UPS went boom, got RMA, what should I do before sending it back?

[BaggerX]

I came into my office early this morning, and everything was fine. Came back an hour or so later, and my PC is shut down. I have my PC and monitor plugged into a Tripp-Lite G1000UB UPS using the battery backup sockets. Nothing else using it.

So, I see that the UPS is shut down, so I try to turn it back on. It comes on for a second with the "Fault" light showing, then shuts off again. Next I grab the manual and see what it says to do about it. It wants me to unplug any devices from it and run a self-test. So I do that. The test completes, the Fault light is no longer on, and everything seems fine.

I don't know what the problem was, but since it seems ok now, I go to plug my PC back into it. As soon as I start to plug it in, I see a flash and hear a loud pop. I reflexively yanked back on the plug, which hadn't made it all the way into the socket even, so it was unplugged afterwards. I see smoke coming up from my PC (Antec 900 case with fan hole on top so the smoke could rise up ominously).

Well, this definitely seemed bad. I called up Tripp-Lite and explained what all happened. They asked all the typical questions about what was plugged into it, whether I used extension cords or plugged it into another surge protector, etc. I had set it up according to the manual, so I wasn't doing any of that stuff. The operator asked me if my PC still worked. I told her I didn't know, as I had unplugged the UPS after that and hadn't plugged my PC back in to try it. She said I should try plugging it into the wall. So I did. Flash/crackle/smoke from inside PC as soon as I started to plug it in. Bad idea. Won't do that anymore. I'm guessing that means the PSU is toast and possibly my motherboard as well. No idea about CPU or RAM.

About an hour later, their claims person calls me and asks me some more questions and then sets me up with an RMA. They will have Fedex come pick up the broken UPS and send me a new one.

****Now down to the important part. Sorry for the long-winded story.****

So, according to the claims person, they will check out the UPS and determine what went wrong with it, and if it was a defect in the unit, then they will cover the damage to my PC. If they determine that it wasn't a defect, then I'm out of luck. So my issue with this is that they are the ones that get to determine this, and I have no way of knowing whether they are correct or not. I'm supposed to provide them with a diagram of what was connected and where to the UPS, along with a parts inventory of my PC since it's custom-built.

Is there anything I should check myself before returning it? Anything that I can do to cover myself? I don't like the idea of throwing myself (and my poor toasted PC parts) on the mercy of their support techs. They have an appeal process too, but i'm not sure if it will be of much use either.

Anyone got any ideas?

Here's my basic specs (my full list was on my PC, so toast):
Dell 2209WA Monitor
Antec 900 case
Antec TPQ-850 TruePower Quattro 850W PSU
Asus P6T Deluxe v2 Motherboard
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W (not overclocked)
ZALMAN CNPS9900ALED 120mm CPU Cooler
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB
6x CORSAIR XMS3 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1333 (PC3 10666)
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
Samsung SH-S223 DVD Burner
2 more 7200 RPM hard drives that I can't remember the exact specs for.

 

[Mark R]

Maybe I'm missing something, but how do you know you have a faulty UPS? You tested it, and it passed.

Have you actually run a test on the UPS with a desk lamp or something similar?

What you are describing to me is a PSU blowing up, and the safety systems on the UPS shutting down the UPS to prevent it from being damaged by the dying PSU.

 

[BaggerX]

Maybe I'm missing something, but how do you know you have a faulty UPS? You tested it, and it passed.

Have you actually run a test on the UPS with a desk lamp or something similar?

What you are describing to me is a PSU blowing up, and the safety systems on the UPS shutting down the UPS to prevent it from being damaged by the dying PSU.

No, you're not missing anything. I was just not sure I wanted to try to plug it back in again, or plug anything into it after what happened. The Tripp-Lite rep didn't ask me to try that, so I didn't.

On your suggestion, though, I just tried it, and the lamp works fine. So it does seem like you're probably right that it wasn't the UPS. So now I guess I need to discuss it with Antec. Any idea what would cause a PSU to just die like that? That was ugly.

 

[bryanl]

If Tripplite doesn't cover any damage to the PC, it's possible Antec will.

The flash could have been a fuse. A sulfur smell indicates a blown electrolytic capacitor, while plastic smell is typically a large diode or transistor.

 

[BaggerX]

If Tripplite doesn't cover any damage to the PC, it's possible Antec will.

The flash could have been a fuse. A sulfur smell indicates a blown electrolytic capacitor, while plastic smell is typically a large diode or transistor.

I didn't smell sulfur, but there was definitely a burned plastic smell. I started the RMA process with Antec online, so hopefully I'll hear back from them today.

 

[bigboxes]

My guess is that your UPS is fine. It's your PSU that blew. Have had that happen a couple of years ago on a 10-year old Antec unit. Did the exact same thing that yours did, only I didn't get a second chance to do it again. RMA that PSU if it's under warranty and happy days!

 

[BaggerX]

My guess is that your UPS is fine. It's your PSU that blew. Have had that happen a couple of years ago on a 10-year old Antec unit. Did the exact same thing that yours did, only I didn't get a second chance to do it again. RMA that PSU if it's under warranty and happy days!

Yeah, it's less than 3 yrs old, so I should get a replacement. I've never really had a problem with a PSU from Antec before, but I guess there's a first time for everything. Just hoping that the safety features that they advertise actually worked and it didn't fry any of my other hardware.

Thanks everyone for the advice!