Anyone ever smoke a power supply before?

Last night I was sitting at my desktop computer, typing a reply to a post in this very forum, while wondering, "Why does it smell like burnt popcorn in here?" Then all of a sudden, I heard this horrid screeching "EEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUWWWWWWWPPPPPPPP!!!!!!" followed instantly by a pop from my speakers, and my screens went black. I look over at my tower, and there's black smoke pouring out of the PSU's exhaust fan port. My instant reaction was to exclaim "Holy $#@!" at the top of my lungs, while frantically reaching over with superhuman speed to yank out the power cord.

Needless to say, I was less than thrilled.

Luckily, all my parts are under warranty. I should have a new PSU from the manufacturer by the end of the week. It'll likely be a while before that smell completely fades from the room, though.

So here's my question. What's the likelihood that any other parts might have been fried when the PSU met its bitter end? Are those things prone to spitting out surges when they're in their death throes, or is the damage usually self-contained? Needless to say, I can't test anything until the new PSU arrives. Thanks in advance for any insight/advice.




Here are my complete specs, if it helps:

Tagan 1100W PSU (RIP)
Intel QX6700 Core2 Extreme (quadcore) 2.66GHz
Zalman 9500 CPU cooling fan
EVGA 680i SLI motherboard
(2) EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB
(4) Corsaire Dominator DDR2 RAM @ 2GB each, with dedicated cooling fan from Corsair
(5) WD Raptoor 150GB hard drives
(1) WD Caviar 500GB hard drive, in external Antec housing, connected via eSATA
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Audio
DVDRW drive (not sure of make & model at the moment)
DVDROM drive (not sure of make & model at the moment)
11 in 1 card reader (not sure of make & model at the moment)

In my experience, the onboard RAM goes first in these situations, Chosen. YMMV. If you see anomalies, look there first, even if it all passes self-test.

Condolences!

Depends on how it failed. If it shorted internally first, you're probably OK. If it shorted through the motherboard, it was a murder-suicide.

Murder - Suicide has been my personal experience.

I'm sorry this happened to you and wish you the best of luck!!!

yea it kinda depends on which side it fried on

most likely your ok

(based on the fact that something making that much noise n fireworks was probally on the input side of things, and it probally burned up most paths leading out to your hardware)

I fried one about 6 or 7 years ago. It didn't make much noise except the loud pop through my speakers and from the case. A little smoke but not much odor. Everything survived (except, of course, the PS). The tech folks where I got my replacement PS told me that a PS failing without warning usually means it's a failure on the frontend side of the power supply and the nature of the PS "protects" everything on the output side. The output side failing is when you get damage on things like CPU's, memory modules, GPU's, HD's, etc. and there are indications of output failures before the PS blows.............like strange or bazaar system behaviour but the computer is still running. I would say you are probably okay with further component damage.

And, we all know that there are ALWAYS exceptions to "normal" behaviour. So, no guarantees you won't find out more bad news once the PS is replaced.

Oh, no.

Re: "Anyone ever smoke a power supply before?"
I try not to. I've heard they're worse than cigarettes in terms of health risks.


Although I have had a power supply quietly die on me (it was underrated) before with no damage to anything else, I have to agree that murder-suicide is the most likely scenario.

Just get a bunch of copper wire and rewind it. It's easy, any serious computer user winds his own coils on his power supply.

murder-suicide isn't that common, I saw thousands of dead power supplies, some quietly dying, some loudly dying, when I worked as a tech, only a handful ever damaged any other components in the computer.

hehe, altho computers use switching power supplies, its all done with silicon and pwm

Heh-signed, on both accounts. I read the thread title and thought exactly the same...

AND I had a PSU die on me a while back, but rather in stages-sometimes the comp wouldn't start, sometimes it took a few presses of the power button, that kind of thing. Then it just quietly passed away, but didn't kill anything else. I only ever found out it WAS the power supply when I took the machine apart and tested stuff-I thought it was the power button wiring or something that had died...

