Is it possible for a power supply to fry my entire PC?

[BZeto]

Just curious, since I've heard stories of PSU's literally 'burning up' is it possible for a faulty power supply to destroy all of my PC components? (mobo, vid card, ram, ect).

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah.

 

[BZeto]

Let me ask a better question, when suspecting a PSU problem, what are the ODDS of this happening?

 

[mechBgon]

Well, they seem pretty high, if all your parts are indeed dead. The one part they're all connected directly to is logically the part that would have the best chance of killing them all in one shot. It could be further upstream, of course... a lightning strike could nuke the PSU and everything inboard of it.

There are posts every so often where someone's PSU has kicked the bucket and nuked their rig, and the majority seem to be cheapie units as far as I've noticed. What brand/model do you have there?

 

[Dantzig]

Yes, it's possible. It is much more likely with a cheap POS PS. Couldn't tell you the exact odds, but it's pretty common for a low quality PS to take out at least some of your components when it blows.

 

[mrgoblin]

This happened to my friend. He got an enermax psu and one night it caught on fire! "yikes" Im not sure how it got that hot since i didint think they got that hot but nevertheless his rig was totaled. Enermax then replaced his parts for free and I thought that they were awsome. THats the only company I would ever buy a psu from.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: mrgoblin
This happened to my friend. He got an enermax psu and one night it caught on fire! "yikes" Im not sure how it got that hot since i didint think they got that hot but nevertheless his rig was totaled. Enermax then replaced his parts for free and I thought that they were awsome. THats the only company I would ever buy a psu from.

damn

thats customer service

my cheapo 450w died and took 2 hard drives, gah. a 300w liteon i got _for_ cheap is doing damn well though.

did that happen to you or are you looking to buy a psu and want to go cheap on one?

 

[BZeto]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Well, they seem pretty high, if all your parts are indeed dead. The one part they're all connected directly to is logically the part that would have the best chance of killing them all in one shot. It could be further upstream, of course... a lightning strike could nuke the PSU and everything inboard of it.

There are posts every so often where someone's PSU has kicked the bucket and nuked their rig, and the majority seem to be cheapie units as far as I've noticed. What brand/model do you have there?

I'm running an Antec 430Watt True. The only reason I ask is because whenever I remove power from the system (complete power, as in unplugging it) and go to boot up the next time, it takes 3 or 4 hard resets before it'll boot fully, once its up its fine. I'm assuming its a PSU problem, and I didn't want to go about adding more expensive hardware to my PC if it were in risk of destruction from the PSU.

 

[mbackof]

Is it hanging during the OS load, or is it failing to post for three or four times, then starting up? Do you hear the power coming on (fans running, drives spinning up) if it fails to post?

If it is failing to post it could be
1. Power supply going up (likely if you hear nothing when you turn it on)
2. Problem with flaky RAM (could be if there is no post but fans, or if you hear nothing)
3. Video adapter (if nothing shows on the screen and it fails to post, but drives spin up, etc)

After looking at all of those things I would look at the processor and/or the motherboard for a problem.

Mike

 

[DaFinn]

A faulty/failing PSU could send a spike to your mobo frying it and/or any component attached to it (Proc, Memory, PCI/AGP card etc.) Best case scenario is that it only blows some capacitors on the mobo, and stays at that. All items drawing power directly from PSU could potentially be damaged (= HDDs, CD/DVD drives etc...).

So, yes! If you want peace of mind, get a good quality powerful enough PSU. After that start planning the rest of the system.

 

[BZeto]

Originally posted by: mbackof
Is it hanging during the OS load, or is it failing to post for three or four times, then starting up? Do you hear the power coming on (fans running, drives spinning up) if it fails to post?

If it is failing to post it could be
1. Power supply going up (likely if you hear nothing when you turn it on)
2. Problem with flaky RAM (could be if there is no post but fans, or if you hear nothing)
3. Video adapter (if nothing shows on the screen and it fails to post, but drives spin up, etc)

After looking at all of those things I would look at the processor and/or the motherboard for a problem.

Mike

The first time I try to boot up everything spins up (fans, CD drives), but there is no signal to the monitor. Then I press the reset switch and the second time it makes it to the first screen that shows my CPU speed, memory count, ect, but sometimes it only loads like half of that screen before locking up, on the third reset it will usually get past all that and continue to load into windows. I think it has tooken 4 resets once, I dont remember though.

I suppose it could be a mobo problem, but I've heard stories like this that have been fixed by simply switching the PSU. Too bad I dont have a spare PSU to try it out....

 

[jdjbuffalo]

My good friend had a crappy power supply. He knew it was going out but he kept putting it off for a few weeks. Then it happend. He smelled smoke and the power supply took out everything. And I mean everything. He had to send in all of his components into their respective manufactures (btw, it was a home built PC). It took about 6 weeks before he had a working computer again.

So bascially the moral of the story is if your pretty sure its the power supply then I wouldn't even suggest turning your PC on. I would call up Antec and have them replace it (Btw, they do make some of the better power supplies out their...but not the best).

On another note, what you are discribing COULD be a BIOS/Motherboard problem. If you think it could likely be the motherboard then I would suggest going to your motherboard manufacturer's website and getting the latest BIOS update. If that doesn't fix it then I would replace the powersupply through Antec before moving on to other troubleshooting.

I hope this helps.