My power supply attacked me!

[Paul]

I previously had some trouble with my W2K installation and fooled around with it. Ran Western Digital's HD Diag program and found error code. Went to their site and completed an RMA form. Me thinking that this HD (WD 30GB 7200RPM ATA100 from Hot Dealing) being new should be alright. I got it to boot into Windows and proceeded to install Counter-Strike so I can "test" my new setup. I installed a Santa Cruz, NewQ Platinum and the WD HD together a few days ago, just got around to installing W2K and setting stuff up. Well, in Windows I saw some I/O errors and that "STOP 0x0000009F DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE" mentioned in my previous thread. After rebooting a couple of times, I loaded up CS and played for awhile. About half an hour later after I lobbed a grenade, my power supply crackled and shot a bright spark at least 5 inches long! (I had the side door open at that time) The whole system instantly powered down. I was freaked!!! Yanked all power cables loose and took out the power supply. Mmmm, burnt Plastic/PCB smell.

Well, the power supply is a Antec PP-303X 300 watt.
Me thinks me need stronger power supply.

What should I do? Should I even attempt to plug the power supply back in to check up on what's still alive or should I just get a new power supply? Any suggestions for a >300 watt power supply that can handle AMD/P4 (As that's what I'm likely to purchase if the CPU died)

Well, that was fun...

 

[Insane3D]

Enermax 431W or Antec 400W are both pretty nice...I prefer the Enermax myself.

 

[heffe734]

Another vote for the enermax 431...80 bucks @ newegg.com

 

[RedShirt]

Umm, isn't anyone going to say...

Geesh! My God! Your lucky to be alive!

OK, there, I said it.

Seriously, that would make me crap my pants. Hopefully everything else is ok.

 

[Paul]

Ok, 431 watt sounds good.

Here's a list of all the thing my poor Antec PP 303X was powering

Abit BX6-R2
Intel P3-500 (Katami)
4 CPU fans
3 80mm case fans
1 video card fan
3 sticks of 128MB PC133
3dfx Voodoo 5 AGP!
ATI Xpert 98 PCI
Santa Cruz
Promise Ultra-66 card
network card
NewQ Platinum
CD-ROM
CD-R/W
Zip 100
4 7200RPMS HDs

I had to use 2 Y adapters to get everything plugged in.
Ummmm, yeah should known better...

How many 4 pin connectors are there on the Enermax 431 watt?

 

[Paul]

There are 2 different ones for sale on Newegg. There's the EG465P-VE(FC) and the EG465P-VE
Do I really need "Fan on/off controlled by M/B" and "Real "Sleeping Mode" support?"

What are they?

 

[Shooters]

The (FC) version of the power supply stands for fan control. There's a temp sensor that comes out of the power supply which sits inside you case. The temp that this sensor reads determines how fast the exhaust fan on the power supply will spin. However, the fan on the bottom of the PS is always spinning at the same speed. The idea is that your system isn't as hot when not in use thus causing the exhaust fan to spin slower resulting in lower noise. With the non (FC) version, the fans spin at a constant speed all the time. I have the 350 watt fan control power supply. It's not really necessary in my opinion. I would have opted for the non (FC), but the store I got it from didn't carry that one.

 

[Insane3D]

It's no big deal with the fans unless you really want it. I actually modded both of mine so the fans spin full speed all the time.

 

[Paul]

Ok, bought the EG465P-VE(FC). Now, how long does Antec offer warranty on their power supplies?

 

[Paul]

Btw, if you want to buy a Enermax 431watt, check out this thread.

 

[smp]

Haha.. "you're lucky to be alive" ..There, I said it
I had a PSU 'near death experience' a little while ago too. A friend was over and we were tampering with this compaq 486. Well, we wanted to hook up a new powersupply to this box, because his one was dying. That compaq had a weird switch, it only connected to two wires, instead of the four you usually see in AT power supplies. Well, I thought we should plug in the black and the brown, but he said white and black.. I said "oooookay" and did that. Plugged the thing in, switched the switch and 'POP!' smoke, burning smell. Well, I guess it didn't nearly kill me, but it was a bad move anyways.. next time I'm gonna get him (since he's the expert on wiring) to be the ginny (I know that's spelt wrong.. ) pig.

That sh~t shouldn't be happening though, sparks and crap.. no good.

 

[wfbberzerker]

what? 4 cpu fans? how do you have 4 cpu fans?

 

[Paul]

P3-500 (Katami) = Slot 1 Pentium 3

T3-REX

While waiting for my new power supply, I got bored and decided to lap my cpu and heatsink. I figure since the CPU could be dead I might as well experiment with it. We'll see if it boots when my Enermax gets here.