Would this kill a PC?

[Breadfan]

Ok, so I got a computer brought to me at work today. It's this ladies son's system, and she asked me to check it out. (Might I mention, she's a rather important lady in the business too )

Anyway, I agree, and take it check it out. Apparently, there are reports of "smoke" and they feel the power supply might be gone.

So I plug it in, turn it on, and sure enough a nice nasty "burnt out electronics" smell comes right out of the psu, right through the noisy dying psu fan.

But things are powering up...no POST though.

I look at the back of the PSU again and realize the voltage switch is set to 230v instead of 115v.

I guess they tried fixing the power supply themselves Then again, that might of killed it.

Anyway, I take the power supply out and grab a spare Antec 300w I have and plug it into the board. No post. I took all the ide cables out, all the cards, even the RAM and video card. No post, no beeps. Nothing.

So I'm gonna keep digging deeper, but right now I feel like the board may have been damaged from the PSU's death. I'm betting there were plenty of voltage spikes and dips as the PSU was dying, especially set at 230v.

Would that kill it?

Also, what are the chances any of the pci cards survived? He's got a SB Live!, a 3com NIC, and a decent looking modem with a conexant chipset. I guess only way to find out there is install those cards on another system...

Anyway, I've never had a PSU die and take an entire system with it. I've heard of it, so just curious if this is most likely what I'm dealing with.

Mike

I'm gonna edit my post and just say I think I answered my question

One of the MOSFETS on the board blew up...not on my watch, but I foudn it...its burnt up and cracked and out of place. So yeah, I'd say there was a bit of a voltage spike

Oh, BTW, its an old Epox board, an EP-BX3 slot 1 board...I'm gonna guess a BX without checking...

If I still have this system here tommorrow, I'm gonna try to remember the digital camera...its obvious wehre it fried!

Hope his PCI cards are ok...but I'm doubtful...

Mike

 

[moonman]

yeah I blew one of the MOSFET on my old mobo.. it was smokin.. lol.. o well I got a new mobo and put everything back in, it's fine now.

 

[ThePunkGeek]

I never knew what that switch was for.
Why is it there if you can damage conponats using it?

Sounds to me like the board is shot

 

[ninthebin]

ah well...it happens

 

[pommie]

Some parts of the world use 220/240v others use 110/120v,
so if the unit is made for worldwide sales its cheaper to make it switchable than to make two different units.

Only thing I don't understand, if it was set to 220/240 then 110/120 shouldn't blow it as its only half voltage, mayby its the cycle difference, one uses 50 Hz other uses 60 Hz.

 

[Breadfan]

Well like I said, it didn't blow up on me...it came to be pre-dead

It was already set at 230v. I understand the purpose of the switch, but I don't remember ever seeing the incorrect switch position blowing stuff up. Anyway, that switch is for input voltage...regardless of what the switch is at, its still getting only 110-120 volts.

Oh well, the only person I can get information out of doesn't know the first thing about computers, so I may never know exactly why this one exploded

All the PCI cards are ok, which is good. He had a SB Live and a nice 3Com nic that would've been sad to see go. His Rage128 card lived too.

I've still gotta test his DVD, CDRW and HDD, but I'm srue they're fine.

The RAM died, all 392mb of it...but it was PC100 SDRAM.

I don't have a Slot1 motherboard around here...well, I have a few but their old DFI's that are running Pentium II's in them...so I'm not sure if they'll take the PIII. Anyway, no point in seeing if it works.

I'm probably gonna suggest an Abit and a Duron and 256mb of Crucial DDR. From what I hear, this computers main task will be internet, word documents, email, IM, and The Sims. I figure a 1.2 gig Duron and DDR will be a nice bump up from a 600mhz PIII and cheap to boot.

Mike

 

[Lord_of_Decay]

PSU's make a very loud noise when they blow. I have "heard" it happen at work before, the person switched offices and power cords but neglected the little switch. Where I work we use both 110 and 220. Needless to say I could follow the burn marks on the MB to the Ram, Vid card and Sound card.

