Is this power supply toast?!

[Hardcore310]

Friends computer has been very unstable lately. While we were cleaning it out from all the dust we noticed that a few of the wires on the atx power supply molex were black with damage. The computer was unstable in a sense that after a while of operation.. say 30 minutes the screen would become blocky and unusable. The power supply in question is a thermaltake 420w.

Pics below


Pic1
Pic2



I have a few quesitons:

1. Is there any way to fix this power supply? What might have caused the problem and is it smart to fix it? Will it just happen again?

2. When inspecting all the other parts of the computer the connector to the motherboard is also charred. Is it possible the motherboard is also damaged? How can one test it to make sure?

3. What would have caused this?


Could it be the motherboard or would it most likely just be the power supply? I'm a little leary in keeping the motherboard or the power supply because I can't be sure which one is defective or causing the problem.

Anyways, any help would be appreciated!

Thanks for your time

Hardcore

 

[Hardcore310]

bump

 

[wisdomtooth]

Obviously there is a short circuit somewhere. And yes, motherboard damage is a real possibility. Whenever a short involving the PSU occurs, damage may also occur to EVERYTHING ELSE hooked up to it, including HDs, optical drives, vid cards, etc.

It's definitely not something you can fix. I would also be leery of trying to isolate the damaged component by testing them out in another computer, because you also run the risk of damaging the other machine. I would return everything if they are under warranty and see if your parts can be replaced.

HTH.

 

[Hardcore310]

I hear ya.

I was wondering what the possibility of it being a short on the motherboard connector.? I mean, how likely is that. YOu would think it would be a faulty power supply. No?

 

[mparr1708]

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth
Obviously there is a short circuit somewhere. And yes, motherboard damage is a real possibility. Whenever a short involving the PSU occurs, damage may also occur to EVERYTHING ELSE hooked up to it, including HDs, optical drives, vid cards, etc.

It's definitely not something you can fix. I would also be leery of trying to isolate the damaged component by testing them out in another computer, because you also run the risk of damaging the other machine. I would return everything if they are under warranty and see if your parts can be replaced.

HTH.

Not bad advice. At the very least chuck the power supply. PSUs are not what are called "field replaceable parts". While some will tell you that working inside a psu is safe if you are careful it is not worth the risk. Send it back for replacement or toss it and buy another. As far as everything else being toast ...yes that is possible but I wouldn?t worry about testing your hard drives, optical drives, or CPU in another box. The risk of one of those components ripping another machine up is minimal. I would not suggest testing your mobo with someone else?s rig though. If you have a psu that you can afford to lose you could try just swapping that out other wise the bottom line is you are probably looking at replacement of PSU and mobo.

 

[Zepper]

Actually it IS NOT usually due to a short circiut - a short will cause the PSU's overcurrent/short protection to kick in. What it is is loose contacts (high resistance) due to thermal cycling (and the use of cheap off-brand contacts instead of top-shelf real Amp or Molex pins). Just clean all (with good contact cleaner and some pipe cleaners - if you don't smoke a pipe and don't know what these are, just go to your favorite drug store and ask - don't get a cheap brand) and tighten just the female contacts and you'll be back in business. If you use some contact enhancer like Caig Labs Pro Gold, it will last longer before you will need to clean and tighten again.
. This invariably happens on the 5V circuits (red wires) because of the high current draw on the 5V rail. There are some pics linked to posts in this forum that show drastic effects - the plastic ATX shell almost melted away around the +5V pins on the PSU side connector. I had a drive power wire (12V) melt almost all the insulation off the wire back to the PSU from the same effect. Clean and tighten and all is well.

.bh.

Here, have a :beer: !