PSU causes breaker/room to pop and reset

[BAD311]

Hey guys, what would cause a 900 watt PSU connected to a surge protector to pop the fuse when hooked up? I got the PSU at a computer liquidation and it looks brand new but the unit blew out the breaker/fuse for my computer room when I plugged it in and the power cable at the connection point to the PSU got very hot when I unplugged it.

Bad power cable and/or bad PSU?

Think the PSU is fried or no? I believe the PSU fan spun for just a second before popping the fuse.

I'm not at home right now to get the make/model # but it looked brand new and was a modular PSU.

 

[Pneumothorax]

Sounds like a bad and CHEAP PSU as the problem. The AC cable is hardly ever the issue.

 

[Evadman]

Sounds like a bad PSU

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, sounds like it's shorted or something. Def. don't use it.

I used to blow breakers back in the bad old days of AT PSUs. The power switches on the front-panel of those, controlled the actual AC power input to the PSU. There were four wires. Two incoming, and two outgoing to the PSU. The switches had a line on them, dividing the pins into two and two. I never could remember which way the cables from the PSU went, whether they went across the line, or along the line. So I would wire the PSU up wrong, blow the breaker, reset it, and then re-wire the PSU.

Good thing that where I lived had good breakers!

 

[ComputerWizKid]

Yeah, sounds like it's shorted or something. Def. don't use it.

I used to blow breakers back in the bad old days of AT PSUs. The power switches on the front-panel of those, controlled the actual AC power input to the PSU. There were four wires. Two incoming, and two outgoing to the PSU. The switches had a line on them, dividing the pins into two and two. I never could remember which way the cables from the PSU went, whether they went across the line, or along the line. So I would wire the PSU up wrong, blow the breaker, reset it, and then re-wire the PSU.

Good thing that where I lived had good breakers!

I also remember the infamous AT Power Supply
I had my fair share of the oh shit in the dark moments with them. when I was young the house I was living in had the old glass fuses and I blew out the last one we had at 2:00AM (Boy was my Mom pissed as the same circuit was the 1/2 of the house)

 

[BAD311]

Turns out it was a bad PSU. I crack open the unit and looked over it. Bad bad bad. Blown capacitors and lots of residue from smoke or sparking, even though all solder joints looked good and everything was snug.

It was a Rocketfish 900W modular PSU. Haha.

 

[bryanl]

I'm puzzled why the PSU blew the house fuse/breaker but not its own fuse, which should have a lower amp rating and, I would guess, a faster reaction time. Could a previous customer have replaced the original fuse with an oversized one?

I believe Rocketfish is Huntkey, and typically Huntkey is "adequate."