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PSU sparked

Proprietary
By Proprietary
in Power Supplies
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Go to solution Solved by -rascal-,
9 minutes ago, Proprietary said:

My whole PC is done???!!!!!?? Is there any way I can check before my new PSU arrives?? Man I have an i7-8770 directly connected to the PSU..............

 

Hard to say, since the PSU powers basically everything in the PC.

If the DELL PSU has decent over-current or over-voltage safeties in place, then your other components **should**  be okay.

PSU sparking is usually not a good sign.

 

You could borrow another PSU, and see if your computer starts up at all.

If not then, something critical, in addition to your PSU got damaged.

 

Big mistake to have a PSU run with the internal components exposed and unprotected.

That's like saying having Ferrari running with the engine cover removed, and throwing a loose wrench in there to see what happens...

Posted

I have a dell stock PSU. Out of curiosity, I removed its outer protective shell and exposed its circuit board. My PC worked for a while, but when I tilted it to inspect some components, the PSU sparked and my PC refused to boot ever after... I have a few screws lying in my PC that might have interacted with the PSU circuit board... 

What can be causing this? I ordered a new PSU from amazon, but I am worried about the damage done to the other components...

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Proprietary said:

I have a dell stock PSU. Out of curiosity, I removed its outer protective shell and exposed its circuit board. My PC worked for a while, but when I tilted it to inspect some components, the PSU sparked and my PC refused to boot ever after... I have a few screws lying in my PC that might have interacted with the PSU circuit board... 

What can be causing this? I ordered a new PSU from amazon, but I am worried about the damage done to the other components...

You ran it without the metal housing? it kinda comes in 2 pieces, so you only removed one piece of the metal housing? or removed all of it?

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Posted

I had an old Dell where the PSU spit sparks and melted the top rear of the plastic case (no idea what caused it to do that, never messed with it). Not a single component was salvageable. Every situation is different, so maybe you have something you can save. But I wouldn't hold your breath.

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Posted
7 minutes ago, Proprietary said:

I have a dell stock PSU. Out of curiosity, I removed its outer protective shell and exposed its circuit board. My PC worked for a while, but when I tilted it to inspect some components, the PSU sparked and my PC refused to boot ever after... I have a few screws lying in my PC that might have interacted with the PSU circuit board... 

What can be causing this? I ordered a new PSU from amazon, but I am worried about the damage done to the other components...

Removing the outer shell likely removes rigidity of its structure, tilting can have made something bend and short, or ine if those screws caused it.

 

All moot now, damage done, but be aware psu internals exposed ARE DANGEROUS, so be carefull disposing, preferably remounting the outer shell to preven any curious child from possibly touching high voltage loaded caps... (yes, a psu is still potentionally deadly even when off and disconnected from mains). 

 

Never expose, let alone touch, internals of any psu, unless your officially trained to do so,

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Posted

Well, if the A/C high voltage side shorted to the D/C low voltage side whatever was connected to those rails are very likely dead or damaged.

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Posted
  • Author

My whole PC is done???!!!!!?? Is there any way I can check before my new PSU arrives?? Man I have an i7-8770 directly connected to the PSU..............

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IF a screw fell in the wrong way, it could have caused a short circuit between two wires or pins of a chip... which could have damaged a component.

If you're lucky, the result was just a broken fuse and replacing that fuse would fix the power supply... however, since you got sparks, there's a significant possibility a component inside the power supply got damaged.

 

It's unlikely you damaged anything else in your computer, power supplies usually have protections and are designed to turn themselves off and not send bad power to computer parts.

 

My advice would be to just buy another power supply, since you don't have the knowledge to test the power supply and attempt to repair it. You could go to some service place but most likely it won't be worth it - it would cost you 20-50$ just for some person to open it up and do some basic checks, so you'd probably be better off just buying a power supply.

 

If you want to risk trying to repair it yourself, i'd advise by starting with checking the fuse for continuity with a multimeter, then checking the mosfets on the primary side and see if they're shorted or not.

 

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  • Solution
9 minutes ago, Proprietary said:

My whole PC is done???!!!!!?? Is there any way I can check before my new PSU arrives?? Man I have an i7-8770 directly connected to the PSU..............

 

Hard to say, since the PSU powers basically everything in the PC.

If the DELL PSU has decent over-current or over-voltage safeties in place, then your other components **should**  be okay.

PSU sparking is usually not a good sign.

 

You could borrow another PSU, and see if your computer starts up at all.

If not then, something critical, in addition to your PSU got damaged.

 

Big mistake to have a PSU run with the internal components exposed and unprotected.

That's like saying having Ferrari running with the engine cover removed, and throwing a loose wrench in there to see what happens...

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Posted
41 minutes ago, Proprietary said:

Out of curiosity, I removed its outer protective shell and exposed its circuit board.

41 minutes ago, Proprietary said:

I tilted it to inspect some components

and of course while it was on

 

I only have one question

WHY?

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1 hour ago, Proprietary said:

I have a dell stock PSU. Out of curiosity, I removed its outer protective shell and exposed its circuit board. My PC worked for a while, but when I tilted it to inspect some components, the PSU sparked and my PC refused to boot ever after... I have a few screws lying in my PC that might have interacted with the PSU circuit board... 

What can be causing this? I ordered a new PSU from amazon, but I am worried about the damage done to the other components...

A screw bridging two capacitors within the PSU would cause it. That sounds like a pretty catastrophic event, and I'd unfortunately guess that your system is going to have at least a dead motherboard. Are there any scorch marks around the 24-pin or 4-pin connectors, and have you tried a different PSU?

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Next time you do something like this, please wait and ask yourself this, "will this kill me?" or "will this damage anything?"

 

Don't let curiosity ruin your parts, or worse, end your life.

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You removed the metal casing of the PSU while it was on? Sorry if this sounds rude but you were asking for something to go wrong by doing that.

Your components are probably dead. You can always try testing them with a different PSU, but the chances of your components working again are slim.

 

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There are no scorch marks everywhere, not even on the PSU. Is that a good sign?

I have not tried a new PSU. Still waiting for Amazon to ship my new one. 

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20 minutes ago, Proprietary said:

There are no scorch marks everywhere, not even on the PSU. Is that a good sign?

I have not tried a new PSU. Still waiting for Amazon to ship my new one. 

It's not a bad sign, and that's all you can say about it. Scorch marks around the power connectors or VRMs would be an instant RIP. There is likely some damage to the board after a bang like that. The question is how much and will it affect performance?

Aerocool DS are the best fans you've never tried.

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 Why in the love of god did you remove the housing on the PSU and had it plugged in? (and even powered on in this case)....

 

If you hade made contact with the wrong components you could have killed yourself.... there is a saying: curiosity killed the cat.

 

And why did you have loose screws in the case? Metal and circuit board is never a good combination. Now they ended up in the PSU and fried that, but they could have gotten in contact with the MB or GPU depending how you tilt your case and short those.

If you are lucky you have only lost the PSU.

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