Exploding PSU's

GoAwayVifs

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Aug 5, 2011
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SICK0_ZER0 said:
The Heavenator said:
If the capacitors were electrolytic which it sounds like the they were what they exploded was their electrolyte, which is mildly acidic. Most of you stuff should be fine as the it is really acidic enough to only bother PCBs, so hopefully you got that gunk off you computer parts. As for why the capacitors exploded, a power surge could definitely do it. Alternatively you could have overloaded your PSU since the cheap ones will often not perform as advertised.
Well it was a 750 watt, expensive PSU (80+ certified, 5 year warranty etc) which was far from overloaded (running only a few basic programs, powering only a single 6950 and an i5 2500k). I'd assumed it was simply crap build quality and the capacitor exploded for the hell of it, but is there a chance a power surge caused it? Would it not have to be a massive surge to destroy the PSU? My flatmates electric devices had no problems, and their electricity didn't cut off either.
A surge could definitely blow caps, but how big of a surge would depend on the power rating of the caps themselves. Since other people's shit was fine the cause being just a surge is unlikely. About how old is this PSU? It could be that you have capacitors that are faulty [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague], but this seems unlikely since you have a good power supply.
 

mooncalf

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Jul 3, 2008
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No such "catastrophic" failures here, my last PSU to die was a coolermaster 650W and did so quietly in it's sleep (wouldn't turn on one day). I think it suffered heat-stroke in an Aussie summer, RIP lil' coolermaster. Oh well, cheap brand is cheap, Corsair is new win. :)
 

ScRaT_the_destroyer

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Nov 18, 2009
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i had a 535w Hiper PSU go pop in a hail of blue sparks around this time last year, i had a sinking feelin i overloaded it (i5 760, 8gb DDR3, GTX 460, 3 hard drives)

it died a few times whilst under load and the final time BANG, saw through the side vents of my case blue light, the the fusebox tripped.

replaced it with a 750w XFX psu, decent warranty, high amperage on 12v rail...
 

shado_temple

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Oct 20, 2010
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I had a capacitor blow on my PSU over the summer, though it wasn't as extreme as your situation. The entire room smelt of burning electronics for a month, however.
 

Bad Jim

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Nov 1, 2010
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I've lost two computers to a lightning strike. It wasn't very dramatic though, I just woke up after a storm and found they didn't work. I'm not entirely sure if the PSUs themselves failed.
 

Veylon

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Aug 15, 2008
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I have to ask: what is the advantage in getting a super-duper power supply versus two moderate ones? It seems like it's always the high-end stuff that goes ka-boom.
 

Rad Party God

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Feb 23, 2010
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I fried a couple of graphic cards and busted a couple of motherboards, but I've never blowed up a PSU yet.

Maybe yours was very low quality, or you did something terribly wrong.
 

madster11

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Aug 17, 2010
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Never had a PSU really 'explode' in the tradition sense, but i've had the crucial electric smoke escape from a laptop PSU once before.
Never really understood how PSUs go so badly wrong. It's why i just run Corsair all the time. Never heard any complaints or horror stories.
 

Hashime

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Jan 13, 2010
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I have never heard of a PSU failing that spectacularly, must have been a weird manufacturing defect.

One of my family's towers back in the day had a brand new, "high performance" Celeron D. It ran well until it burst into flames. The heatsink fan (I should note this was a pre-built computer my father bought from somewhere) failed and the chip's thermal regulation circuit or whatever it was called was not functioning so the chip heated until it burned up and nearly took to office with it. We ended up getting the unit replaced with a superior model.
 

MindBullets

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Apr 5, 2008
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My wee brother's power supply exploded in my dad's face when me and him were trying to figure out what went wrong with it.

Startled me at the time, was funny as fuck in retrospect.
 

Delsana

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Aug 16, 2011
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My stuff has remained quite alive for the most part for the past 5 years, I've switched parts every 3 years just to upgrade but the power supply always stays the same. I have to say though, that I've also been really lucky at not frying my memory when not grounded because I've touched it in every spot and to everything and it still works.
 

Hashime

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Veylon said:
I have to ask: what is the advantage in getting a super-duper power supply versus two moderate ones? It seems like it's always the high-end stuff that goes ka-boom.
The high end PSUs have more stable voltage delivery, that is why they cost more. You could get two cheap 500W units to power a high draw folding rig or whatever, but it will not be as stable as the cheap units are notorious for creating too much voltage variation under heavy load. If you get two high end ones it usually ends up being close to the cost of a higher voltage model. Add to that the fact there are almost no cases designed to hold 2, and the cooling issues from having two bricks and the high end / wattage unit become the best choice.
 

Rune342

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Aug 26, 2008
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My laptop's cable had slowly been fraying, and it finally reached a point where it wouldn't supply power to the laptop, but would shoot sparks if moved even slightly. Luckily nothing caught on fire, and it has since been replaced.