hadesx82

Greetings everyone, I have had a true power 550 for about a year now. It has worked fine up until this point. Tonight I came home to my computer (I usually leave it on all the time) to find that my computer is turned off. I went to turn it on, and the lights lit up for a second and it shut back down. I tried this numerous times to see if it was related to my battery back up, acting up. Eventually I figured it out that there might be something wrong with my PS. I went to the back to smell it, and it is definetly fried. My question is, when a power supply fries like this, does it usually mean that there is other damage done to the hard drive or other components, how about Data loss. I am purchasing a new PS tomorrow, any recomendatons?

Thanks,
Matt

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Remonster

There definitely could be damage to your other components, your motherboard, CPU, RAM and video card are very likely fried and everything else in your case could also have fallen victim to it. Best thing to do is get another PSU and plug it in and see if everything works and if not try and find out which parts are broken and replace them.

hadesx82

Hmm.. But why do you believe that to be so? The powersupply didnt recieve a spike in power, it just failed. Therefore I would think that it would be the same as a computer having the plugged pull from the wall while it is running. What does everyone else think?

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2.85 ghz @ 1.6v on Air
"Inspiration is best defined as a memory never expirenced."
"If pacman had affected us as kids we 'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetetive electronic music."Nintendo made this statement in 1989 to defend the fact that computer games do not affect kids.

How do I see which programs on my computer are trying to connect to the internet? F.A.Q

Syrillian

I hope your right, and that it died with a whimper, not a surge. If it whimpered than I would say that you have a good chance of there being no permanent damage to the other components.

Hope it's the way it went.

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Ace_001

i think that the powersupplys are made that if they fail they will fail and go off.

if u want to test it...what u need to do is disconnect ur power supply totally, be sure to load the 12V rail with a few amps... 6-10 fans layin around.. turn the power supply on, using a voltmeter check the ATX connecter for all the right values..

what im expecting is that one of the rails, 3.3 or 5 is dead and as a safety the power supply automatically turns off thinking that the rail is overloaded.

in any case change the power supply.. and it is possible that when the power supply went out maybe it shorted the +12V rail to a 3.3 or 5V.. and any of that is bad.. so damage is defently possible but i wouldnt say its defenite

if u want to open it.. make sure its unplugged, and when its open BE SURE NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING IF YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING.. look for damage, such as a leaking cap, exploded cap, fried regulator... if you find anything take a good detailed pic of the part and a pic of the power supply pointing out where that damaged part is.. and i can help to identify what went bad and if any other components can be damaged
AGAIN IF YOUR DONT KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING DONT TOUCH ANYTHING INSIDE A POWER SUPPLY. THEY HAVE ENOUGH POWER STORED IN ITS CAPS TO MAKE YOU NOT REMEMBER WHAT JUST HAPPENED AND WHY YOU WOKE UP ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM

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tubnotub1

I think your parts should be fine, my Antec TP II 550 was killed because of a voltage spike, or, it just died, one of the two, I was not home, but I know the house received a power surge during a storm that day. Anyways, came home, computer would not turn on, feared the worst. Installed a new PSU, and everything booted up just fine. I think you should be ok. Usually its lower quality power supplies that do not have over-voltage protection (or crappy over-voltage protection *cough* powmax *cough*) that take cpu parts with them when they die.

In response to Ace_001's post: If you want to see if it is still working, just use afew staples, or a paperclip to jump it. Also, please DO NOT open your psu, if its not working, its not working, there is no point in you risking harm to yourself because of an ignorance of the inner-workings of a PSU. Once again, no opening your PSU, no point in it, not like you can repair it.

You can find a guide for jumping your PSU here : http://www.overclock.net/power-suppl...a+power+supply

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Ace_001

the cpu has regulators on the mobo... thats y u can change the voltage to it in the bios.. same goes for the ram..

and i think he said he had a UPS connected... that thing should take all the spike.. also i like them for the ability if the voltage is low in the house it can up the voltage to maintain a steady level..

is this a power supply that came with a case?

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Nasgul

I once replaced the PSU on a system and the rest of the PC was just perfectly fine........

Then again, I found my friend's rig almost completely fried because the PSU got fried 1st.

So, it all depends on how bad the PSU goes down.

Remonster

Lol, I hope Im wrong too but I was just alerting you to the dangers, it is very likely that some or all of your parts died but it is also pretty likely that they survived, Antec is among the better PSU manufacturers so it's likely it had very good fail safes in place to protect your hardware, either way best of luck to you, I hope it works out in the end.