A computer components & hardware forum. HardwareBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » HardwareBanter forum » Processors » Overclocking
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Power supply EXPLOSION



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old July 21st 04, 01:59 PM
Peter Hucker
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Power supply EXPLOSION

Ok, maybe watercooling the power supply was not a good idea.

It certainly kept the power transistors with the big heatsinks cool, but what of the poor little diodes and a transformer, which didn't get the airflow they expected?

Been working fine for a few weeks, then suddenly..... about 15 bangs, flashes, sparks etc flew out of it, as though I had lit an entire box of fireworks under the desk. Strangely the PC continued to run while this happened (for about 10 seconds, at which point the PSU gave up and it went off. Fuses all intact! Replaced the PSU, and the PC booted ok! Just one drive of the mirror/stripe appeared to be blank/corrupted, but it's autorebuilding it in the background.

http://80.229.155.158/temp/psufail


--
*****TWO BABY CONURES***** 15 parrots and increasing http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a pentawatercooled dual silent Athlon 2.8 with terrabyte raid

Polynesia -- memory loss in parrots.
  #2  
Old July 21st 04, 03:05 PM
Peter Hucker
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

That's one hell of a failure. I thought I was maybe overloading it, but I'm using 200W peak, and it was a 300W supply.

Anyway I've sourced a fanless one for £120....

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 14:32:50 GMT, rstlne wrote:

WaterCooling keeps the CPU and what ever else it's connected to cool..
So you dont have 45/50c air feeing the bottom of the heatsink..

That means that the PSU shouldnt have required tons of airflow.. It looks to
me like the psu just fail'd (short in transformer)..

Case Circulation is good to have anyhow when you have a few harddrives in
the system..


"Peter Hucker" wrote in message
newspsbhnptolaiowgp@blue...
Ok, maybe watercooling the power supply was not a good idea.

It certainly kept the power transistors with the big heatsinks cool, but

what of the poor little diodes and a transformer, which didn't get the
airflow they expected?

Been working fine for a few weeks, then suddenly..... about 15 bangs,

flashes, sparks etc flew out of it, as though I had lit an entire box of
fireworks under the desk. Strangely the PC continued to run while this
happened (for about 10 seconds, at which point the PSU gave up and it went
off. Fuses all intact! Replaced the PSU, and the PC booted ok! Just one
drive of the mirror/stripe appeared to be blank/corrupted, but it's
autorebuilding it in the background.

http://80.229.155.158/temp/psufail


--
*****TWO BABY CONURES***** 15 parrots and increasing

http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a pentawatercooled dual silent Athlon 2.8 with terrabyte raid

Polynesia -- memory loss in parrots.







--
*****TWO BABY CONURES***** 15 parrots and increasing http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a pentawatercooled dual silent Athlon 2.8 with terrabyte raid

How are new girl friends like a fresh roll of toilet paper?
Sometimes it's kind of hard to get the first piece, but after that you can rip one off anytime.
  #3  
Old July 21st 04, 03:32 PM
rstlne
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

WaterCooling keeps the CPU and what ever else it's connected to cool..
So you dont have 45/50c air feeing the bottom of the heatsink..

That means that the PSU shouldnt have required tons of airflow.. It looks to
me like the psu just fail'd (short in transformer)..

Case Circulation is good to have anyhow when you have a few harddrives in
the system..


"Peter Hucker" wrote in message
newspsbhnptolaiowgp@blue...
Ok, maybe watercooling the power supply was not a good idea.

It certainly kept the power transistors with the big heatsinks cool, but

what of the poor little diodes and a transformer, which didn't get the
airflow they expected?

Been working fine for a few weeks, then suddenly..... about 15 bangs,

flashes, sparks etc flew out of it, as though I had lit an entire box of
fireworks under the desk. Strangely the PC continued to run while this
happened (for about 10 seconds, at which point the PSU gave up and it went
off. Fuses all intact! Replaced the PSU, and the PC booted ok! Just one
drive of the mirror/stripe appeared to be blank/corrupted, but it's
autorebuilding it in the background.

http://80.229.155.158/temp/psufail


--
*****TWO BABY CONURES***** 15 parrots and increasing

http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a pentawatercooled dual silent Athlon 2.8 with terrabyte raid

Polynesia -- memory loss in parrots.



  #4  
Old July 21st 04, 04:38 PM
Peter Hucker
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 16:30:16 GMT, rstlne wrote:


"Peter Hucker" wrote in message
newspsbhqrth3aiowgp@blue...
That's one hell of a failure. I thought I was maybe overloading it, but

I'm using 200W peak, and it was a 300W supply.

