Help!! A fubar psu

[lkiller123]

Yeah so one of my cruncher's PSU just died when I come back home.

Parents said that they heard a loud POP and that's it. So I disassembled the PSU and found some Xtreme fried components.

Now I just want to know whether the PSU killed my other components...

Pictures:

DSC02674 by HongbaV12, on Flickr


DSC02708 by HongbaV12, on Flickr


DSC02703 by HongbaV12, on Flickr


DSC02696 by HongbaV12, on Flickr


DSC02690 by HongbaV12, on Flickr

Please help...

[Otis11]

Oh... not cool.

Do you have another PSU you can swap in and test?

I'm not sure what you want us to help with...?

[lkiller123]

Oh, I just wanted to know whether my other components are fried so I can just get a new rig going or simply by a replacement PSU.

BTW the PSU is a Thermaltake TR2 430W, it was holding off a slightly OCed Athlon X2 along with a GTX260.

[Hondacity]

hec 350w? ouch that psu sucks...

[Gamekiller]

Oh, I just wanted to know whether my other components are fried so I can just get a new rig going or simply by a replacement PSU.

A PSU failure does not always take other components with it. You will need to test the other components to tell if they are also fried.

Good luck!

[Hondacity]

sorry for the harsh comment

lessons learnt:
1. don't buy subpar models
2. dedust...like a car that needs oilchanges

[PoppaGeek]

I had a PSU go POP! and there were sparks and smoke. Did not loose any other hardware. A good PSU will protect your other stuff. So you MAY be ok. Good luck.

[D_A]

Oh, I just wanted to know whether my other components are fried so I can just get a new rig going or simply by a replacement PSU.

BTW the PSU is a Thermaltake TR2 430W, it was holding off a slightly OCed Athlon X2 along with a GTX260.

hec 350w? ouch that psu sucks...

That's 430W not 350W

The rest of the system MIGHT be ok and it MIGHT be toast. Can't tell without putting in a replacement and giving it s try.

[Hondacity]

here's the list

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=205763

look for your psu in the list.... ctrl+f thermaltake

1. its an hec
2. 18A x 12 = 216w

[D_A]

Congratulations! You can do simple math!

Now factor in the +5v line and the 3.3v line. The list you've quoted is only part of the story.

[Hondacity]

lmao

[STEvil]

Congratulations! You can do simple math!

Now factor in the +5v line and the 3.3v line. The list you've quoted is only part of the story.

Honda's right you know?

[[XC] Oj101]

Yeah, but put the word Thermaltake on any PSU and you immediately knock 50% off of it's capacity D A, a good PSU should have all or most of it's current available on the 12v rail. My 850w can deliver 768w on 12v, that's 90% of its output on 12v. 216w out of 430w is 50%, that immediately tells you that the rating is heavily inflated.

lkiller123, out of all the PSUs I've seen pop only a no name brand 250w took out the motherboard. The others all left the rest of the parts in perfect working order. You should be safe. Either way the PSU needs replacing so start by doing so

EDIT: I checked the TT website and it has two 12v rails, one of 14A and the other of 15A - that's 29A or 348w (80% of the output); much better but still not great.

Edit 2: On the other hand, a lot of cheaper PSUs have a lower total amperage on the 12v rail than adding all the rails together. You might very well find that combined load across the two is 18A. For example, the Cooler Master Real Power M850 is rated as follows:

http://www.coolermaster.com/upload/p...owerM850-7.jpg

12V1: 18A (216w)
12V2: 18A (216w)
12V3: 28A (336w)
12V4: 18A (216w)
12V5: 18A (216w)
12V6: 18A (216w)

That's a total of 118A or 1416w, FAR above the 64A or 768w maximum of the combined rails.

[D_A]

The rated power of a PSU is the total power the unit can deliver across all rails combined when delivering at the same time. As you noted, the combined per rail capacity of that unit is far above it's rated capacity. It doesn't matter what the combined per rail output is when it's listed like that as each rating is based on the assumption that it is the ONLY rail supplying current. Again sticking with that same unit, the limiting factor is going to be further upstream. If the primary switching components can only deliver 850w then that is all the unit can handle in any configuration, regardless of what each individual rail or combination thereof can supply.

I'm running a Cooler Master 550W (rated) PSU in this rig. It's ratings are:
3.3v - 25A (82.5W)
5v - 25A (125W)
12v - 16A (192W)
12v - 16A (192W)
control stuff (maybe 24W)

Now the sum of the 12V rails is 384W (GASP! It's less than 550W!) Oh wait, that's cool coz there's more power available to run the motherboard and PCI devices on the 3.3 and 5v rails. Sticking big 12v stages on PSUs is targeted for those who have large power needs. Sure you might be able to use them if you have a ton of thirsty VGA cards and a big RAID array but that's not what a 430W supply is designed for, so the sum of it's 12v rails does NOT equal the power output of the whole unit!

