I'm pretty sure I fried my PSU - but how did it happen?

[Black88GTA]

I just spent the last couple hours switching all of my PC's guts over to a new case. Plugged in the new one once everything was all set, hit the power button, and a very loud BZZZZZZZ....BZZZBZZZZZT out of the back :Q. I turned it off as soon as I could react, and saw a wisp of smoke out of the back of the PSU. I took it off, and the PS smells AWFUL. Everything else looks OK though (I hope). What happened? Anyone have any ideas what may have caused it? I'm afraid to turn it on with a new PS now, because I don't want to blow up another one - but I don't know what went wrong, so I don't know how to fix it! . The only things that are different between this case and my old setup is that this one has more fans and a 2 lamp CCFL kit. All of the connections are secure w/the kit, and there's no metal touching.

When I installed the board into the new case, I used those little red paper washers they give you and put them under the screws holding down the mobo. I didn't do this last time, but figured I would this time. Was this a bad thing to do? Could that have something to do with it?

Another thing I noticed is that some of the capacitors on my mainboard are leaking, and others are bulging :Q. But this isn't a new thing, as I noticed this when I was swapping everything over, and the PC worked before (although it did freeze up sometimes without reason.)

The PC is a AMD Athlon 1.1Ghz, 768MB ram, ABIT KT-7 RAID motherboard with Antec True 430 PS.

Any ideas?? I did a search, but couldn't find anything related to my exact problem...

 

[Budman]

When I installed the board into the new case, I used those little red paper washers they give you and put them under the screws holding down the
mobo. I didn't do this last time, but figured I would this time. Was this a bad thing to do? Could that have something to do with it?

Dont tell me you use ONLY those little red washers?

You did install the mobo stand offs right?

Those copper color screws that you put in the case that has treads on one end & a scew hole on the other?

Because if you didnt use those then you shorted your mobo to the case .

 

[Black88GTA]

Heh, I did use the stand-offs . Give me a little credit I just meant that I put the washers under the screws holding the mobo onto the standoffs.

 

[Jesta]

Another thing I noticed is that some of the capacitors on my mainboard are leaking, and others are bulging :Q. But this isn't a new thing, as I noticed this when I was swapping everything over, and the PC worked before (although it did freeze up sometimes without reason.)

Just a hunch, but capacitors swelling and leaking on a mainboard can't be a good thing. Maybe that was your problem.

 

[Black88GTA]

Originally posted by: Jesta

Another thing I noticed is that some of the capacitors on my mainboard are leaking, and others are bulging :Q. But this isn't a new thing, as I noticed this when I was swapping everything over, and the PC worked before (although it did freeze up sometimes without reason.)

Just a hunch, but capacitors swelling and leaking on a mainboard can't be a good thing. Maybe that was your problem.

That's what I was thinking too...but the way these looked (hardened electrolyte on the bottom of one, 4-5 others bulging slightly at the top) it looks like it has been that way for a while. Plus, the PC worked this morning!

 

[Black88GTA]

Anyone else have any input?

A couple related questions before I hit the sack....
Can a PSU smell dead, but actually work still? I opened it up, and didn't notice any real damage, but it smells really strong. There's a slight burn mark right next to one of the big capacitors, but the circuitry is not burned at all. I'll probably take it somewhere tomorrow and have it tested, if I can find a place to do it.

Can a dead PSU be revived w/Radio Shack parts? Capacitors, etc? Or is this a stupid idea? Only reason I ask is, the PS was about $80 or so new, and it looks to be in good shape still, it just smells bad.

 

[cow123]

erm i'd be looking into a new mobo too if i were u.. obviously u got one with the dodgy capacitors using incorrect electrolyte fluid - which then leaked onto the board and eventually shorted out something. i'd be more worried about whether attached devices to the psu/mobo are dead

 

[scim22]

sounds like you fried your cpu .... if you see any burn marks/scortch marks on the cpu.... its probally fried... and a fried cpu does stink pretty bad... you probally need to order a new mobo and cpu

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Originally posted by: scim22
sounds like you fried your cpu .... if you see any burn marks/scortch marks on the cpu.... its probally fried... and a fried cpu does stink pretty bad... you probally need to order a new mobo and cpu

Plus, the PC worked this morning!

