MeesterKu

Scariest day ever!

I returned home to find that - curiously, my PC refused to switch on. This was odd, because my week-old Enermax 460W PSU was switched on and the power going to it was also on. My friend and I raised an eyebrow and did the usual 'checking connections' lark. After some time, confirming that all the connections (internal and external) were working, we decided to gradually work through and see what was wrong. I walked downstairs and found another power cable. My friend plugged it in and the next instant, we hear a terrible *POP* noise and a flash of horrifying blueish light which screamed 'You're f**ked, matey!' Said friend managed to remove his hand before he got turned into roast chicken or something.

Luckily, my friend had an old 300W PSU and after some heart-pounding, it worked - and all my components seem to be in perfect working order - albeit my PC is overheating a fair bit to compensate for the lack of power.

Question is: What the hell happened? I can't see it being anything other than a faulty PSU - there were no lightning storms in the area or power surges - as evidenced by my surge protected four-way plug socket still has its surge protection on 'green' (meaning its not blown up). Do Enermax's simply have a common fault of imploding on themselves (which would amaze me, considering they are a very respected brand)? For the record my rig is:

Gigabyte GA-KNXP mobo, P4 800FSB 3Ghz, Radeon 9800 Pro, 2x 512Mb Kingston PC3500 RAM, Pioneer DVD-RW, Teac Floppy Drive and a fairly generic 300W PSU (formerly an Enermax 450W).

Any thoughts would be much appreciated! I'll be chatting to Overclockers.co.uk tomorrow to see if I can get it replaced.

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MeesterKu

Sharkims

As any you may just have been unlucky. You can never get 100% of a product off a line without one or two being faulty. I would guess it was so and that you're very lucky you didn't fry your entire system.

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System-1:
MSI K8N Neo Platinum || A64 3200+(200x11) - Zalman 7000A-AlCu || 1x1gb OCZ PC3200@400(3-3-3-7) || 9800XT || WD Raptors 2x36 RAID0
System-2:
MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R || P4 2.4c(FSB:200) - Intel Cooler || 2x256 GEIL PC3200@400(2-3-3-6) || AIW9000 || WD SE 120x2 RAID0
System-3:
DELL Inspiron 9100 || P4 3.0c(mobile) || 2x256mb PC3200(3-3-3-8) || Mobility Radeon 9700 - 128mb || WSXGA+ 15.4" || 60gb 5400RPM 8mb

Judas

......as what sharkims said.... no one will ever be able to produce a 100% perfect stock....... you are lucky in an unlucky situation though.... as your machine is still alive.. as for the psu... take it back and complain about it....you should be able to get your hands on a new one no problem...

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MeesterKu

Thanks guys! Just the sort of responses I was hoping to hear! =)

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MeesterKu

Judas

all i can say is.....keep a well tuned eye on it.... Also, i would recommend you go and spend a little extra cash on an APC Backup unit.... canadian, you can pick em up for $80-90.... and will give you with a 19" monitor.... a 350 watt PSU and a 5.1 100 watt surround sound package up to 30 minutes of power..... (this will prevent the possibility of brown outs which HURTS electronics the worse and in any situation.... a small spike... or a quick power outage won't effect the pc at all)..... BTW, it also makes it interesting when your on MSN or something.... and you say "hmm, the power just went out.... i'll have to go sometime soon" ..... the latest ones come with a USB adapter that if you leave your machine on.... and aren't around.. it can auto shutdown your machine when it hits a backup % left point....

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The_Neon_Cowboy

LOL... ROFL

rember I build pcs and still do upgrade them... I hard that pop .. a few times... some shard parts shot out trough the sides... and fried every freaking thing in the whole system... not cool

I had 2 asus a7v boards catch on fire!!!!!! the fan was still going on the power supply tho blowing thick black smoke..... oh the smell....

as the say in the amry the smell of napam in the moring
for techies its the smell of a fried cpu...

i've had those pop on me 2 ... once so powerfull it blew the core apart!!!!! sharerd... etc...

not to meantion the exploding ram chips and bios chips haveing a meltdown....

mawh hahaa might sound like i'm a crappy tech but i've just seen a hole lotta pc's

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Optimummind

I've heard that Enermax is not as good as people think they are. I've heard many notorious stories of how Enermax PSUs failed and took down the whole system.

In my experience, good PSU companies seem to be Antec, Vantec, and PC Power and Cooling.

Judas

i've used LOTS of enermax PSU's...... i build machines with them....

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Sharkims

Enermax is good. My Antec true power 550w is a nice PSU. I actualy am getting a more stable 12v rail with this Thermaltake 420w than I was with my Antec TruePower 550w.

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System-1:
MSI K8N Neo Platinum || A64 3200+(200x11) - Zalman 7000A-AlCu || 1x1gb OCZ PC3200@400(3-3-3-7) || 9800XT || WD Raptors 2x36 RAID0
System-2:
MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R || P4 2.4c(FSB:200) - Intel Cooler || 2x256 GEIL PC3200@400(2-3-3-6) || AIW9000 || WD SE 120x2 RAID0
System-3:
DELL Inspiron 9100 || P4 3.0c(mobile) || 2x256mb PC3200(3-3-3-8) || Mobility Radeon 9700 - 128mb || WSXGA+ 15.4" || 60gb 5400RPM 8mb

Mazuko

I love thermaltake, I am waiting to get my hands on one of their butterfly PSU's to toy around with...they need to release it dag nabit haha.

I have had AOpen, Antec, Enermax, and many many no name brand PSU's fry on me, only lost one system to the AOpen PSU as it exploded, other than that I have NEVER had a problem with a thermaltake PSU, they have always functioned fantastically for me. I would recommend them to anyone who is in the market for a new PSU.

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MIG-31

must add it was lucky.

when i recently upgraded to a better case (jeantech butterfly) that came with a jeantech 300w psu that only lasted 2 days and went just the same as yours did meesterku.the biggest blue flash and a sizzle for a second or two right before my eyes.

the first thing were the rest of my system it were time to panic!!!.

rumbled through all my old stuff knowing i had a psu somewhere then found it & installed then went for the power switch at this time still in a little bit of a panic.

the biggest sigh of relief when it powered up with no problems.

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jaysavesthedayy

yall think you can help me with my friends new ANTEC PSU.. I think it messed up his new barton cpu... i kinda posted it in the wrong section though. the link is below.http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...threadid=30500

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Bros. Rig

2.20GHz AMD Athlon™ XP 1800+ “Thoroughbred B" DLT3C "JIUHB" (200x11.0 @ 1.55v) | Epox 8RGMI nForce2 IGP µATX Mainboard | 512MB Kingston DDR400 ValueRAM (3-3-3-7 @ 2.63v) | Asus Geforce4 Ti4800SE | 80GB Maxtor

My Rig

1.73GHz AMD Athlon 1700+ “Thoroughbred B" DLT3C "JIUHB" (217x8.0 @ 1.55v) | ABIT NF7-S Rev 2.0 NForce2 Mainboard | 2 x 256MB Dual Channel Kingston HyperX DDR400 SDRAM (32M x 64-Bit PC3200 CL2 2.5v 5ns Winbond BH-5 chips, 2-2-2-11 @ 2.9v) | 128MB ATI 9800 Pro | 160GB WD HDD