Thanks for the responses, everyone. Sounds like it could go either way, which is pretty much what I figured.

If it was a good power supply, it burned out without damaging other components. If it wasn't, odds are the rest of the internal components went with the power supply. A well designed power supply will die horribly in an overvoltage situation rather than pass it on to the rest of the machine.

It's best to never cheap out on power supplies. Apple, HP, Dell and Gateway really cheap out on their power supplies (planned obsolesence?): Avoid name brand computers.

Thanks again for all the answers, everyone. In case anyone's interested in hearing the conclusion to the story, the replacement PSU arrived today. I'm pleased to report that the new one works, and that no other components seem to be have been damaged by the old one's dramatic death. Everything appears to be working perfectly. (Knock on wood.)

The new one is quite obviously a refurb, as its finish is pretty well scratched and chipped. I was hoping for a brand new one, so that's a little disappointing, but I can't really complain. The good news is the replacement seems to be an upgraded model. It's physically smaller than the old one, noticeably quieter, and has several more connections.

I also has a little silliness to it. First, it's got this electric blue mirror finish on it, instead of the flat gray of the old one, which is nice enough if you like blue and you like mirrors, but I have to wonder what is the point of it, since the device goes inside the case, where no one will ever see it. Second, the label with all the specs faces the mobo side of the case, where it can't be read without removing the whole unit. This is presumably so that the side facing the lid can prominently display the super shiny logo that is painted on top of that super shiny blue finish. Anyone care to tell me how it possibly makes sense to put a fancy logo and a shiny finish on a device no one will ever see, except for a technician who might want to open the case to read the specifications, except that the specifications can't be read from where the case actually opens?

Here's what it looks like, if anyone's cares: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817814002


OK, now a more important question. When I first got everything plugged in, the computer wouldn't start right away. The first few times I pressed the power button, all that would happen would be a few lights on the motherboard would come on, and that was it. My first thought was either more components had been fried when the first PSU blew, or that this new one was DOA. But a few minutes later, I hit the button one more time just for the hell of it, and the computer fired right up. I've since turned it off and on several more times, with no problems.

Anyone know what that initial sluggishness meant? Maybe a capacitor needed a little time to accumulate a charge or something?

But doesn't EVERYONE have a plastic window in the case so you can see the plastic-wrapped neon-glowing cables, LED fans, and fluorescent green tubing to make it look like you're doing water cooling?

For the real question... could have been a poorly seated connection somewhere.

That would be my guess........and it's only a guess. I've replaced several power supplies in the past and never had a delay like you discribed. But then, again, I've never had a 200 USD power supply.

Good to hear everything seems to be okay with your computer.

ive had this happen quite often, yea all your caps have to recharge, but really that only takes a fraction of a second, since most of them are relatively small values (unlike lets say a camera flash)

most often its just the system and the ps unit getting in sync, there are active signals being sent to and from the power supply to deal with protection

(ie your board shorts out, it knows to cut the power, rather than make a fire)

Thanks, Osgeld. I had no idea PSU's were that intelligent.

Looks like I might not be quite out of the woods yet. When I walked into my office this morning, my computer was off. I did not shut it down last night. It switched off all on its own some time during the night.

When I went to turn it back on, it did that same thing as when the PSU had first been installed. At first, it would only power the LED's on the motherboard. I had to switch it off and on a few times before it would actually start the computer.

Anyone have any ideas what's going on? I'm wondering if maybe another component is on the fritz, and is perhaps trying to draw too much current or something. It would be a heck of a coincidence for two PSU's to blow for no reason. Thoughts?

Have you reseated everything inside the case?

Is your AC power good?

Do your fans spin up or at least try to?

Send it back and get another one.

I haven't reseated every last device, but I suppose I should.

No, the fans didn't try to spin at all during the times the computer wouldn't start.

Don't forget to at least jiggle the connection from the front panel power switch to the header on the motherboard.

You might see if that switch has a problem by trying a screwdriver start.