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Question PSU Damage by Statically Damaged Mobo?

R

RxFX

Junior Member
Hi

I have asked around everywhere and either dont get an answer or i just get a completely unrelated response so ill skip the context and straight.

Is it possible to do any damage to a power supply by connecting it to a damaged mobo (specifically via static but in general too ) , disregardless of whether or not the static damage was done whilst it was connected to the psu or not . If whether it was connected at the time of the static damage affects the result then please also say

Thanks
 
If you don't get a sufficiently substantial answer in the PSU subforum then try the 'ask a technical professional' subforum as you may get someone with more electronics knowledge than I do (which IMO isn't a lot, I've never studied electronics beyond mandatory education, but I have been in the computer hardware business for >20 yr).

AFAIK static damage is done in an instant and then the static electricity is no longer there because in the byproduct of doing the damage it was trying to get back to earth / achieve electron balance when two objects with significantly different static charges touched.

IMO there's a question of secondary damage: could static shock damage a component enough to create say a short that could then blow up other components. The answer IMO is in theory yes but it's highly improbable: Static electricity shock results in far too much energy going through a component rated for a lot less input and stuff burns out, rendering the connection incomplete so therefore electricity cannot begin to flow. I say 'improbable' because perhaps when one connection is broken then in the act of that breakage then maybe another very wrong but sufficiently workable (for electricity, not for the intended purpose) connection could be formed due to matter melting in just the right way.

If we're only talking about static damage then I personally would isolate the board on say an anti-static bag, connect only what's absolutely necessary (have absolutely nothing connected except a PSU, the board, a speaker connected to the board's speaker header and whatever makes the switch to tell the board to switch on, no cpu ram etc), switch it on and see what happens. If the board starts giving out beeps indicating missing cpu/ram then maybe you've dodged a bullet; connect a cpu, try again, if that works connect some ram and so forth. If the board has any sign of visible damage then I wouldn't bother doing any of this, but in the few instances of confirmed static damage I've experienced (one or two I think), I've never seen visible damage.

IMO the most ideal person to get an answer from is someone who has studied electronics then has decades of experience including components getting blown up in weird and wonderful ways. Theory can only go so far. In my line of work (computer fixing), ideally I try to find out the cause and effect in any situation, but the fact of the matter is that's not always possible and I have to settle for a hypothesis of what happened or even less.
 
Firstly thank you for providing more info and actually answering the question cause no one else did on other webs .

Theres a bit more context which i think would help which is i hook up the psu with the mobo cpu ram already just for the bios which everything seemed fine enough but someone mentioned how static damage to a mobo isnt always an instant kill which in my case it probably wasnt and that some static dmg can show months into use. So do you think theoratically if there was a bit of static dmg but not enough for an instant kill would this mean (from what u said earlier) that it wouldnt be enough to damage a psu in any way?
 
Is it possible to do any damage to a power supply by connecting it to a damaged mobo (specifically via static but in general too ) , disregardless of whether or not the static damage was done whilst it was connected to the psu or not . If whether it was connected at the time of the static damage affects the result then please also say
 
I'm confused. Are you currently experiencing any issues?

I would think many of the protection features of a PSU would protect it from some types of damage. If you suspected you had a PSU issue, you could always pick up a PSU tester, just to see if the voltages being supplied by each connector type are within spec. They're pretty cheap to buy; the only caveat being the testing is done under a very light load and may not reflect real conditions.
 
Brainonska511 said:
I'm confused. Are you currently experiencing any issues?

I would think many of the protection features of a PSU would protect it from some types of damage. If you suspected you had a PSU issue, you could always pick up a PSU tester, just to see if the voltages being supplied by each connector type are within spec. They're pretty cheap to buy; the only caveat being the testing is done under a very light load and may not reflect real conditions.
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Currently not specifically no because im on a very tight budget being my first pc build so if there are any problems because of me not being grounded which would affect multiple components i cant afford that and need to refund them for new parts whilst they arent completely damaged and i did. I change all parts to new again but my psu was the one i couldnt refund so i was just wondering if its still safe to use on the new components after hooking it up to broken components before.

Thanks
 
Brainonska511 said:
I don't see why the PSU wouldn't be fine, unless the PSU was the thing that killed stuff before.
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Thats what I have been trying to find out as this is my first build but before this forum thread no one answered clearly which just got me more confused . Would there be any problem with the psu in another situation if any other component was faulty?
 
Maybe you should start your story from the beginning. Why did you seek to exchange all other components in the first place? What problem instigated that?

If you previously had a component, for example, a faulty motherboard, GPU, processor, SSD, or RAM, causing an issue, I would have no qualms about continuing to use the PSU.
 
