rudy Toody

Diamond Member
Sep 30, 2006
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Only when it is under someone else's desk.......... don't you just love that smell??

I was going to ditto on the capacitor idea..... unless you have a PSU with some sort of wet transformer. I've had fuses explode before but that doesn't seem likely in this instance.

Let us know if you discover the culprit.............

I vote for the wet transformer. Similar to power line transformers that explode on occasion.
 

petrusbroder

Elite Member
Nov 28, 2004
13,346
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4 or 5 years ago I had a shotlike sound from the computer. Could not find any blown caps and the computer continued working until last year!


Almost OT:

The one under my desk did not continue crunching. It was 100% and totally quiet - almost soundless. Only the useless flipping of the power switch and the slight friction of the on-push button was heard - no other sound ... all was very still - no movement either ... did the computer ever exist? If nothing is heard and nothing moves does the computer exist? Is the computer defined by it's function or by it's non-working hardware?

Does philosophy exist if noone wants to discuss philosophy?
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
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Similar to power line transformers that explode on occasion.
I saw one of those once. It was making a loud buzzing noise; then it exploded, shooting sparks and dumping something hot all over the road!

Was your PSU making a loud buzzing just before it exploded - or could you have heard that over the fans? :p
 

petrusbroder

Elite Member
Nov 28, 2004
13,346
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No buzzing or other kind of noise which was audible ... just a very loud pistol shot liked noise. No traces of sparks either (on the outside). I'll take it apart when I get it out.
 

RaySun2Be

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
16,565
6
71
I saw one of those once. It was making a loud buzzing noise; then it exploded, shooting sparks and dumping something hot all over the road!

During a big storm, lightening hit a transformer right outside my apt. once, blew the transformer, fried the cable connectors, a live wire landed on a car and started frying it like a huge arc welder. Fire dept. showed up, but they couldn't do anything until the power co. turned off the power. We were concerned about the gas tank exploding, but no one wanted to go outside to talk to the fire dept. and find out if we should evacuate, so I got dressed, went out the back, found someone in charge. About that time the power co. showed up, so he told me to have everyone just stay inside, the car bbq would be out soon. Quite an exciting night!

I had a PSU go out about a year ago, I don't know if it popped when it went, but it took out the MB, CPU, CPU fan, 120mm cooling fan, both hard drives, and the video card. Pretty much fried everything except the NIC card. Never had a PSU do so much damage in all the years of building PCs.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Assimilator1

petrusbroder

Elite Member
Nov 28, 2004
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Here are the pics of the exploding PSU:

This is it!
PSU-1.jpg


And here is the main board of the PSU. The arrow points at the exploded capacitator.
PSU-4.jpg


Here is the top of the cap - I found it inside the PSU-casing. It had made a small bulge, which made it somewhat hard to remove
the PSU from the chassis. It looks like a small pistol bullet - and it certainly behaved like one!
PSU-2.jpg


Thje computer ran OK with the new PSU for approx. 1 hour. Then it quit. Totally. I have taken it apart and have tested the parts:
CPU is OK, RAM is OK. DVD-R/W is OK. 2 HDD OK , one HDD broken. GPU (GTX 460) is OK. Mother board broken. All fans (incl. HSF) are OK.
It could have been much worse.
 

Pokey

Platinum Member
Oct 20, 1999
2,767
457
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Wow!

You will need more than an Appliance Whisperer to fix this!


Ditto that. Thanks for the pics. Too bad about the collateral damage......... that sucks.

Might want to tone down the overclocking a bit............. :D
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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Just never buy anything but top tier PSU's from now on. My last 4 are all Corsair, and the gold ones. 2 AX1200's (>90% eff) and 2 AX850's (9>90% eff).
 

ZipSpeed

Golden Member
Aug 13, 2007
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Don't think I've ever heard of AXP before. +1 to what Mark said. A quality PSU goes a long way. I would dare say it's the most single important piece of hardware in your entire system.
 

petrusbroder

Elite Member
Nov 28, 2004
13,346
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I am aware of the importance of the PSUs. The PSU is regarded as one of the better in Europe/Scandinavia. I have 8 of them and they run perfectly well (and some have done so for years). I have had more trouble with Antec (which I do not regard as good at all), I have had an expensive Corsair to fail on me too ...
I think this was a bad sample - which somehow managed to slip through QC. It did not have the 80+ certification, but my supplier has tested them and said that they have an efficiency of 86% @ 230V and 50 - 70% load - which is what I ran it with. At higher load they tend to run hotter ...
Anyhow ... it may have been worse ... and it could have ended better.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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Just never buy anything but top tier PSU's from now on. My last 4 are all Corsair, and the gold ones. 2 AX1200's (>90% eff) and 2 AX850's (9>90% eff).

Esp. for something that runs under 24/7 load like crunching.

So far, my Antecs have all been good to me too, although a "gold" PSU would be nice.

Edit: Thanks for the pics!
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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I have had 2 Antecs die..

Even with Corsair, I am going for only the gold certified ones.
 

ZipSpeed

Golden Member
Aug 13, 2007
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I haven't had much luck with Antecs either. I had three 500W Earthwatts units die on me. I have the Antec 750W Truepower New (Seasonic built) in my GPU Folding rig and so far so good.
 

somethingsketchy

Golden Member
Nov 25, 2008
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I've had pretty good luck with Corsairs in the last two years. The one in my main desktop has been running for nearly two years (since Junior year of college) and I've put this desktop through hell and back with R@H. Even with the latest foray into Seti@home, I haven't had any issues yet.

Then again I don't have 2x GTX 460s running full-bore