That's quite a conclusion scim!

EDIT: I just thought that could that sound have been the fan?

 

[Black88GTA]

I don't think anything bad happened to the processor. After the incident, I took out the PSU, and the rest of the PC has no abnormal odors, and I can't find any burn marks anywhere. I took off the HSF and heatsink, and the processor looks brand new.

I know it's not the fan, because both of the PSU fans look good, and spin very freely. The smell appears to be emanating from the large capacitors in the PS. When this happened, there was massive sparkage from the back of the PSU along with the noise - which scared the crap out of me, so I cut the power as fast as I could react. It was only running for a second max.

Is it possible that the PS was overloaded? I didn't think this could be the case, but I don't know. Here's a list of the stuff in my system:

Main
Abit KT7-RAID Mainboard w/AMD Thunderbird 1.1Ghz Processor
Storage
WD 60GB HDD
2x Maxtor 10GB HDD
Iomega Zip 100 drive
Toshiba DVD-Rom
Lite On burner
Floppy drive
Cards
Albatron Geforce 4 4200TI graphics card
US Robotics ISA 56k fax modem
Linksys 10-100 NIC
Sound Blaster Live 5.1 w/Live Drive
Misc
CCFL kit w/2 tubes
4 additional case fans, not including HSF on processor

All running off of an Antec True 430 (430W-duh )
This isn't too much for it, is it?

Also, on a side note...how many case fans and CCFL tubes can you safely put on one PS fan header without blowing anything up?

 

[Paperlantern]

he said he had more fans in this case than the previous, my money is on the power supply, more than likely nothing else. dont try to fix a dead power supply, pitch it. (only slavageable part is the fan really, most fans are just your basic 80mm and will fit to replace any fans in other power supplies that still work.) hook up another power supply with equal or higher capacity, and hook up ONLY what you need, example, plug in mainboard, plug in HDD and floppy drive, and the cpu fan, if it boots ok (which i'm sure it will) then it was only the power supply. if it fried something, which happens only about 30% of the time, but it is possible, go from there.

 

[Black88GTA]

Oh yea, I forgot to mention...the old case only had 2 fans. So really, all I added to the PSU load was a 2x12"tube CCFL kit and 2 additional case fans, as well as an LCD panel/light in front that came with the new case. I guess that was enough to push it over the edge .

Do you guys/girls think that an Enermax EG451P-VE PSU (431W) would be able to handle this load OK? I have one laying around that I thought was broken....after replacing it (with the now-fried Antec), I found out that it was the video card flaking out. So the Enermax is still good, but I'm worrying about putting this kind of load on it, after it made such quick work of the Antec (which was nearly the same wattage).

I don't think this kind of load should be too much for a quality 431W PS though? Or is it?

 

[OverVolt]

Maybe the capacitors inside the PSU blew. See if u can get a peek inside.

 

[Black88GTA]

Originally posted by: OverVolt
Maybe the capacitors inside the PSU blew. See if u can get a peek inside.

It looks like that's what it was. I looked at the underside of the circuit board inside of the PSU, there's no fried connections or burn marks, everything looks normal...except right next to one of the big capacitors there's a dark spot on the plastic between the cap and the PS case, and the smell seems to be strongest right by the capacitors. So it looks like I'm shopping for a PSU .

Oh well, on the brighter side of things, I got 8 fan screws, 2 gold fan grills, an 8cm fan and a 9cm fan out of the deal. Plus a nice PS wiring harness in case I want to toss the generic CWT 250w (that has all of 3 molex connectors on it) I have laying around into an old box to mess around with .