Brainonska511 said:
Maybe you should start your story from the beginning. Why did you seek to exchange all other components in the first place? What problem instigated that?

If you previously had a component, for example, a faulty motherboard, GPU, processor, SSD, or RAM, causing an issue, I would have no qualms about continuing to use the PSU.
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Before starting yes I know i didnt make the best moves in this build but thats not what im here for

Basically my pc build , I started to build it a day before my psu arrived but i was in a rush so i was just trying to finish faster (not relevant tho ) it was just many mistakes like i wasnt grounded (no strap of psu avalible) was wearing wool , on my bed , mobo on my lap touching the back etc etc (more stuff but again not relevent) i got advice from others and things seemed to be fine even after booting into bios when my psu came but when i contacted my sellers they mentioned that its possible that u could of dmg mobo with some static but it may not be noticed for few months and as i am on a really tight budget i couldnt afford any potential damage so i exchanged all the parts for free for new parts again (as it was free to do so no loss) but the one thing i couldnt exchange was the psu as i got it from amazon so before hooking up the psu to my new parts i just wanted to make sure if THEORATICALLY my old components were damaged (just for precautions) i wanted to make sure there would be no damage to my psu that would affect my newer parts from the old damaged parts .

I know it seems very stupid , waste of time and newbie mistake but thats not what i was here to ask adivce for hence why i didnt mention and idk if its that serious or not but thanks in advanced for any help ,
 
Ill be honest part of me still little anxious bout it cause i dont want my first build to last like less than a year yk XD but thanks i hope its all fine cause the psu which powers the whole thing quite important
 
RxFX said:
Ill be honest part of me still little anxious bout it cause i dont want my first build to last like less than a year yk XD but thanks i hope its all fine cause the psu which powers the whole thing quite important
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That's fair to have some anxiety about a first build.

You're going to be fine, and I'm sure the PSU is fine.
 
Agreed. Even if the PSU were all connected at the time of static damage to a mobo component, I severely doubt that could damage the PSU. However, I can see it possible that a power surge or MAYBE a static charge issue to the PSU might ALSO damage a mobo in the same incident.
 
RxFX said:
Theres a bit more context which i think would help which is i hook up the psu with the mobo cpu ram already just for the bios which everything seemed fine enough but someone mentioned how static damage to a mobo isnt always an instant kill which in my case it probably wasnt and that some static dmg can show months into use. So do you think theoratically if there was a bit of static dmg but not enough for an instant kill would this mean (from what u said earlier) that it wouldnt be enough to damage a psu in any way?
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IMO in that scenario that someone suggested what would logically make one believe that a fault that turns up months later was even vaguely related?

The only time I recall where I static-killed a component was a memory module I bought from a computer fair; I went into a shop with the module in my pocket (inside a bag which may supposedly have been anti-static but apparently was not), touched a metal rail for a flight of stairs and got a fair size static shock off it. The module was completely faulty, no life from it whatsoever.

Generally speaking if you do something dumb to a computer and it still passes all the usual stress tests that you ought to do to a new build regardless, then you probably got away with it.

Side note - I agree with what others have said here about the PSU, though I'd add that as long as it's not a cheap unknown/dodgy brand PSU then they're probably correct. In my experience if a cheapo PSU dies then it stands a good chance of taking the board with it.
 
mikeymikec said:
IMO in that scenario that someone suggested what would logically make one believe that a fault that turns up months later was even vaguely related?

The only time I recall where I static-killed a component was a memory module I bought from a computer fair; I went into a shop with the module in my pocket (inside a bag which may supposedly have been anti-static but apparently was not), touched a metal rail for a flight of stairs and got a fair size static shock off it. The module was completely faulty, no life from it whatsoever.

Generally speaking if you do something dumb to a computer and it still passes all the usual stress tests that you ought to do to a new build regardless, then you probably got away with it.

Side note - I agree with what others have said here about the PSU, though I'd add that as long as it's not a cheap unknown/dodgy brand PSU then they're probably correct. In my experience if a cheapo PSU dies then it stands a good chance of taking the board with it.
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Thats fair enough . It was generally also just a theoratical question because atleast if i had a straight answer i wont be worried thinking oh will this one mistake cost my pc when i could of avoided it and saved some money instead of throw it all away
 
A statically damaged device can put a momentary strain on a PSU, but if the PSU is properly designed then it just latches off until a mains power cycle off and back on.

A poorly designed (aka junk) PSU can more easily be damaged.

While some static damage can take months to cause a full failure, this is far less likely than that if it is working correctly now, then there is no static damage. If I do suspect PSU damage, then before hooking up to anything valuable, I'll connect it to (well... I have a dummy load tester but not everyone does...) a load like a hard drive, jumper it on using PS_On connector pin to a ground pin, and measure the voltages.
 
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