PSU blown up right in front of me... help

[blipblop]

My brother was using one of my rigs, heard a loud pop and saw smoke in the back. The shock knocked out my other computers. They powered on just fine afterwards.

My question is this... the PSU is shot most likely... what kind of damage could I expect? I have never had a PSU go out like this on me and the PSU was only bought last year. I'm going to try and go through their warranty.

Thanks

 

[dangman4ever]

Well, your entire system may have been taken out/damaged/corrupted, only a few parts (like the mobo or hard drive) died or all of the damage was contained to just the PSU.

 

[AzN]

Why don't power supply makers put a fuse system in a case like this so other computer components don't fry?

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: Azn
Why don't power supply makers put a fuse system in a case like this so other computer components don't fry?

Fuses are not preventative but reactive protection. The other components must survive up to the point when the fuses will be blown. I haven't seen any electronic devices with fault ratings yet 😛

 

[blipblop]

Currently I'm typing from the dead pc. It only appears that the PSU blew itself up. I'm running Prime95 on it to see if any of the components are failing and it's bee fine for about 20 minutes. Hopefully Antec will send me a new one under warranty quickly. That saves me a little bit of money of not having to buy some new parts!

 

[AntecCSR]

There are no user-replaceable fuses in your Antec power supply (PSU). We don't put fuses in our power supplies because the designs are more advanced than that. Anything that goes wrong that a user could fix with a fuse can be handled by the power supply without any tinkering. Antec builds in a variety of industrial-grade safety circuitry to protect your computer: Over Voltage Protection (OVP), Short Circuit Protection (SCP), and Over Current Protection (OCP). Sometimes the PSU will ?latch? into a protected state. This means that you will need to turn off the PSU and clear the fault before it will function again. You gotta admit that's smarter than a fuse.

Once something goes far enough wrong that our protective circuits can't handle it, the power circuits are designed to take the hit while protecting downstream components from damage. This is born out by the report that all is back up and running smoothly. The next step is to get the PSU replaced under warranty. Open a support ticket at
http://www.antec.com/usa/support_online.html
and be sure to include the model, serial number, your name, shipping address, phone, and email. You should get a RMA # on the business day after you submit the ticket.

Sorry it happened and we'll try to get it taken care of for you as quickly as we can.

 

[spittledip]

Hey Blip, was that an older Seasonic unit or was it a Delta unit? Just curious.

 

[blipblop]

Hey... I'm not sure how I could tell, the day it broke, I requested an RMA and then I sent it out. They do have great customer support though.

 

[Zap]

While everyone still sells the 500W EarthWatts as the same thing, the actual part number on the unit will say EA500 or EA500D, with D for Delta. I'm sure AntecCSR can correct me if I'm wrong. 😉

 

[bruceb]

It would not matter if a fuse was placed on the power supply load lines or not. All a fuse does is protect the wires and power supply components from excessive Current (amps) draw. A fuse, will not protect a device connected to that line from an Overvoltage condition
and that is what will usually cause a device connected to a power drop to fail.

 

[SparkyJJO]

If it was an antec that popped, or a corsair, or PCP&C, or seasonic, or one of those good ones, I'm typically not too worried about the rest of the hardware because they have good protection in them to prevent surges/spikes/etc from getting to your hardware. Now if it was a raidmax I'd be almost certain your PC was toast 😉