Anyway I've sourced a fanless one for £120....



Yea, I have seen some nice new fanless ones out there in the market..
Tho to be honest I woulda probably been more tempted to just mount a couple
of NB coolers on the heatsinks inside the PSU itself (sure it could be
done).


NB?

I DID mount coolers on the heatsinks. But I think more than that needed cooling.



--
*****TWO BABY CONURES***** 15 parrots and increasing http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a pentawatercooled dual silent Athlon 2.8 with terrabyte raid

"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs."
  #5  
Old July 21st 04, 05:15 PM
Peter Hucker
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 17:01:06 GMT, rstlne wrote:


"Peter Hucker" wrote in message
newspsbhu1umfaiowgp@blue...
On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 16:30:16 GMT, rstlne wrote:


"Peter Hucker" wrote in message
newspsbhqrth3aiowgp@blue...
That's one hell of a failure. I thought I was maybe overloading it,

but
I'm using 200W peak, and it was a 300W supply.

Anyway I've sourced a fanless one for £120....



Yea, I have seen some nice new fanless ones out there in the market..
Tho to be honest I woulda probably been more tempted to just mount a

couple
of NB coolers on the heatsinks inside the PSU itself (sure it could be
done).


NB?

I DID mount coolers on the heatsinks. But I think more than that needed

cooling.


Ahhhh
yea I see what you did now
..
Yea you probably needed a verry small airflow.. But nearly all of the heat
comes from those 5/6 (or 8/9 on some) amps that are connected to the 2
(sometimes 3) sinks..

I find it verry strange myself, Are you sure that there wasnt any leaking or
that even there wasnt possilbly metal shavings inside the unit after
installing the blocks?


No metalwork was done, they were big heavy things which stayed put with gravity and a little heatsink gunk (I hadn't got round to permanently doing anything with it), so no shavings.

My first thought was leaking (I have frightened a Northbridge with some water before - it just bleeped with memory or cpu errors on startup, even after dabbing with tissue and blowing for half an hour with a fan heater, but after leaving for 48 hours it worked - I guess it's hard to dry out UNDER a surface mount chip), but no, there was no water escaped - unless it evaporated ;-)



--
*****TWO BABY CONURES***** 15 parrots and increasing http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a pentawatercooled dual silent Athlon 2.8 with terrabyte raid

Eagles may soar, but weasels aren't sucked into jet engines.
  #6  
Old July 21st 04, 05:30 PM
rstlne
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Peter Hucker" wrote in message
newspsbhqrth3aiowgp@blue...
That's one hell of a failure. I thought I was maybe overloading it, but

I'm using 200W peak, and it was a 300W supply.

Anyway I've sourced a fanless one for £120....



Yea, I have seen some nice new fanless ones out there in the market..
Tho to be honest I woulda probably been more tempted to just mount a couple
of NB coolers on the heatsinks inside the PSU itself (sure it could be
done).


  #7  
Old July 21st 04, 06:01 PM
rstlne
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Peter Hucker" wrote in message
newspsbhu1umfaiowgp@blue...
On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 16:30:16 GMT, rstlne wrote:


"Peter Hucker" wrote in message
newspsbhqrth3aiowgp@blue...
That's one hell of a failure. I thought I was maybe overloading it,

but
I'm using 200W peak, and it was a 300W supply.

Anyway I've sourced a fanless one for £120....



Yea, I have seen some nice new fanless ones out there in the market..
Tho to be honest I woulda probably been more tempted to just mount a

couple
of NB coolers on the heatsinks inside the PSU itself (sure it could be
done).


NB?

I DID mount coolers on the heatsinks. But I think more than that needed

cooling.


Ahhhh
yea I see what you did now
...
Yea you probably needed a verry small airflow.. But nearly all of the heat
comes from those 5/6 (or 8/9 on some) amps that are connected to the 2
(sometimes 3) sinks..

I find it verry strange myself, Are you sure that there wasnt any leaking or
that even there wasnt possilbly metal shavings inside the unit after
installing the blocks?


  #8  
Old July 21st 04, 07:16 PM
ElJerid
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Peter Hucker" wrote in message
newspsbhnptolaiowgp@blue...
Ok, maybe watercooling the power supply was not a good idea.

It certainly kept the power transistors with the big heatsinks cool, but

what of the poor little diodes and a transformer, which didn't get the
airflow they expected?

