power surge killed my pc. Safe to try parts?

Zenath · October 18, 2020

A while back I bought a pre build "gaming" pc from Amazon. I should note it was refurbished although when I got it it seemed to work fine. The thing is an inspiron 5680

I7-8700

16gb ddr4 ram

Gtx 1060 3gb

8F6C9T is the service tag if you're curious about specificly everything in it but it wont matter much for the question I think.

Long story short I gotta put my dunce cap on. I know better than to plug so many power hungry things into 1 strip especially one that also powers my pc. Yet that is what I did. As I replaced a set of rechargeable batteries on a charger plugged into said strip I heard an audible pop and smelled that dreaded electrical heat smell.

Now when I open it up and get a look nothing looks damaged although I was able detect a faint smell coming from the psu. I could still smell it by the gpu as well but I'm hoping that's just because its so close to to the real source.

When plugged in pressing the power button does absolutely nothing. No lights. No fans. Nothing.

Now most Dell psu's have some button on that back of it to test the psu. Curiously when. I press that all the lights inside the case come on. Every single fan including the one on the gpu spins up and the little green light stays solid like they say should happen.

For a short time I wondered if it was just the litteral power button that had been damaged as I've actually had issues with it in the past not doing anything. After unplugging plugging it back in and tinkering with it it always seemed to fire eventually. I wouldn't have smelled the burnt psu if it was just a bad power button tho.

Ive been wanting to upgrade for a while anyway so as of right now I decided to bite the bullet and start over. I'm gonna build my own rig this time rather than pre built. I already bought a new case, power supply, and motherboard.

The idea being that I can drop in the cpu, ram, and gpu from my fried pc to see if they will work while I save for some nicer components (looking at getting an i9-9900k, some faster ram ,and eventually get my hands on one of those new 3080s)

My question is. Is this safe? Should I be dropping possibly defective parts into my brand new motherboard to see if they work or should I just assume they don't and go without a pc for a while until I get everything else together?

So far the parts I have got for my new build are

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro Full Tower Chassis with Window Cases PH-ES614P_BK,Black

Motherboard: Asus Prime Z390-A

PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 850 Ga, 80 Plus Gold 850W, Fully Modular

Also grabbed a cheap cooler : Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo (will buy something nicer along with the 9900k if the 8700 doesn't work)

Alex Atkin UK · October 18, 2020

I don't think you did anything wrong here, the PSU was likely on its last legs and that slight surge pushed it over.

I don't see any reason not to reuse the existing parts, they will likely work or not. I've had PSUs release the magic smoke and everything still be fine with a new PSU.