sparks coming from my power supply... HELP!

[vdubpsu]

Today i put in a new cd rom drive and hooked up my pci raid card with two drives connected. When i tried to boot the computer, a massive amount of sparks came out of the power supply. I'm assuming its blown... how did this happen? and is my other stuff, mobo, cpu, video card... all blown to?

[SolidxSnake]

im guessing something shorted. What is your PSU?? I'm hoping its high-end with short circuit protection.

try turning off the PSU, unplugging it for a bit, then rebooting. it should work.

[vdubpsu]

its an Antec TruePower 430-Watt. i unplugged it for a minute plugged it back and now nothing happens when i turn it on. the little lights on the ethernet port turn on when i turn on the power supply, but thats it.

[SolidxSnake]

hmm...
try removing the PSU from the case, and then plugging it into a wall.

turn on the switch, and then get a metal paperclip or some spare wire, and then stick one end of the wire into the GREEN wire/pin of the 20-pin ATX connector, and then stick the other end of the wire into a BLACK wire/pin of any connector (ATX is easiest).

the PSU should turn on, as long as its plugged into a wall, and the switch is turned on. If it doesn't turn on, its a dead PSU

[Oklahoma Wolf]

It's dead Jim... fortunately, when an Antec fails most of the time, it rarely takes anything else with it. Contact Antec for an RMA if still under warranty. If not under warranty, start shopping for a new Fortron, OCZ, Antec, Enermax, or Seasonic 400w+ unit.

[Electron Chaser]

its an Antec TruePower 430-Watt. i unplugged it for a minute plugged it back and now nothing happens when i turn it on. the little lights on the ethernet port turn on when i turn on the power supply, but thats it.


Wow an Antec TruPower 430 blew up what are the odds of that. Unfortunately pretty good. I have seen this PSU pop up all too often on this forum myself included. I hope it didn't take anything with it.

Now since it is dead and has already let out it's magic smoke quit trying to make it work before you do take something else with it.

[BrutalDrew]

It's dead unfortunately.

[vdubpsu]

yea its dead :(. do you think it died because of too much stuff connected or because of a short, because if my new hardware is defective, and shorted my power supply, i dont want to hook it up again with a new powersupply. But if it is just that it couldnt handle the new stuff i put on it, than its time for a 500W.

[vdubpsu]

what do you guys think of the antec true550. it looks like the only one i can pick up locally for under $100. How would this compare to say the fortron 500.

oh well, i found a spare ps lying around... mobo is dead, who knows what else bit it, could be my entire rig

[larva]

TP430s fail because the caps the filter the output of the switching transformers are undersized (physically, not electrically), and the ventilation is pretty sad. Combined with the fact that a TP430 will be running at essentially full 12V output when powering a modern system load and you get a lot of failures. In my (failed) TP430 I am going to shoe-horn in some regular sized caps (12.5mm diameter) rather than the specialty 10mm ones that the supplys come with. They fit the space nicely, but aren't adequate durability wise.

I would not recommed one of the original True Powers at this point. The new TPII's are very nice supplies, but also have serious cooling issues. The 120mm fan in them is incorrectly chosen and has a big mounting gap that eliminates its ability to draw air from inside the case in most operating environments. I would recommend an AX500-A Fortron, OCZ Powerstream 520, or a large Seasonic unit regardless of whether you can buy them locally or not. I only recommend the True Power II if you are okay with voiding the warranty by changing the (inadequate) stock fan, and do not recommend an original True Power at all.

[s random]

what do you guys think of the antec true550. it looks like the only one i can pick up locally for under $100. How would this compare to say the fortron 500.

oh well, i found a spare ps lying around... mobo is dead, who knows what else bit it, could be my entire rig


id try to put a claim against antec... that sucks id want antec to repay me big time.

[vdubpsu]

id try to put a claim against antec... that sucks id want antec to repay me big time.

the power supply is 3 years old. what are they going to do for me?

[Mr_Fuchs]

I modded a PSU before, i saw a nice little fireworks display before it died..

[Feydd]

I had an antec 430 that blew on me, but it was completly my fault, or not. They give you these lines that are labeled fan only. So i figure OK i'll hook EVERY fan up to those lines. Turns out one line was barly enough to keep one case fan powered. After about 3 months it blew, just took a case fan along with it.

[TekeTorvo]

And I thought I was the only one that saw these sparks from a Trueblue 430.

The smoke and sparks aren't what scared me. It was that un-godly sound. Mine was my fault though. I cut the wires off I would never use. I think they were for Intel boards. It worked for about 6 months after that, but I think it caused the power to be unbalanced. The mushroom cloud was pretty cool, but the sound haunted me for awhile.

[Feydd]

The funny thing is the PSU still WORKED. When it blew it just took the two fans on the PSU, the unit still worked. That is for about a half hour till it overheated and went into a constant reset.

[SolidxSnake]

The funny thing is the PSU still WORKED. When it blew it just took the two fans on the PSU, the unit still worked. That is for about a half hour till it overheated and went into a constant reset.


LMAO, thats classic.

[1cem4n]

At least you got a little show before it blew.

-1cem4n

[Dell_Axim]

Antec's biggest mistake is running the fans on a voltage lower than 12v. As an electrical engineer, I can tell you that heat accelerates wearout of electronics. I have rewired the fans in my Antec to 12v this morning. Now the whole system runs much cooler.
Almost all ATX PSUs are digital, meaning that sophisticated digital circuits are used to convert voltages rather than a transformer by itself, which does not provide any regulation. In many modern ATX PSUs, the digital logic includes microcontrollers, small CPUs that run small programs (firmware) from an internal ROM. If the firmware has a bug, the PSU could fail (sometimes quite dramatically) when the right conditions are met. Maybe some of the 430s have buggy firmware.

[vdubpsu]

Antec's biggest mistake is running the fans on a voltage lower than 12v. As an electrical engineer, I can tell you that heat accelerates wearout of electronics. I have rewired the fans in my Antec to 12v this morning. Now the whole system runs much cooler.
Almost all ATX PSUs are digital, meaning that sophisticated digital circuits are used to convert voltages rather than a transformer by itself, which does not provide any regulation. In many modern ATX PSUs, the digital logic includes microcontrollers, small CPUs that run small programs (firmware) from an internal ROM. If the firmware has a bug, the PSU could fail (sometimes quite dramatically) when the right conditions are met. Maybe some of the 430s have buggy firmware.

as a computer engineer, i know exactly what u are talking about. Anyways, looks like everything survived but the motherboard and maybe the ram.