Something just blew up

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Kookoo

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#80109 26-Mar-2011 22:19

Something just blew up. I am not sure what it was, everything seems to be working, but the noise was that of balloon popping. No idea what it was, but it is a worry...

Could it have been a capacitor? Would the PC still work with a blown capacitor?

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mckenndk

911 posts

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#452225 26-Mar-2011 22:34

Have a sniff around and see if you can find a burnt smell anywhere.

valtam

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#452231 26-Mar-2011 23:02

PSU?

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gible

51 posts

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#452236 26-Mar-2011 23:14

did the magic smoke escape?

Kookoo

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#452242 26-Mar-2011 23:32

No, no smoke, no smell... Everything still seems to be working.

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richms

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#452256 27-Mar-2011 00:21

Could have been arc-over in the power supply. In the dark ages some brainiac decided that putting some goo on the high voltage parts was a good idea.

Problem is as it ages, it went porus, adsorbed moisture and became a little conductive, When it got bad enough, it would spark along the surface of it. depending on where the current goes it would often take out the RCD powering the circuit. Was an epidemic in many of the compaq/hp small cases, worst when they had been off for ages in a cool damp location.

Richard rich.ms

Kookoo

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#452257 27-Mar-2011 00:34

richms: Could have been arc-over in the power supply. In the dark ages some brainiac decided that putting some goo on the high voltage parts was a good idea.

Thanks richms. Problem is as it ages, it went porus, adsorbed moisture and became a little conductive, When it got bad enough, it would spark along the surface of it. depending on where the current goes it would often take out the RCD powering the circuit. Was an epidemic in many of the compaq/hp small cases, worst when they had been off for ages in a cool damp location.

Yes, that's a possiblity I haven't thought of. I do have an OCZ 600W ModXStream Pro PSU, so would hope it's not prone to this issue. Also, the PC just kept on going like nothing happened, which I am not sure would be possible if it was an arc-over and the RCD tripped.

Well, if something goes, that will be a clue. In the mean time it seems the rig wasn't affected by whatever it was, so I might as well leave it be.

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rscole86

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#452259 27-Mar-2011 00:56

Time to back up, make sure you back up works, and pray ;)

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gzt

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#452265 27-Mar-2011 01:45

Given that you have been dealing with a possibility of some kind of overload in other threads, I would be very cautious.

In my opinion, yes - you could have a component failure which does not immediately cause your pc to fail. You should definitely use a utility to monitor voltages to make sure nothing has gone really low or high, and keep an eye on it.

Aside: I recently found myself wishing PSU's came with an instrumentation interface to show exactly what currents are being pulled from each rail. Only of daily interest to efficiency geeks, overclockers, and some gamers, but still. You would think some of the elite PSU's would offer this feature.

Niel

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#452279 27-Mar-2011 09:04

Most likely PSU, there is little else that can do that kind of spark/noise with no smell. Very likely to happen with high humidity. The goop does not absorb moisture, but dust will.

On the side, I used to work at a TV rapair shop as a teenager (unpaid, good old days). We often got TVs that were at a certain repair shop 6 months earlier. They would routinely hang moisture absorbing desiccant bags inside the TV to keep it dry, but they would deliberately hang it against a high voltage PCB so over time the desiccant gets wet causing arcing and the TV has to go hack to the repair shop.

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Kookoo

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#452354 27-Mar-2011 11:55

rscole86: Time to back up, make sure you back up works, and pray ;)

Yeah, I've got an Acer Easystore WHS to where I back everything up, so I'm pretty safe from that perspective. Now all I need to do is hang a crucifix and a couple of lucky charms to hang above the PC and I am set.

gzt:
Aside: I recently found myself wishing PSU's came with an instrumentation interface to show exactly what currents are being pulled from each rail. Only of daily interest to efficiency geeks, overclockers, and some gamers, but still. You would think some of the elite PSU's would offer this feature.

That's a bloody good idea. Now if it could be implemented on the motherboard side, and then accessed through a utility. I'd guess you'd have to manually identify the rails, but it's a minor one.

Niel: Most likely PSU, there is little else that can do that kind of spark/noise with no smell. Very likely to happen with high humidity. The goop does not absorb moisture, but dust will.

Sounds more and more like the most likely scenario.

Niel: On the side, I used to work at a TV rapair shop as a teenager (unpaid, good old days). We often got TVs that were at a certain repair shop 6 months earlier. They would routinely hang moisture absorbing desiccant bags inside the TV to keep it dry, but they would deliberately hang it against a high voltage PCB so over time the desiccant gets wet causing arcing and the TV has to go hack to the repair shop.

Wow. On the one hand it must've been a brilliant idea, on the other, if I was a customer - I'd really want to hang those guys on the highest branch of the tallest tree in the area. Did you tell the customers?

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gzt

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#452371 27-Mar-2011 13:12

gzt: Aside:

That's a bloody good idea. Now if it could be implemented on the motherboard side, and then accessed through a utility. I'd guess you'd have to manually identify the rails, but it's a minor one.

PSU with a data line (even usb) to the motherboard is the logical arrangement. PSU supplies power directly to some components - drives, graphics, (some)usb.

richms

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#452423 27-Mar-2011 15:10

Niel: Most likely PSU, there is little else that can do that kind of spark/noise with no smell. Very likely to happen with high humidity. The goop does not absorb moisture, but dust will.

On the side, I used to work at a TV rapair shop as a teenager (unpaid, good old days). We often got TVs that were at a certain repair shop 6 months earlier. They would routinely hang moisture absorbing desiccant bags inside the TV to keep it dry, but they would deliberately hang it against a high voltage PCB so over time the desiccant gets wet causing arcing and the TV has to go hack to the repair shop.

It goes porus as it gets hot and ages, its one of those things where the old stuff was fine but the replacement "green" stuff had long term stability problems. You can see the surface of the old stuff looks rough and you can scrape it off and it goes dusty.

Richard rich.ms

tardtasticx

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#452426 27-Mar-2011 15:23

My old iMac G3 made a pop noise before it died. It even had smoke and a burning sound. Worked for another week, then wouldnt turn on at all. Turns out the logic board or something burnt. So we took the HDD out and threw the thing away. Backup your stuff before its too late, and open the thing up and have a good nosey round (with power off, be safe. lol)