BANG !!!

[Vipersan]

More unplanned for expense ..
Was just logging in to the forum ..when my main PC went bang ..and I saw sparks out the corner of my eye around the psu ..
Quickly opened up the case and from the smell ..evident the psu had dramatically bit the dust..
Currently running on my standby ATX ..but with half the PC disconnected..(Only 350W )
Lucky I guess no damage evident on the secondary/PC side of things.
This psu was bought roughly 14 months ago ,,,and of of course only had a 12 month guarantee ..
Took the opportunity to go up a level ..and fit an 800watt psu to replace the 700 watt one that went bang in such a dramatic way.
New psu on order ..hopefully here by thursday...but an expense I could have managed without.
Opened the dead un up ..and you probably guessed ..
Totalled ...Kaput....beyond repair...and all down to 3 bulging electrolytic caps ..
So WAS serviceable if I'd caught it earlier ..but there was no warning ...
First sign of impending doom was the skid mark on my undies ..as the it violently died..
rgds
VS

 

[Riverblue]

First sign of impending doom was the skid mark on my undies ..as the it violently died..
rgds
VS

As much as I enjoy reading your threads , PLEASE do not feel obliged to post a picture!

 

[Lazarus]

You wear undies?

Not a Greg Wallace fan, then.

 

[2cvbloke]

That's nothing, once when I had a computer come in or repair at the computer shop, they said it "doesn't work" (useful tip, don't say "it doesn't work", it pisses techs off!!), so in my build room, I plugged it in, switched it on, and I have never seen such a fantastic display of fireworks in such a small space!!! The PSU pretty much blew up taking out everything inside (must have shorted mains to the DC rail or something), and the smoke that billowed out was very acrid, my build room stank for a week afterwards!!!

I can't remember what we told the customer, suffice to say it was something along the lines of "unsalvageable"...

 

[Vipersan]

You wear undies?

Not a Greg Wallace fan, then.

Only when it's real cold G ..
..and it Must be cold tonight ..
I've turned the CH on ..
I confess ...getting nesh in my old age..
;)

 

[Riverblue]

Nesh! Careful, you might become a "Southern Softie" . . . .Interesting word us Southerners don't normally hear

 

[sonnetpete]

I've turned the CH on ..

What you and Channel Hopper get up to is just between you two......

 

[Vipersan]

Nesh! Careful, you might become a "Southern Softie" . . . .Interesting word us Southerners don't normally hear

Not surprised you don't hear the word often buddy ...
According to the BBC Londoncentric forecasts ..
London is on average 5 to 6 degrees warmer than Manchester ..
Most of the time ..
;)

 

[Riverblue]

Positively "Tropical" on these Southern shores . . . I wish

 

[sonnetpete]

London is on average 5 to 6 degrees warmer than Manchester

....and drier too....but then that goes for pretty well anywhere in the UK....doesn't it VS?

 

[Channel Hopper]

What you and Channel Hopper get up to is just between you two......

I'll admit to slipping at least one heavy duty PSU into the last delivery ooop north.

 

[Captain Jack]

VS, 800W is massive! What are you powering up there? These days, everything needs less power to run - the CPU being the main culprit.

I had a 650W blow up in a similar fashion to yours about 7 years ago but replaced it with a cheaper and smaller 350W and that worked fine for ages until I got rid of the PC.

My friend runs a couple of media servers at home, which do require big PSUs due to sheer number of controller cards and hard drives he has in there and he had a few blow up as well - seems like a trait of larger PSUs.

 

[Vipersan]

VS, 800W is massive! What are you powering up there? These days, everything needs less power to run - the CPU being the main culprit.

I had a 650W blow up in a similar fashion to yours about 7 years ago but replaced it with a cheaper and smaller 350W and that worked fine for ages until I got rid of the PC.

My friend runs a couple of media servers at home, which do require big PSUs due to sheer number of controller cards and hard drives he has in there and he had a few blow up as well - seems like a trait of larger PSUs.

Just because a psu can deliver 800W it doesn't mean it has to ....
Current capability is only important when needed..
Say for example when a PC with many hard drives first boots ..all drives spin up and current demand is high...
This rapidly drops as drives etc spin down..
But this high demand phase is the usual point at which the psu fails ...ie boot phase.
I prefer to err on the side of caution..
my 12TB server for example absolutely requires 800W during boot up ..but Idles at about 150 to 200W in general use.

