My son's PSU popped last night.

[digitalwanderer]

Late last night my son woke me up because his computer (Blackwell) broke. I was a bit confused as he ain't supposed to be playing on it at night, but he explained that it popped and there were some bright flashes from it and a nasty smoke...

....THAT got me up in a hurry!

I just made sure everything was powered down and nothing was on fire, aired out the room a bit and started dreading all the possible things that could have happened/fried as I'm reassuring my son that there isn't anything to worry about 'cause no matter what happened to it I promised him I'd be able to fix it. (Yes, I talk big when my son needs reasuring....and technically it's true. No matter what I could just replace everything inside the box)

I've been putting off messing with it all day out of dread since I know my PC budget is still at "negative one X800" for this year, but I finally screwed up me courage and swapped out it's cheapy and burnt smelling Hercules 450w PSU for my old TT 420w and with many fearful thoughts fired her up...

...AND SHE BOOTED!!!!

I love happy endings like that, I really do. Total repair time aproximately 15 minutes, total out-o-pocket zero.

 

[linthat22]

awesome, glad to hear it wasn't something where you had to replace a lot of stuff.

I bet that made your wallet feel better

 

[Sxotty]

Digi, I have been party to fixing a number of such things and out of the 6 powersupplies that melted down not a single one has damaged the computer.

I don't know if I am really lucky, or if the things are designed better than one would imagine, anyway glad to hear nothing was damaged.

 

[digitalwanderer]

The last time I had a PSU spark out like that it took out the motherboard it was attached to too, so I'm considering it fortunate as hell!

So is my son, him and his best bud are playing Stubbs on it now and laughing their heads off.

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

The last time I had a PSU spark out like that it took out the motherboard it was attached to too, so I'm considering it fortunate as hell!

So is my son, him and his best bud are playing Stubbs on it now and laughing their heads off.

If the bad PSU has a good fan then pull it. It might come in handy one day.

 

[Sxotty]

If the bad PSU has a good fan then pull it. It might come in handy one day.

Well that is true, but some are soldered, but the screws are handy anyway, finding those screws at a hardware shop is nigh impossible, you have to order them online for ridiculous prices, so scavenge them at the least... (well I mean I would )

 

[AlNom]

so scavenge them at the least... (well I mean I would )

I know what you mean. I've got a whole jar for miscellaneous computer screws dating back to 1996.

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

Well that is true, but some are soldered, but the screws are handy anyway, finding those screws at a hardware shop is nigh impossible, you have to order them online for ridiculous prices, so scavenge them at the least... (well I mean I would )

I have a supplier that sell them for $2 for about 15 of them.

 

[Sxotty]

I have a supplier that sell them for $2 for about 15 of them.

Too bad I did not know that before I used to use a hole saw and mod my case you know, but then you could not get those silly screws anywhere so I had to scavenge a bunch of old power supplies to put the fan grills on and such. Actually I will post a pic later today of one of them, it is old, but I thought my paint job on it was pretty nice...

 

[digitalwanderer]

I've been scrounging/saving/stripping old bits and saving them for over a decade now. It went from an Altoids container full of screws to a couple of 3-4 full filing cabinet drawers of fans/screws/wires/connectors/adapters/parts.

Probably my most valuble repair resource next to the internet, it's saved my ass dozens of times.

I've also gotten a bit weird about preventative stocking of parts, like I like to make sure I got a working DVD player/PSU/mouse/keyboard on back-up just in case I have one give out.

(Hard drives are too valuable, I keep my spares in service in Bubbles and just swap them out as needed.)

 

[fallguy]

PC P&C. No more worries..

 

[Kurt]

Last week a €40 350W PSU died on me and took a HD with ~80GB of stuff with it when I tried to plug in a new board+A64.

Went back to store, bought same HD model, swapped circuit boards and returned the 'broken' HD the same day. Told them HD was DOA, got a refund and got me a nice but f*cking expensive 500W PSU, hehe.

I should've known what to expect, though, when the ASUS 6800GT went nuts and a siren thingie went off (probably due to no fan) unless *both* molex connectors in the back were plugged in. Well, no further harm done and lesson learned, I guess

New PSU even has a spare molex connector specially for GFX cards (and 2 PCIE leads which I dont use, and SATA cables which I dont need either and, and, and.) It's a bit overkill at the moment, but I hope this one'll last me for a while.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I need long leads on my PSU now for Bubbles, I mount her PSU outside her case on top of her with a vent hole cut underneath it.

 

[karlotta]

PC P&C. No more worries..

I beleive you.

 

[Xenus]

Sadly I think mine dide the comp took a spill leaving college feel on it's side motherboard down. It refused to start bu tlater we got some life out of it it ran fine once. No it refuses to start again.