Power supply dead (?). How worried should I be?

Hey all,

I took my computer to give some people a VR demo - however, either the move, or the power circuits in the new location, have caused the computer to not turn on. I suspect it is has caused an issue with the power supply, which is an XFX 850W, Bronze, semi-modular.

I have tried 2 different kettle cables, and the fuse has blown in both. Also, after the 2nd try, the power switch on the power supply is now stuck to 'On'. I think it's safe to say that the power supply is the issue? The electrics at the new location are notoriously poor, so may that be the cause? I was using a surge protect plug board.

I've ordered a new power supply (Corsair HX850i). However, I'm concerned about what else may be damaged! :helpsmilie: Does anyone have any experience of these sorts of issues?

Any advice would be gratefully received

If i were you i'd stop fiddling with the power supply before i fry my motherboard and everything with it, I just hope you didn't do that. Wait for the new power supply and hopefully the fuse in the old power supply saved your computer.

I would stop plugging in cables and blowing fuses and wait for the power supply. I replace two in the same PC at work this year, it happens.

Just hope you didn't do any damage to the Motherboard, like badboy_1m1 has said.

If the power is that bad where you are or where you take your PC, you should be running on a UPS.

.

Thanks for the replies so far. Just to clarify, I did stop after I tried another cable - as you may guess, I wasn't enjoying the experience so much as to continue.

It is somewhat reassuring that you have experiences with replacing with no issues! Fingers crossed.

Any other experiences/insights are welcome

Modern PSUs are pretty robust. I blew one and the MB was completely protected. So I would think you're going to be OK. So long as you don't see melted caps, and smoke coming from parts of the MB! :)

Check EACH AND EVERY capacitor ( those tiny coke-can shaped parts ) if they still look proper. If a single Cap has a dome like top, or even worse, exploded and the inner substance, a gel, is leaking out, than that is the sign of death for that device.

I have fixed many PC's with blown PSU's. Some only had a broken PSU and got away lucky, others had blown motherboards, defective drives or graphic cards as well, that is the truth.

DO NOT plug that PC in any more until fixed and certified or you risc loosing more and more devices.

Take a magnifying glass and go looking for defective caps.

They look like this: https://www.google.de/search?q=blown+caps&rlz=1C1GCEA_enDE773DE773&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH_d_XkoLYAhUJFewKHV0HCGIQ_AUICygC&biw=1817&bih=1049

Hmmmm where to start, I suppose the obvious, power supply or system fecked ?

1. Disconnect the power supply cables from mobo, drives etc and remove power supply from the PC

2. Replace blown fuse in IDC cable (kettle lead)

3. Get a paper clip or other sturdy piece fo wire and follow this guide

If you power supply powers up and does not blow fuse it is probably OK

If it does not power up or powers up briefly and blows fuse power supply is fecked

How worried should you be, not too worried. Most power supplies have over volt/current limiting to protect

what is connected to it from damage, if you are lucky the rest of your system might be ok.

Saying that I hate a crappy power supply (seasonic) blow on me and it destroyed my entire system apart from 1 RAM stick

XFX are a decent enough brand I have used about 100+ XFX power supplies in system builds in the last 2 years, never had one die

how old was yours ?

Side not, I hate switch mode power supplies, had to spend 6 months repairing them to component level

before I moved onto more fun things to do diagnosis on

I was putting my water cooling system in and got a drop of water in my PSU. Why I didn't pull the plug when I heard the sizzle I don't know but needless to say it cooked the power supply. It didn't however do any damage to anything else. I would suspect that if you had a quality PSU in your system you'll be fine. Mine was a Corsair HX1100. Replaced in kind, no issues in better than a year.

I was putting my water cooling system in and got a drop of water in my PSU. Why I didn't pull the plug when I heard the sizzle I don't know but needless to say it cooked the power supply. It didn't however do any damage to anything else. I would suspect that if you had a quality PSU in your system you'll be fine. Mine was a Corsair HX1100. Replaced in kind, no issues in better than a year.

Holy crap. That'll get your pucker factory way up! Glad to hear it wasn't more serious. What is it they say about experience? It's what you get right after you needed it the most. :D:thumbup:

lol, yeah man I was puckered up tighter than a hawk in a power dive. :P

Thankfully it was just that, a PSU replacement and better installation standards going forward. My case looked like a house that had been toilet papered the second round. Had I had so much as a drop it would have had 10 layers of bounty to go through :)

i poured a cup of coffee thru my 2600k and 980gtx while running, over the board, through the gpu, everywhere...and it kept running LoL.

Pulled the plug, cleaned it and let it try and fired it back up, weeks later i cleaned the board again and gou again with KC spray cans. I had such good luck !