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  • Blown 2 PC power supplies in computer
  • mrmuddybum
    Free Member

    Anyone know anything about PSU’s?

    My mother phoned me last week to say when she turned the power on to her computer, there was a pop, and the computer wouldn’t turn on. I went round to see if it was the PSU or a fried motherboard. I determined it was the power supply, so bought a new one for it.

    Connected the new one to the PC today while at work, and it was fine. Booted up, and had it doing a disk defrag for a couple of hours. All is well, or so I thought.

    Took it round to her house this evening. Connected it up, turned on the socket. PC is plugged into a switched surge protector, so turned on the extension, and bang – the power supply goes kaput again.

    Any ideas? I can buy another one, but I don’t want to plug it in again, only to blow a third one in as many weeks as soon as I plug it in a her house. I’ll try a different power cable, and plug it directly into a socket next time.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Sounds like you have a fault somewhere which is over loading the PSUs. Not easy to fault find on a PC.

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    It’s not an easy one to help with from here.

    Basically the PSU is the most important quality part in the machine, but also one many manufacturers skimp on and find a huge variation in quality between brands with not a lot of external signs for the nongeeky.

    You could think of it as analogous to tyres on a prebuilt bike.

    At a guess the old one died from being mediocre and old, and the new one died from being crap (or VERY misleadingly output rated(common indeed)).

    Most PSUs have output protection, even the crap ones, so I would imagine it is not the rest of the machine or it would never have worked.

    If I were you I’d take the old one back and get a refund, then buy a quality brand.

    Do you have the original one so you can inspect the output power for each rail? This is usually the cause of the problem, insufficient current.

    Brands I would recommend are Seasonic and Corsair, but as these are real quality they might be quite expensive…. But then they tend not to drop dead or destroy the PC when they do.

    mrmuddybum
    Free Member

    I replaced the original blown one with exactly the same one. Unfortunately it’s a bespoke Dell power supply that’s in an L shape to accommodate the optical drive.

    Like I said it was perfectly fine at work this afternoon yet blew in exactly the same manner as the original one as soon as it got power. I didn’t even get as far as powering up the pc.

    Other than trying a different power cable and socket I don’t think there is anything else I can try.

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    Aaah, I didn’t see the bit about moving the machine….

    Troubling. Yes.

    Maybe a wiring issue, or earthing 🙁 I guess you need an electrician, unless you are really handy with a multimeter…. Maybe it’s the surge protector! Yeah plug in direct.

    Sorry dude, that’s unfortunate.

    sobriety
    Free Member

    Other than trying a different power cable and socket I don’t think there is anything else I can try.

    I’d defo be trying that, as they’re the only things that have changed between it working fine in your office and being kaput again.

    ghostlymachine
    Free Member

    It’s probably (unfortunately) crap then. The stock PSU on most budget PCs i’ve had apart have usually been barely man enough for the job. The peak of incompetence was in an Acer, the “miniumum power requirements” for each individual component added up to about twice the rated output of the PSU. So watching a DVD whilst downloading something to the HDD and running a bit of a job in the background used to make the thing brown out regularly. Once i got the part number/manufacturer of the original PSU, turns out you can get them by the thousand for about 6 quid each. All but impossible to buy singly except from Acer themselves, for 40 quid.

    Can you not move things around inside to get some more space for a PSU.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Weird. I’d be getting the replacement swapped under warranty and hoping it’s coincidence in the first instance I think.

    oldnpastit
    Full Member

    I find it hard to believe that a brand new PSU would fail like that.

    It was working when you tried it at work.

    Then you connected it to your mother’s PC, and it failed.

    If it was just not powerful enough, it would just brownout, and the PC would fail to boot.

    I would suspect that your mother’s PC has something nasty going on. Have you looked at the motherboard to see if there are any scorched looking components or bits of track (both sides) ?

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    I’m so confused… You tried it in another computer and you think the mains cable is to blame?

    If you moved it another machine, then its likely that, not the mains extension.

    In that case the PSU is so dumb its not short-circuit protected and there’s a short or something??!

    tillydog
    Free Member

    Check the mains voltage at your mother’s house.

    holst
    Free Member

    My guess is that something is broken and shorting out. I assume Dell use non-standard motherboards and PSUs, so I don’t think you have any choice but to send it back to Dell to have it checked out.

    mrmuddybum
    Free Member

    Thanks for the replies so far 🙂

    Just to clear up an misunderstanding – the PSU hasn’t been moved out of one computer into another. I installed it into my mothers computer while I was at work, and tested it there, and it worked fine and was turned on for a good couple of hours no issues. Took the computer back to her house, and the PSU blew as soon as I turned on the socket and extension cable. Didn’t even turn on the computer.

    I’ve ordered another PSU – they are only £20 on eBay. Dell won’t be interested. The computer is about eight years old, and she only uses it to print letters and photos.

    I’ll be testing it again in her PC, but not in her house. If that works ok, then I’ll be trying again in her house with a different power cable, and plugged directly into a different socket.

    ghostlymachine
    Free Member

    Get some sort of a circuit tester as well.
    No point leaving her with dodgy electrics, a blown PSU is a minor inconvenience, a torched house is a real pain in the arse.

    If you’re lucky it’ll just mean an extension cable in the bin.
    If not, it’ll still only be a few quid for an electrician………

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