 

[Über~PhLuBB]

In short, no, setting a PSU here in America to 220v will not kill it.

Quite the contrary. When I first got the machine I'm on now, I had it all assembled, but when I turned it on, it didnt work. I found out later (After hours of crying and swapping parts) that the PSU was at 220 instead of 110. Basically, since the 220 switch sets the PSU to deal with double the current here in the US, it was in fact only recieving half-current, which obviously isn't enough to allow a computer to operate.

As for what actually caused your co-worker's son's PSU to overload, I havn't a clue. Perhaps they found a way to plug it into a 220 volt outlet when the PSU was set to 110? (Washers/Dryers/Arc welders use 220 volts)

Thats a shame the RAM died. Even outdated equipment has its uses. =(

Lets just hope the CPU, DVD-ROM, and PCI cards didn't die too.

And speaking of which, I'm not sure, but wouldn't it be unlikely for a PCI card to die from a power spike? Seems like there's an awful lot of circuitry (especially the mobo's power regulation circuitry) to go through before it would sustain unrecoverable damage.

Edit: I'm upgrading a friend of mine's machine. $288 for a Shuttle AK31A, 256MB Crucial PC2100, Athlon XP 1700+, Thermalright SK-6 (w/Delta), and 2 case fans from Newegg. Thats mighty cheap. =)

 

[Wa11y]

And speaking of which, I'm not sure, but wouldn't it be unlikely for a PCI card to die from a power spike? Seems like there's an awful lot of circuitry (especially the mobo's power regulation circuitry) to go through before it would sustain unrecoverable damage.

Edit: I'm upgrading a friend of mine's machine. $288 for a Shuttle AK31A, 256MB Crucial PC2100, Athlon XP 1700+, Thermalright SK-6 (w/Delta), and 2 case fans from Newegg. Thats mighty cheap. =)

I would think the PCI cards would be hard to kill. I had a friend's computer get killed by a power spike. He lost the mobo, processor and hard drive, but the RAM and PCI cards were okay. Replaced those parts, and they were good. I would think the traces would blow out before there could be enough voltage to kill a PCI card.

 

[Über~PhLuBB]

I would think the PCI cards would be hard to kill. I had a friend's computer get killed by a power spike. He lost the mobo, processor and hard drive, but the RAM and PCI cards were okay. Replaced those parts, and they were good. I would think the traces would blow out before there could be enough voltage to kill a PCI card.

My thoughts EXACTLY.

 

[heezer7]

I had a PSU go out about 2 years ago also. some times the fan just plain stops. that was m problem. Inever even noticed because the case fans made up for the missing noise. It took out the mobo and a NIC. for some reason though the processor was ok. i still don't understand that part. PSU are an important think to watch.

 

[dreamtfk]

Anyone tell me what MOSFET stands for? lol seen it before but never asked.

 

[Breadfan]

Yeah, all the PCI cards survived. I was surprised the RAM was dead, but I will also say it was very generic PC100. Still a shame though, I've found uses for all of my "very generic" SDRAM. Heheh, I've got some EDO still in use at work

Well, haven't had time to check the DVD CDRW or HDD. I might this afternoon...I spent most of the morning fixing some fun Netware DHCP Server module problems...but fixed them! And now its quiet so I should have time...

BTW, MOSFET = metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) field effect transistor (FET)

Mike

 

[Genoide]

I had similar problem only with a Socket A mobo it was gygabyte board, it was set to 230V on psu, smoke came out i suddenly turned it off right away and only thing damaged was the old cd rom and the power supply. all hard drives ethernet cards mobo cpu ram was all ok

 

[Batman@]

Ya, my sister had her psu unit "blow". good thing she turned off the pc as soon as it started making a "popping" noise. It sounded like a car without a muffler. I told her not to turn it back on untill i change the case. Good thing it didnt take out any components... I didnt even wanna try and turn the pc on, with that bad psu.