To explore the concept further, a 1KW PSU is intended for and marketed to those folk who plan on running systems with triple SLi/Crossfire configurations, probably RAID arrays, multiple optical drives, possibly a peltier block, neons and either water cooling or multiple large fans. All big users of 12V supply. Hence the 12V rails will be a big part of the total output power. In a 430W PSU you're looking at a single processor, one mid range video card which is probably powered by the PCI bus, one or two HDDs and a DVD-RW drive, a single case fan and single fan air cooler. The 12V rails will be a substantially lower proportion of total power output than would be expected for a much larger PSU. In the case of the OP's PSU, the 3.3V and 5V are a significantly larger component of the rated power, not because the unit is over-rated but because of the size and intended role of the unit.

[Hondacity]

here's the review of that psu..

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...y-Review/332/9

so much fail written all over it

12v rail can't do 216w.....

[[XC] Oj101]

D A, the thing is an office machine such as that wouldn't need more than 20A on the 3.3v/ 10A on the 5v rail as all it's used for is hard drives (under 10w each), optical drives (top out around 20w) and RAM (10w?). We REALLY don't need 200w or wattever (sorry ) available unless we're designing a PSU to run two dozen hard drives and a Celeron processor.

[lkiller123]

Whether rated 350W or 430W, I now know that running a GTX260 on there is a BIG BIG BIG mistake! And yeah, that thing was clogged with dust when I disassembled it, even regular vacuuming does not work for me..

By the way, can you guys tell me what's fried in that PSU?

[Hondacity]

compressed air..air can...no to ordinary vacuum as it can discharge static electricity unless you have 3M vacuum.

the pictures show a bunch of caps and the power transistor..clean it and take more pics to show which component failed. and better lighting

[Sparky]

Dont' know what your budget is for a replacement PSU, but here's a great deal on a 520W PSU for $40 shipped...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-030-_-Product

If I needed a spare PSU I'd be nabbing one myself. As it is, even though I don't need one, I still find it hard to not pull the trigger on things like this sometimes

[D_A]

D A, the thing is an office machine such as that wouldn't need more than 20A on the 3.3v/ 10A on the 5v rail as all it's used for is hard drives (under 10w each), optical drives (top out around 20w) and RAM (10w?). We REALLY don't need 200w or wattever (sorry ) available unless we're designing a PSU to run two dozen hard drives and a Celeron processor.

Sorry? Why? You've done nothing but agree with me.

And you can prevent static build up when using a regular vacuum cleaner by attaching some wire from the metal wand to the chassis of the system.

[lkiller123]

Sparky, thanks for your link. I've already placed an order.

[lkiller123]

Honda, I will take more pictures later on as it is kind of time consuming. The PSU is really cluttered and it is pretty hard to reach into it.

[shoota]

Dont' know what your budget is for a replacement PSU, but here's a great deal on a 520W PSU for $40 shipped...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-030-_-Product

If I needed a spare PSU I'd be nabbing one myself. As it is, even though I don't need one, I still find it hard to not pull the trigger on things like this sometimes

i have that psu, very solid, quiet, and cool.
except for the first one that quit working

[[XC] Oj101]

Sorry? Why? You've done nothing but agree with me.

And you can prevent static build up when using a regular vacuum cleaner by attaching some wire from the metal wand to the chassis of the system.

Not really I'm saying you don't need 200w on the 3.3v and 5v rails for an office machine, the Thermaltake has +3.3V@20A (66w) and +5V@24A (120w) which is unnecessary for an office machine running one, maybe two hard drives, a DVD writer and a 2GB stick of entry level DDR3.

[D_A]

Not really I'm saying you don't need 200w on the 3.3v and 5v rails for an office machine, the Thermaltake has +3.3V@20A (66w) and +5V@24A (120w) which is unnecessary for an office machine running one, maybe two hard drives, a DVD writer and a 2GB stick of entry level DDR3.

Maybe you do and maybe you don't, that will depend on how efficient or otherwise the motherboard and communications buses are. The output capacity of the PSU doesn't change just because you don't use it.
There is still nothing in your statement that contradicts anything I've said, in fact you've just identified where the remaining output capacity, that was originally suggested to be over-rated, is actually distributed. Shockingly it's right where I said it would be. Whether you meant to or not, you've just proven me right.