Who is the culprit? System died ! HELP!

[balint0808]

Yesterday disaster has struck, my computer was on but unused at the time when there was a series of loud pops, the monitor went blank and suddenly there was smoke coming out of the top of my case. I quickly unplugged the computer and took it outside. There I have learned that it wasn't my entire computer on fire, in fact I could not really spot the problem. I was searching for dead, blown capacitors but i couldn't find any. Only after some searching I have found the source of the smoke, and the smell. There were signs of damage around the cpu socket, the cpu cooler my H220 was also destroyed.

​The place on the pump block where the wires hook up to it, the pump has "exploded". The wires were bare and the outside with their rubber coating melted away. The unit has also seemed to have spat out an amount of fused together metal and melted plastic, coating and sticking to my ram, as well as coating the area between the cpu socket and the ram with fine metal filings, powder.

 

I have contacted swiftech because I thought that the H220 pump was the one that caused the problem was my cpu cooler, however after further investigation and some emails back and fort, I was told that there is no way the pump would have "spat' out all of that metal. They suggested it is the capacitor that blew.

With their help I have found that my motherboard has some damages too, (I guess) and I was told to turn to corsair to get my system replaced. I was toldt it seems like a cascading power surge has fried all components inside. i don't know what would still function, and I am unable to test all of my other parts individually, and I don't want to risk damaging my other PC.

 

What are your opinions on the matter? is it really a pwoer surge that would cause thses issues? Does that capacitor look blown to you guys?

How would I go about, is it safe to test the parts from this system in another one?

 

[Altecice]

Yeah that looks like a massive over volt from the PSU look inside the PSU and see if the Caps in there seem ok.

[tmlhalo]

The capacitor does look like it has a small bump on the right. Hard to tell from the pictures. Would kind of need to see the side that would be ejecting the substance.  

[c3p0_]

No. A blown cap would pop out its head normaly. So look at others if they have similar shape. But for me they look good. But the pump looks like it had an electric overvolt. The small white spot at the plastic and th brown stuff is a good indicator for that. The metal pieces looks more like the had fallen there from somewhere. 

 

[Garuger]

I say PSU fried everything . Try to open it and what PSU u had ?

[multifrag]

1. do you have any knowledge in electronics and repairing it?
2. the cap looks fine from the angle, you have to look under it for the burned traces.
3. if you have a multimeter, get your motherboards data-sheet and check if the cap gets the power. Leave cpu, ram and everything out.
4. If you don't know what you're doing get it to repair shop, get told it will cost too much too repair than a new board...

Basically I'm sorry to say but if don't have donor motherboard, you don't know exact problem with it your only choice is too get warranty into and hope that they will send you a knew one. Check your PSU for warranty aswell. If this happened because of a powersurge than it is PSU to blame and it will happen again if you won't look into it
 

[tmlhalo]

No. A blown cap would pop out its head normaly. So look at others if they have similar shape. But for me they look good. But the pump looks like it had an electric overvolt. The small white spot at the plastic and th brown stuff is a good indicator for that. The metal pieces looks more like the had fallen there from somewhere. 

There isn't a cross cut in the top of those capacitors to help them expand in a certain way like the ones in your picture. It looks like the channel would be out underneath it from the way the case is designed.

[balint0808]

Thanks for all the help,

I have taken apart the computer, and it seems that the power suplly is intact. Which makes me think that it may have been the motherboard that had it's capacitor explode and may have caused the h220 pump's failure. is that possible?

The spot that seems to have emmited from the capacitor is right next to the pump's wireing comes out of it. So, a pump failure could have caused the capacitor to explode?

[WinNut]

-snip-

As a reminder, under NO circumstance should you touch anything inside the PSU. If the capacitors are still charged it could hit you with a few thousand volts and you can die from that.

 

The cap probably failed.

[balint0808]

As a reminder, under NO circumstance should you touch anything inside the PSU. If the capacitors are still charged it could hit you with a few thousand volts and you can die from that.

 

The cap probably failed.

i have disassembled the computer...did not take the PSU apart.  I am aware of the dangers, as I do have experience with capacitors, circuits, robotics and a lot of pc building.

[dragoon20005]

if you have your stock cooler

 

install that back and see if you can power on the PC

[balint0808]

if you have your stock cooler

 

install that back and see if you can power on the PC

The PC runs, but I am not quite sure if I want to be using it, trusting it much with what has happened, it also smells quite bad when it is on. I really don't want my house burning down.

[dragoon20005]

The PC runs, but I am not quite sure if I want to be using it, trusting it much with what has happened, it also smells quite bad when it is on. I really don't want my house burning down.

yea i dont like my PC to smell either

 

take apart everything and if possible let them air itself in the open to disperse the smell and if possible try to clean the residue from the internal explosion