My PC exploded!!! Blue smoke, fire, anarchy & mayem.

[[H]omer]

OK, it wasn't *that* bad, but ...

I was obviously asleep in class on the day they covered this in Physics
101, so maybe someone can enlighten me.

The configuration is as follows:

UK 220V mains socket ->
5amp plug on a kettle lead ->
APC SmartUPS 1500UI ->
Standard female2male kettle lead ->
Antec 550W PSU.

Suddenly a loud *BANG* followed by a burning smell, and an odd smell
coming from the direction of my pants

Upon examination, *both* the plug that connects the UPS to the mains
*and* the PSU, have fused. How can that happen? Especially on a system
protected by an UPS?

I would have thought that if there was a sudden power surge from the
mains, the wall plug would fuse, and that would be all.

Or if the surge was caused by - e.g. - a short on the inside of the case,
the PSU would fuse, and that would be all.

But *both* at the same time???

Weird ???

Was anyone here awake in class on that day?

-
[H]omer

 

[ElJerid]

OK, it wasn't *that* bad, but ...

I was obviously asleep in class on the day they covered this in Physics
101, so maybe someone can enlighten me.

The configuration is as follows:

UK 220V mains socket ->
5amp plug on a kettle lead ->
APC SmartUPS 1500UI ->
Standard female2male kettle lead ->
Antec 550W PSU.

Suddenly a loud *BANG* followed by a burning smell, and an odd smell
coming from the direction of my pants

Upon examination, *both* the plug that connects the UPS to the mains
*and* the PSU, have fused. How can that happen? Especially on a system
protected by an UPS?

I would have thought that if there was a sudden power surge from the
mains, the wall plug would fuse, and that would be all.

Or if the surge was caused by - e.g. - a short on the inside of the case,
the PSU would fuse, and that would be all.

But *both* at the same time???

Weird ???

Was anyone here awake in class on that day?

-

One of my friends had the same problem, without UPS however. There was also
a "big bang", with burning smell. I examined the power supply and noticed
that one of the capacitors had litteraly exploded ! The result was of course
a dead PSU, but also a dead motherboard, VGA card, memory chips, network and
sound card. The disks and floppy were still ok. Surprisingly, the CPU had no
damage...

 

[John]

One of my friends had the same problem, without UPS however. There was also
a "big bang", with burning smell. I examined the power supply and noticed
that one of the capacitors had litteraly exploded ! The result was of course
a dead PSU, but also a dead motherboard, VGA card, memory chips, network and
sound card. The disks and floppy were still ok. Surprisingly, the CPU had no
damage...

A neighbors kid had a similar problem . Capacitor seemed to have
leaked. There was brown stuff in the PSU from the cap. That seemed to
have shorted out the PSU and he said there was a loud bang and a
burning smell. This was years ago. Thats when a lot of people were
using who knows what kind of PSes.



http://www.stalphonsos.com/~chad/exploding_caps.html

http://www.abit-usa.com/news/2004/20040303a.php