Been working fine for a few weeks, then suddenly..... about 15 bangs,

flashes, sparks etc flew out of it, as though I had lit an entire box of
fireworks under the desk. Strangely the PC continued to run while this
happened (for about 10 seconds, at which point the PSU gave up and it went
off. Fuses all intact! Replaced the PSU, and the PC booted ok! Just one
drive of the mirror/stripe appeared to be blank/corrupted, but it's
autorebuilding it in the background.

http://80.229.155.158/temp/psufail

Watercooling in a power supply...
You must be crazy, my friend !!! And very lucky, having so
little damage.
For the same price, you could have your motherboard, CPU, RAM, graphic card
and even disks completely destroyed.
On top, if your PSU is powerful enough for your hardware configuration,
there is absolutely no need for extra cooling in a normal case with normal
air flow.


  #9  
Old July 21st 04, 07:25 PM
Peter Hucker
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:16:50 GMT, ElJerid wrote:


"Peter Hucker" wrote in message
newspsbhnptolaiowgp@blue...
Ok, maybe watercooling the power supply was not a good idea.

It certainly kept the power transistors with the big heatsinks cool, but

what of the poor little diodes and a transformer, which didn't get the
airflow they expected?

Been working fine for a few weeks, then suddenly..... about 15 bangs,

flashes, sparks etc flew out of it, as though I had lit an entire box of
fireworks under the desk. Strangely the PC continued to run while this
happened (for about 10 seconds, at which point the PSU gave up and it went
off. Fuses all intact! Replaced the PSU, and the PC booted ok! Just one
drive of the mirror/stripe appeared to be blank/corrupted, but it's
autorebuilding it in the background.

http://80.229.155.158/temp/psufail

Watercooling in a power supply...
You must be crazy, my friend !!! And very lucky, having so
little damage.
For the same price, you could have your motherboard, CPU, RAM, graphic card
and even disks completely destroyed.


Well one disk in my mirror stripe became corrupt, but it's autorebuilding it in the background.

On top, if your PSU is powerful enough for your hardware configuration,
there is absolutely no need for extra cooling in a normal case with normal
air flow.


What do you mean no need for extra cooling? I was trying to use no fans!



--
*****TWO BABY CONURES***** 15 parrots and increasing http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a pentawatercooled dual silent Athlon 2.8 with terrabyte raid

If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?
  #10  
Old July 21st 04, 09:21 PM
do_not_spam_me
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Peter Hucker" wrote in message news:opsbhnptolaiowgp@blue...

Ok, maybe watercooling the power supply was not a good idea.

It certainly kept the power transistors with the big heatsinks
cool, but what of the poor little diodes and a transformer,
which didn't get the airflow they expected?

Been working fine for a few weeks, then suddenly..... about
15 bangs, flashes, sparks etc flew out of it, as though I had
lit an entire box of fireworks under the desk. Strangely the
PC continued to run while this happened (for about 10 seconds,
at which point the PSU gave up and it went off. Fuses all
intact! Replaced the PSU, and the PC booted ok! Just one
drive of the mirror/stripe appeared to be blank/corrupted,
but it's autorebuilding it in the background.

http://80.229.155.158/temp/psufail


PSUFAIL1.JPG seems to show an LM339, a voltage comparator and not a
chip that normally handles high amounts of power. So I believe it
failed due to excessive voltage, not heat. That's not to say that the
high voltage wasn't caused by excessive heat somewhere else, and the
burned capacitor in PSUFAIL3.JPG could indicate that the main
transformeer got too hot and saturated, which can cause the current
through its coupling capacitor to increase greatly. I'm not sure what
PSUFAIL2.JPG is, but it looks like a transformer, and in PSUFAIL4.JPG,
it's possible that heavily-burned resistor R7 is either a load
resistor (some power supplies won't start without one, and excessive
voltage can burn it out) or part of a snubber (filter to eliminate
unwanted oscillations -- too much oscillation can burn it out).

In the process of testing the water cooling, did you put a temperature
probe on each of the power components? This can be risky because of
the high voltage, but there are probes with metal exposed only at the
tip, or for the more daring a dial thermometer (like a meat
thermometer) can be used if it's covered with a few layers of
heatshrink tubing. Transformer saturation is a big concern among
power supply designers, and heat makes them saturate at lower power
levels.
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
basic power problem BrianBloodaxe General 19 July 26th 04 08:48 PM
help, please, with Compaq Presario power supply problem Jacques Clouseau General 6 June 9th 04 06:44 PM
power supply, or ...? ynotssor General 10 June 1st 04 01:19 AM
How can I make motherboard to restart after power loss automatically? Amiran General 1 September 24th 03 11:35 PM
Power Supply on its way out? w_tom General 5 July 31st 03 03:43 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 03:43 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 HardwareBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.