Power supply?

[Manish]

Hi all

My pc had started to shut down by itself a few days ago.
i had formated my hard drive and was trying to do a clean install of XP
it used to blow up in the setup..sometimes after 5 mins..sometimes after
10-15 mins

i later on found out that my Power supply (350 W) had blown up.
so i changed my power supply(400 W) and it is working now at least since 2
days..i was able to successfully install XP

what i wanted to ask u guys is why did it happen?
do i need to take any precaution in future?

all my fans were working by the way...but still my old Power Supply used to
get very hot in a short time

 

[Raoul]

Heat and power supplies go hand in hand. It was probably the heat (caused
my some defective component) that caused the rest of the power supply to
die. Just as well you upgraged to a 400W.

 

[CWatters]

Electrolytic capacitors can have surprisingly short working lives when used
hot.