Fright of the day

Makke · Post by **Makke** » 18/11/2006 - 19:52

Got up this morning (ok, so it was actually afternoon), hungover as hell because of an all night after work-pissup with the colleagues last night. First thing I did, just like every morning, was turn the computer on. It didn't start. It's been a bit dodgy the past couple of weeks (I suspected the power supply was about to give up, which turned out to be true as you shall see), so I just turned the power off and back on again.

The PSU started sounding like what I can best describe as "electricity running wild". Despite being a bit slow from hungoverness I reacted quickly, thinking "I need to jank the power cord NOW!", so I leaned forward to pull it out and BOOM! Right in my face! Smoke everywhere!

My first thought: "HOLY FUCK!"
My second thought: "Still need to jank the power cord!" *janked power cord*
My third thought: "The fire alarm!" *closed the door to the home office, and opened a window*
(We've got one of those fire alarms with a built in battery, that are impossible to shut up once they've gone off!)
My fourth thought: *money bills with wings flying off*

I was really scared that the motherboard, CPU, memory, and hard drives would all be fuxx0red! So I ran out and bought a new puter box and PSU, moved all the bits to the new box, and thankfully it booted with out a problem!

Still don't get how in the world the PSU could just explode like that! Gave me a royal fright, and frankly makes me feel I got off easy considering how wrong it all could've gone! The whole thing could've caught fire! And what if that'd happened while Sara and I were asleep? Really scary! So in the end, no real harm was done, but geez was I scared for a while!

xo · Post by xo » 18/11/2006 - 20:09

I read a hardware test of a PSU. The testers managed to get it to explode on the testbench. They did test it to the limit and perhaps a little beyond. But you're right, it shouldn't explode.

You can get 1100 W PSU's now. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. hehe

FunkyM · Post by **FunkyM** » 18/11/2006 - 22:18

Hey Makke. Grats on avoiding a melted CPU. Happened to me once, not pretty. I was left compless for many days...

Maybe I'll tell that tale sometime.

Analog-X64 · Post by **Analog-X64** » 19/11/2006 - 3:07

Glad the PSU is all that went.

Get yourself a good Surge Suppressor or UPS (Interruptible power supply)

I lost many things due to bad power in my area, now everything is either on UPS or Surge Suppressor.

Vosla · Post by **Vosla** » 19/11/2006 - 23:18

Explosion? Could have been big condensators.
My gf lost two PCs to faulty power supplies.

I'm glad to hear that other parts weren't killed.

merman · Post by **merman** » 20/11/2006 - 11:33

Had a PSU go recently, with a very loud CRACK.... scared the stuff out of me...

Makke · Post by **Makke** » 20/11/2006 - 16:43

Vosla wrote:Explosion? Could have been big condensators.

No idea! First of all my electronics skills are limited at best, and second of all I just have not had the time to open the bugger up to see exactly what was blown up.

I think I will just toss it out the window and let the passing number 3 bus crush it.

Post by **tas** » 20/11/2006 - 21:08

Sounds a bit scary that Makke. My PC has been on the way out for what seems 1 year but somehow still working very well.

I keep tweaking bit and bobs and moving things around and i still get performance but sometimes it wants to go mad and the fans on my GFX card and CPU just go into hyper drive and the sound is very close to an Airline taking off.. I know something is gonna blow sooner or later but strangely it keeps on performing very well despite that.

I keep on expecting a BOOM but it never happens. Tempting fate here arn't I?

Markus Schneider · Post by **Markus Schneider** » 20/11/2006 - 22:11

At least mostly cheap PSU explodes like that due to cheap and less stress tested material (often condensators, which are filled with some kind of oil. Exploded they smell so horrible), this is not a special thing. But always a great real experience again.

The best tip to avoid this, is to buy a quality PSU. But no guarantee at least.

You can get 1100 W PSU's now. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. hehe

No this is often not a good thing, because PSUs work stable when used at at a minimum of power load. You may remember a diagram sticked on the PSU itself (not all have this). This shows the stable power output to percentage of power load. Most need a percentage of 80 (very good 60). This means you need to have a steady power need of 880 Watt. This is still way not common.

Anyway glad your PC works fine then. To test if it runs really stable you should download Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org) for Windows and let it run for more than 24 hours.