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Snap crackle pop...what happened?!

S

Slickone

Diamond Member
I had my PC on and was in the other room and heard some loud noises that are hard to explain...pops I guess, sounded like something fell, lasted about 3 seconds. I went into the PC room but saw no smoke. There was a fairly strong burnt electric train smell. I took the side of my PC case and can see no sign if anything burnt on the board or around the PSU. Monitor looks fine too. PC was still working fine.
PC is an Epox 8KHA+, Tbird 1600+, case is an Antec SX840, monitor is a Sony 19" CRT.

I have an APC UPS Back Ups XS 1500 (model BX1500) that I just started using a week or so ago. Saw no sign of damage to it on the outside.


Edit:
I guess it must have been the other PC (Addtronics case, Channel Well PSU, Abit BH6, Celeron 600 on a Slocket) that is the culprit, since it won't power up now. I had it sitting beside the other PC because I was testing it. Thing is, this PC was not even turned on. It had been off for at least a few minutes (and was only one for 1-2 minutes then). What happened?
 
open the case and inspect all the capacitors on the board - look for "puffy"ness or orange/brown crud specks on their top.

oh you said it's still working...
then prob not the caps
🙂
 
Check the PSU in the other computer, the one with the BH6 mobo. That would be my guess. I once saw a PSU "POP!" after being shut off. There were either bad traces on a PCB or cold solder joint at the base of a cap and the thing just let loose. Good luck!
 
alm4rrm: Sorry, looks like I was editing the OP when you were replying. No, the one I assumed made the noises, because it was on at the time, is still working (using it now). The one I didn't suspect at the time since it hasn't been on for a few minutes, is not working. No power at all.
Also, all the caps look good. I double checked (visually).

compudog, that was my plan. Any way to check the PSU without swapping it out?
 
You can check the PSU in the case, but you are better off removing it, it's just 4 screws. Unhook all cables, remove the screws securing it to the case, are set it on your desk. Hook a piece of wire (paperclip bent up will do) into the green and black (they are side by side) and then plug it in. If your PSU has a switch on the back, turn it on. If the fans start up, you can assume most of the PSU is working, and you need to poke around inside your BH6 computer a little.
 
Tried shorting the green and a few of the blacks, but the fan never came on. I took the PSU apart and tested the fan (works). Nothing looks burned. There is something that looks like what normally would be a glass cylinder style fuse, but between the metal ends, it looks like 'paper' instead. Is that a fuse? See purple arrow in this pic.

At least I'm more certain now of what the strange noises were. Now to find a cheap PSU. This was a 250W. Looks like the 300W are the same price or cheaper than the 250W.


Looking at Newegg's PSU pages, are of these good enough?

Sparkle Power "Power Q" 250W ATX-250GU $17
Sparkle Power "Power Q" 300W ATX-300GU $19
Sparkle 250 WATTS FSP250-60ATV $19
Fortron ATX350GU 350W HiQ Brand $20 (HiQ 'brand'?)
Fortron ATX300GU 300W HiQ Brand $22
Sparkle ATX-300GT/-B 300W $22
Sparkle Power FSP250-60GRE 250W $23
Sparkle Power "Power Q" 350W ATX-350GU $23
Fortron - 300W FSP300-60ATV $24
etc, etc (why so many models??)

These all say OEM, shipping is $6e.


Also there are some Sparkle ATX-300GT (300W) on ebay for $20 shipped, and Antec Smartpower 250W for $20 shipped.
 
Yeah, that's the fuse and if it looks like paper inside the glass tube, it's blown. Good pic BTW! The fuse in a PSU rarely blows unless something major has failed and they usually are not replaceable. Time for a new one. Good Luck!
 
If you wanna mess around with it; solder a pigtale type fuse holder in it; but be forewarned... whatever made it blow could do the same thing and even worse. If you have nothing to lose then do it to satisfy your own self. Pull all the cards and start there. It just might be one card that did it. In the long run if you try replacing the power supply and didn't fix the problem you could blow another supply.
 
Hmm. It can't ever be easy and straight forward can it. 🙂 Looks like a risk either way. Poking around that much in a PSU scares me.
Considering the whatever blew happened w/ the PC off, could that still mean something else made the PSU blow? Majority of the time isn't is just the PSU's own fault?
 
Get yourself a brand-name power supply with a warranty policy. I had an Antec Truepower 430W blow out something inside that controlled its fans, but nothing else was wrong with it. I had to pay to ship it to them, but they did replace the PSU free of any other charges. The replacement has been running just fine ever since I got it.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Get yourself a brand-name power supply with a warranty policy. I had an Antec Truepower 430W blow out something inside that controlled its fans, but nothing else was wrong with it. I had to pay to ship it to them, but they did replace the PSU free of any other charges. The replacement has been running just fine ever since I got it.
Click to expand...
I listed several brand name PSUs above but no one commented. Would these have warranties, or no because they're OEM?
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Get yourself a brand-name power supply with a warranty policy. I had an Antec Truepower 430W blow out something inside that controlled its fans, but nothing else was wrong with it. I had to pay to ship it to them, but they did replace the PSU free of any other charges. The replacement has been running just fine ever since I got it.
Click to expand...
I listed several brand name PSUs above but no one commented. Would these have warranties, or no because they're OEM?
 
Sparkle and Fortron are good. Personally I like Antec and Enermax. Since your PSU died after the PC had been shut down, I think the problem was just in the PSU and not something in your PC. Buy from a good vendor that has a clear return policy and you should be OK.
 
Update. I replaced the PSU with a used SPI. The PC still won't power up. Took it back out and did the jumper test. PSU fan wouldn't come on. Is this a reliable test? Unless my PC fried this PSU (there was no smoke or noise), I bought a bad PSU.

My mobo caps look good.
 
My guess than is that either the used psu you are trying is no good or when the psu went, it took the mobo with it.
 
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