This same principle applies to TVs and the like ..
most failures occur at switch on ...
A complex psu with delayed startups to the various stages (soft start ..each section needing to establish before the next is allowed to start)...such as those found in plasmas are more reliable ..but still not 100% reliable due to nothing more than inferior component spec..
..which I refer to often as built in obsolescence..

rgds
VS

 

[Captain Jack]

Say for example when a PC with many hard drives first boots ..all drives spin up and current demand is high...

Ah yes, that's a good point.

my 12TB server

That's a lot of scantily clad bodies...

..but still not 100% reliable due to nothing more than inferior component spec..

Tell me about it... Perfectly serviceable TVs reduced to scrap-heap material because of this.

 

[sonnetpete]

That's a lot of scantily clad bodies...

Well he has to store those back episodes of Countdown and Dr.Who somewhere.....

 

[Analoguesat]

We have had no end of power supply failures in our RM kit at work over tha last 8 years. (Most of which was Chinese sourced until RM stopped doing hardware at the end of last year.

No loud bangs, just a rapid degradation of voltage being produced until the computer doesnt start and I get complaints from whichever teacher no longer has a functional computer.....

However Ive got these repairs down to about 20 minutes - I just pull a psu out of one of the base units stashed in the storeroom and swap them over.

 

[Vipersan]

We have had no end of power supply failures in our RM kit at work over tha last 8 years. (Most of which was Chinese sourced until RM stopped doing hardware at the end of last year.

No loud bangs, just a rapid degradation of voltage being produced until the computer doesnt start and I get complaints from whichever teacher no longer has a functional computer.....

However Ive got these repairs down to about 20 minutes - I just pull a psu out of one of the base units stashed in the storeroom and swap them over.

Open one of the psus up AS ..and chances are there will be bulging ..leaking or dry electrolytic caps ..
All replaceable ...and with a higher rated cap ..could be got working again ...providing an extended life ..
less landfill ..and a promote a 2 fingered salute to the throw away society/corner cutting manufacturers.
but if money is no object ...keep swapping em out and binning the faulty units.
It's what the rest of the world does.
..and why we have such a mountain of debt ...
Faulty low cost units + unlimited resources(ie borrowed money) (also called SEP someone elses problem) = Huge debt and higher taxes.
The Public sector squanders money and resources imo
You've only to look at the Swinton Town hall ...lit up like a Christmas tree at night right through till the next day ..
Every light in the building switched on ..and maybe a handful of cleaners in there who went home hours ago without turning a single light off....resulting in a cry for cash and higher rates the next year.
They recently built a new secondary school a few hundred yards from my home ..
with outdoor sports facilities..
complete with floodlights ..which have been on every night dusk till dawn since the start of the month..
WHY ? ..
No ones using em ..and the light pollution makes it even harder to use my telescope..plus my rates have increased.
Rant rant rant..
I hate waste..

 

[2cvbloke]

WHY ? ..

The more they spend, the less they lose the following fiscal year, it's standard gubberment policy, if you have a budget of £10k (not based on real figures), and only spend £5k, you get £5k next year, so to keep the full £10k, they have to spend money on wasteful things to spend all the budget money, it's one of the major issues in our government that needs addressing, but they don't address it because it's too logical to fix such a glaring error, because it would mean we the people would have to pay less tax on things...

But that aside, Reduce waste, Reuse what you can, Recycle what you can't and Repair what is fixable, the four Rs...

I'm just wondering when my TV is going to give up the ghost, apparently Samsung still uses crap caps in it's TV PSUs apparently, and I've noticed a few oddities happening (wavy pictures from cold startup for example), so, I think they're going already...

 

[Vipersan]

The more they spend, the less they lose the following fiscal year, it's standard gubberment policy, if you have a budget of £10k (not based on real figures), and only spend £5k, you get £5k next year, so to keep the full £10k, they have to spend money on wasteful things to spend all the budget money, it's one of the major issues in our government that needs addressing, but they don't address it because it's too logical to fix such a glaring error, because it would mean we the people would have to pay less tax on things...

But that aside, Reduce waste, Reuse what you can, Recycle what you can't and Repair what is fixable, the four Rs...

I'm just wondering when my TV is going to give up the ghost, apparently Samsung still uses crap caps in it's TV PSUs apparently, and I've noticed a few oddities happening (wavy pictures from cold startup for example), so, I think they're going already...

Man after my own heart ..
keep on plugging the four Rs buddy ..
one day we may just persuade enough folk to make a difference.
rgds
VS

 

[Analoguesat]

These power supplies are not designed to come apart - last time I tried I couldnt get the bloody psu case back together as Id bent it getting the damn thing seperated....

!