Tried a fan controller, sparks came from it and comp shut down

[PieIsAwesome]

I pulled a fan controller from a case, tried it, and when booting the computer, the computer ran for about a second, then a spark came from the fan controller, and the computer shut down.

Computer and fans all seem to be working fine.

I don't care about the fan controller, but I'm not sure about the PSU shutting down in response to the controller dying. How does the PSU know there was something wrong with the controller? Did it shut down to prevent damage? Or did the controller do something?

The PSU was connected to the fan controller from a 12v input (with only yellow 12v line and black ground) and the controller sent a 12v output to the fans in the same way. I'm guessing a current is only sent away from the PSU, so why exactly did the PSU shut down?

 

[AsusGuy]

I have had many systems do that when a short or power issue is found. It could also be a function of the motherboard shutting everything down. If your system is working normally you are lucky and probably didn't cause damage. Maybe try stress testing and see how the system does.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

I ran orthos and tested the PSU with a multimeter, everything seems fine, so hopefully nothing bad happened.

 

[robisbell]

you fried the motherboard., and hopefully not the cpu or ram.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Originally posted by: robisbell
you fried the motherboard., and hopefully not the cpu or ram.

What?

 

[robisbell]

if you do not understand how electrical equipment and electricity works, when that shorted or whatever, the power had to go somewhere, and if the psu and fans are fine, the only other place a power surge to go would be the motherboard, it may not have killed it but it damaged it.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Well, I stressed the system and everything seems to be the same as always. I guess if anything unusual comes up I may know why, but a power surge puts every component into suspect and that's no fun.

This brings up another question.
Some time ago, I accidentally plugged a molex into a DVD drive upside down in another computer. Nothing happened except the DVD drive would no longer work. Is it possible for damage to have occurred elsewhere? It's been a while and it hasn't given me any problems, but now I'm paranoid.

 

[Elstupido]

Don't worry about it, the PSU was doing what it is supposed to do, and that is shutting down on a short circuit. Over current protection

 

[AsusGuy]

If your system is stable you are ok. When the PSU or board sense a power fault they power down to protect your equipment I have seen computers power down after IDE cable are plugged in wrong or ram etc, even after components spark and burn the mobo can survive. As long as they have good overvoltage protection.