Unusual Power Supply Failure

[MF]

POP, ZZZZZZT, SPARK and a tiny puff of smoke out the back of the PS and it
was gone.

It's a Sparkle, ATX, 250 Watt, a bit over 6 years old.

Circumstances: kill switch turned off, hard drive being replaced. I've done
this many times, about twenty times on this computer alone (for tests and
upgrades, not twenty failed HDDs) with nary a snafu save lost screws.

Like a typical user, I can't remember _exactly_ when it happened, because
the act of turnning the kill switch back on and pushing the power button
were almost (not quite) simultaneous. Everything was connected properly, no
noise or visuals from anywhere else in the computer, and afterwards, no
visible scorch marks or other anomalies anywhere else in the computer. So
I'm about 99.25 percent sure that nothing shorted anywhere else.

But there's that other .75%. My experience with power supply failures has
been the standard: intermittent error and/or quiet death - the computer
simply doesn't turn on one day. Has anyone experienced these mini fireworks
sort of flameouts - and does anyone know the cause?

Thanks much!

Mike

 

[Rightard Whitey]

POP, ZZZZZZT, SPARK and a tiny puff of smoke out the back of the PS and it
was gone.

It's a Sparkle, ATX, 250 Watt, a bit over 6 years old.

Circumstances: kill switch turned off, hard drive being replaced. I've done
this many times, about twenty times on this computer alone (for tests and
upgrades, not twenty failed HDDs) with nary a snafu save lost screws.

Like a typical user, I can't remember _exactly_ when it happened, because
the act of turnning the kill switch back on and pushing the power button
were almost (not quite) simultaneous. Everything was connected properly, no
noise or visuals from anywhere else in the computer, and afterwards, no
visible scorch marks or other anomalies anywhere else in the computer. So
I'm about 99.25 percent sure that nothing shorted anywhere else.

But there's that other .75%. My experience with power supply failures has
been the standard: intermittent error and/or quiet death - the computer
simply doesn't turn on one day. Has anyone experienced these mini fireworks
sort of flameouts - and does anyone know the cause?

Thanks much!

Mike

A capacitor probably blew. Sometimes they will make a loud popping noise.

 

[kony]

POP, ZZZZZZT, SPARK and a tiny puff of smoke out the back of the PS and it
was gone.

It's a Sparkle, ATX, 250 Watt, a bit over 6 years old.

Circumstances: kill switch turned off, hard drive being replaced. I've done
this many times, about twenty times on this computer alone (for tests and
upgrades, not twenty failed HDDs) with nary a snafu save lost screws.

Like a typical user, I can't remember _exactly_ when it happened, because
the act of turnning the kill switch back on and pushing the power button
were almost (not quite) simultaneous. Everything was connected properly, no
noise or visuals from anywhere else in the computer, and afterwards, no
visible scorch marks or other anomalies anywhere else in the computer. So
I'm about 99.25 percent sure that nothing shorted anywhere else.

But there's that other .75%. My experience with power supply failures has
been the standard: intermittent error and/or quiet death - the computer
simply doesn't turn on one day. Has anyone experienced these mini fireworks
sort of flameouts - and does anyone know the cause?

Thanks much!

Mike

I suspect something really was shorted. It "should" turn
off in such events but maybe was on it's last leg already
and that was enough to do it in... not exactly an
unstressful event.

 

[«BONEHEAD>>]

I suspect something really was shorted. It "should" turn
off in such events but maybe was on it's last leg already
and that was enough to do it in... not exactly an
unstressful event.

What??? No video ..

 

[Roby]

POP, ZZZZZZT, SPARK and a tiny puff of smoke out the back of the PS and it
was gone.

It's a Sparkle, ATX, 250 Watt, a bit over 6 years old.

Circumstances: kill switch turned off, hard drive being replaced. I've
done
this many times, about twenty times on this computer alone (for tests and
upgrades, not twenty failed HDDs) with nary a snafu save lost screws.

Like a typical user, I can't remember _exactly_ when it happened, because
the act of turnning the kill switch back on and pushing the power button
were almost (not quite) simultaneous. Everything was connected properly,
no noise or visuals from anywhere else in the computer, and afterwards, no
visible scorch marks or other anomalies anywhere else in the computer. So
I'm about 99.25 percent sure that nothing shorted anywhere else.

But there's that other .75%. My experience with power supply failures has
been the standard: intermittent error and/or quiet death - the computer
simply doesn't turn on one day. Has anyone experienced these mini
fireworks sort of flameouts - and does anyone know the cause?

Thanks much!

Mike

A component failure may provide its own signal. The good news is that there
was apparently no damage to the connected loads. That's usually the case.

I had a power supply act up in a newly-built box. Abrupt reboots, lockups,
etc. It did this a few times and then came a bang and smoke. M/B and video
card were damaged; other cards, memory, HD survived. Fortunately, I had
purchased everything from the same vendor on one order, so there was very
little haggling to get the bad stuff replaced. And it happened before I
handed it off to my client.

It wasn't a Sparkle power supply. Interesting name though.

Roby

 

[MF]

What??? No video ..

Einstein

Nah, the fireball took out the monitor and desk...

 

[MF]

I suspect something really was shorted. It "should" turn
off in such events but maybe was on it's last leg already
and that was enough to do it in... not exactly an
unstressful event.

could be. But the absence of evidence during and after the toxic event
leads me to think - or hope, even though I'll probably junk the mobo - that
it didn't.

cheers,

Mike

 

[MF]

A capacitor probably blew. Sometimes they will make a loud popping noise.

That;s what I was thinking, but it hadn't happened to me before so i didn't
know if i was thinking straight. Figured I would check on others'
experiences before I had four or five vodkas to consider the problem in an
altered state.::}

cheers

Mike

 

[AG]

POP, ZZZZZZT, SPARK and a tiny puff of smoke out the back of the PS and it
was gone.

It's a Sparkle, ATX, 250 Watt, a bit over 6 years old.

Circumstances: kill switch turned off, hard drive being replaced. I've done
this many times, about twenty times on this computer alone (for tests and
upgrades, not twenty failed HDDs) with nary a snafu save lost screws.

Like a typical user, I can't remember _exactly_ when it happened, because
the act of turnning the kill switch back on and pushing the power button
were almost (not quite) simultaneous. Everything was connected properly, no
noise or visuals from anywhere else in the computer, and afterwards, no
visible scorch marks or other anomalies anywhere else in the computer. So
I'm about 99.25 percent sure that nothing shorted anywhere else.

But there's that other .75%. My experience with power supply failures has
been the standard: intermittent error and/or quiet death - the computer
simply doesn't turn on one day. Has anyone experienced these mini fireworks
sort of flameouts - and does anyone know the cause?

Thanks much!

Mike

A year or so ago, I'm not sure exactly, Tom's Hardware did a power supply
shoot out and that was the symptom they got sometimes when they overloaded
one. They used a complicated series of resistors to overload them to see
whether they would give the rated power.

AG

 

[CLV3]

POP, ZZZZZZT, SPARK and a tiny puff of smoke out the back of the PS and it
was gone.

It's a Sparkle, ATX, 250 Watt, a bit over 6 years old.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of system were you trying to power up with
a 250 Watt?