Burning smell - after situation - is it power supply? not Hard-drive?

[Krow]

Hi

Basically I was hoovering up my room and for safety reasons I (for
once) decided to turn of the main socket 'switch' from which an
extension cord (fused etc) is connected - where I plug my pc plugs
into.

Everything was fine. The PC was off when I did this. AFter I finished,
I flicked the main socket switch (the one with PC) back on (the
hoover used a different socket point)

About 10 seconds later, I saw the power-light of the PC flash on for
2-3 seconds - without me touching the pc, and then there a pungent
burning smell filled the area directly around the PC. I turned the
main socket switch off immediately and disconnected all backpanel PC
wires.

I decided to leave it for the night, and decided to test it again
today. About 4 seconds after I'd flicked the main socket switch, there
was a 'bang' sound and smoke started pouring out of the vent (where
the fan is situated just inside) I unplugged everything and have left
it since.

I will be taking it to the shop tomorrow - as I haven't the necessary
grounding strips etc. and don't particularly want to take off the
cover after what happened. But I do want to ascertain:

Why did the 'thing' suddenly decide to burn up?
Is the 'thing' that burned up the power supply?
Would it have affected the hard-drive; or was it the hard-drive that
burnt up?
Would it be worth me getting another powersupply (which is apparently
1-2hundred pounds) instead of gettinga new pc and installing the old
hard-drive to the new pc as an 'extra'?


Many thanks in advance for any advice

KP

 

[John]

Why did the 'thing' suddenly decide to burn up?

Youll have to take it apart to possibly get a clue.
A neighbors PC did the same thing when a capactior leaked.
Brown stuff came out and I guess it shorted something and POW.

Is the 'thing' that burned up the power supply?
Would it have affected the hard-drive; or was it the hard-drive that
burnt up?

Probably ,but you wont know until you take it apart.

Would it be worth me getting another powersupply (which is apparently
1-2hundred pounds) instead of gettinga new pc and installing the old
hard-drive to the new pc as an 'extra'?

Unfortunately you wont know until you actually put a PS in.

100-200 pounds!
You can find cheapos for $11 here. It would be good enough to test
it. You can find decent PSes though for $40-60.

My neighbors PC did work with a new PS. Youll never know though until
you test it.

 

[S.Heenan]

I will be taking it to the shop tomorrow - as I haven't the necessary
grounding strips etc. and don't particularly want to take off the
cover after what happened. But I do want to ascertain:

Why did the 'thing' suddenly decide to burn up?
Is the 'thing' that burned up the power supply?
Would it have affected the hard-drive; or was it the hard-drive that
burnt up?
Would it be worth me getting another powersupply (which is apparently
1-2hundred pounds) instead of gettinga new pc and installing the old
hard-drive to the new pc as an 'extra'?


Many thanks in advance for any advice

KP

Very likely the power supply went. It may or may not have taken other
components with it. Even in the UK, a good power supply shouldn't be more
than £60 VAT in.
http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-s...d=-1&mid=079&ob=manufacturer&obd=asc&stab=ref

 

[Newt]

If its only a bog standard pc and you want to save money, aren't bothered by cutting edge PSUs then
you can get them for £20-£30. at your local independent supplier.

 

[Nick]

replace the power supply. They cost about £20. HDD might have gone but its
not likely. If you're really unlucky, the motherboard might have gone.

 

[Nick]

£60?!?!? You can get a whole new case including a power supply for £30

 

[Caroline]

Very likely the power supply went. It may or may not have taken other
components with it. Even in the UK, a good power supply shouldn't be more
than £60 VAT in.
http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-s...d=-1&mid=079&ob=manufacturer&obd=asc&stab=ref

I just got a Fortron power supply from Kool'n'Quiet
(www.koolnquiet.co.uk, IIRR) and I can't praise it enough. It's *so*
quiet - half the noise of my old 'QuietPC' one, with a 120mm fan sucking
air out of the case. My case has never been so cool and so quiet - plus
the psu is much more stable. The 12v rail on my QuietPC was all over the
place and sometimes the fan wouldn't start up .... which was
interesting. Anyway, it was something like £55 including p&p. Not only
that, but the guy who runs Kool'n'Quiet must've spent well over an hour
on the phone with me helping me sort out what was going on with my
current psu, so it might be worth giving him a ring.

HTH

Caroline



Caroline Picking, (e-mail address removed)
Milton Keynes, England.

 

[S.Heenan]

£60?!?!? You can get a whole new case including a power supply for
£30

http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-s...d=-1&mid=079&ob=manufacturer&obd=asc&stab=ref


Yes, I am aware that a case and power supply can be had for £30 in the UK.
It is exactly those power supplies which fail and cause hardware damage. My
reference to the Enermax PSU at Dabs was simply to show Krow £100-£200 was
way out of the ballpark for a decent power supply.

 

[Perdita X. Dream]

replace the power supply. They cost about £20. HDD might have gone but its
not likely. If you're really unlucky, the motherboard might have gone.

As S.Heenan said, you get what you pay for and £20 is WAY too cheap. Yes you
can get them for that money, but 'what it says on the tin' isn't (usually)
true - in most cases it can be halved (e.g. a 400W PSU probably won't run at
any more than 200W). I have an Antec SmartPower 460W - very quiet - cost £55
all in.

By purchasing a cheap supply you're storing up problems for yourself later.
When - not if- it blows (and they invariably do - usually sooner rather than
later) then they have no fail safe mechanism and they'll end up costing you
more than just a replacement PSU. My Antec has a lifetime warranty (it's has
a MTBF of around 75,000 hours or roughly nine years) and, if it fails, it
will do it 'gracefully' and won't affect the rest of my system - I can just
pop in the replacement and I'll be good to go. When a cheap supply fails it,
very often, takes the motherboard and/or CPU/RAM with it. It may even affect
the graphics card if it's one of those that plugs directly into the PSU.

With PSUs the rule is 'spend now - to save yourself time, money and
frustration later'.


--
Perdita X. Dream

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[Krow]

Thank you all for your help

KP