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Is it possible for a CPU to break a psu?

I

Ieat

Senior member
Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of a confirmed situation where a "faulty" cpu was responsible for taking down a power supply? Is it even possible? I ask because I sold a working lga 775 cpu on ebay. The buyer put the cpu in a motherboard that doesn't support the cpu (same socket but board doesn't support it which I had to inform him about) and claims the cpu "shorted" his power supply and it died there after. Of course he then tried another power supply and the board still didn't post but apparently his 2nd psu didn't die. However he is still trying to pin his dead power supply on me.
 
Sounds like someone wants a new power supply.... not even possible to happen.
 
The most plausible outcome that I could think of is that his motherboard is damaged or unable to power up the CPU, not doing a BIOS update before putting in a different CPU that might have some incompatibility might cause and issue.

To damage the PSU just from that is just a lie and since you've made an informed decision to him that it will not work, you are not liable for anything else other than the CPU.
 
Its possible that a higher wattage CPU tipped a bad PSU over the edge to failure. But that would mean that the PSU doesn't have a lot of the required safety features that it should have, and more importantly that it was insufficient for the CPU put into the machine. Neither of which could possibly be your fault.
 
TL;DR

You arn't at fault.

Furthermore you should have sold the CPU as-is and you only gaurentee that it will work. Any damage caused by negligence is far and away not your problem.
 
+1 agree. Your CPU did not kill the Power Supply.

Sure, a CPU could fry a motherboard, but buying used CPUs is always a bit of a risky bit anyway.

I know of professional ebay sellers who do a test cycle and take photos immediately prior to shipping as a form of insurance against this sort of thing. Apparently the claim is quite common on perfectly working gear. someone zaps their new video card with an ESD while unpacking it and then claims it fried their computer... Yuk

I build computers for years, and even for a living, but i just don't bother anymore. It's a tool and other than upgrading RAM and video cards, I just don't want to take the components out and mess with them.
 
There is no way the CPU can kill the PSU. As long as you followed directions and got a good PSU with a few rails,,, gl
 
LOL is this guy from nigeria?

Nigerian 411 scammer perhaps idk who the hell blames a cpu or gpu or memory as to why their psu fails.

Its always the other way around tell this guy to read up on his bullshit lies and research cause i am sure this guy doesn't knows his cpus from his ass in a hole in the ground.

Also stop selling stuff on fleabay apparently your client's know jack ass about computer hardware if they wanna accuse of your processor shorting out their psu LOL.

Unless this guy was running a 100 watt psu its highly unlikely your processor shorted out his psu and if it did by chance its by user error putting him at fault not you.
 
I have heard reports of Bulldozers pulling so many amps that they will actually spin the dials off of the electric meter, so if it was a Bulldozer it might be plausible, but, since it is a 775 I would agree with the consensus here.
 
sequoia464 said:
I have heard reports of Bulldozers pulling so many amps that they will actually spin the dials off of the electric meter, so if it was a Bulldozer it might be plausible, but, since it is a 775 I would agree with the consensus here.
Click to expand...

I LOL'd. Do you mind if I sig this?
 
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Most motherboards would just shut down or slow down the processor if it gets too hot. When processors get too hot, they just burn out rather quickly. This scenario is most unlikely. It is the Motherboard that controls the processor. Unless there is a sudden surge of power, most processors will be protected by the motherboard. Possibly overclocking and changing setting in the Motherboard BIOS could have some causal relationship in both a processor and power supply failing. Most custom builders oversize the power supply to prevent it from being overtaxed and to provide a more steady stream of power.

This is only possible if you had both a faulty power supply and a faulty processor and the processor suddenly burned up causing the power supply to fail and burn up or smoke out.

Most likely what would be a scenario is you had a faulty power supply and that destroyed the processor.
 
sequoia464 said:
I have heard reports of Bulldozers pulling so many amps that they will actually spin the dials off of the electric meter, so if it was a Bulldozer it might be plausible, but, since it is a 775 I would agree with the consensus here.
Click to expand...
A CPU will blow the VRMs and MOSFETS before it takes out a power supply, LMAO.
 
So, if I buy nitrous on ebay and put it in my my mustang and I blow up my mustang because I install it improperly, can I blame the seller?
 
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