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Can a power supply cause a motherboard diode to explode?

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hawkeye_wx

Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2001
Recently I was playing a game when the screen went black and the motherboard started beeping. I opened the case to do some tests. After fiddling with the memory sticks I turned on the system, then a diode near the bottom right corner of the memory slots started smoking and then it exploded and shot across the room in two halves. Is there any way my Antec SmartPower 350W power supply could have anything to do with that? I suspect it is just a defective motherboard, but I don't know for sure. I just want to make sure new motherboard won't get hurt by a bad power supply.
 
If you have used it for a long time (several weeks) and all the sudden the mobo grunks out on you I would guess it is a faulty component on the mobo.
It happens....

Just out of curiousety, could you still make out what diode it was?
maybe bring your old mobo back to life again :D or smoking it up even more if it doesn't work.
 
I would check in the power supply for crossed wires or bare connections, simple things like that to make sure it functions fine. It sounds to me like a faulty mobo. and I wouldnt recommend trying to resolder mobo components, your beggin for an accident and you have no garauntee that the diode is the only thing on the mobo thats fried. simple way to do it would be return the mobo, if the new one gets fried as well. return it for antoher then replace the PSU. not much else to do Id say
 
My mobo warranty is no longer good I believe. It has been about a year and a half and I think it was only a 1 year warranty. Doesn't really matter because that mobo is the one Soyo gave me to replace the defective one I got originally(was using a different psu back then), so I'm moving on to something new. I have an older backup celeron computer so I'll throw the current psu in it to see if anything goes wrong.
 
I had a transistor on a mobo turn from black to brown because the electrolytic capacitor next to it swelled up, and then the transistor shorted out. Any chance that you have a bad capacitor like that next to the ex-diode?
 
I doubt that a diode will blow itself without a reason or due to bad PSU. There should be something another, for example, misaligned or only partially secured memory in the memory slot.
 
sounds like a short in the circuitry to me, if you get a diode and put a high voltage through it alone, without any load, they either flash, melt or pop/explode. i know this from experience :)
 
Dido ;)

The PSU makes it possible for the diode to blow, but it's far from likely that it's the cause.
 
Could have been a severe reverse voltage on the diode, which would have pushed it into avalanche. I have seen a diode do that once; where the whole thing blew up due to excess reverse voltage.
 
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