HELP!!! smoking dead hdd and PC is bbq'd

[prehensile]

Crash bang wallop-


I hard booted my PC, and when I put the Power on again, a big wisp of plastic smoke came from the first Molex on a chain that goes into a 300 GB hard drive. the PC shut down after 1 second.

I'm presuming it is fried, the thing is the power supply is a 550 W antec sold as Channel Wells

From a link on this forum-
CWT's are the same design as in antec PSUs. They have acctually changes there site a bit, looks nicer now. heres the page you want <http://www.cwt.com.tw/psu_pc.htm>
The 450w at scan is the B series, while the 550w is a CWT-550ADP in the A series.
looking at the specs you can see why the A series is better, and costs more. its still &#163;30 cheaper than the same antec though!
http://www.cwt.com.tw/CwtEng/product...cwt-550adp.htm <http://www.cwt.com.tw/CwtEng/product/ATX/A/cwt-550adp.htm>

I have the A series, how could such a good power supply mess up?
what could have happened in my computer, was it the hard drive? how much more is messed up and should I chuck the power supply? I will measure the rails obviously ASAP.

I would love it if someone knowledgeable here might be able to offer a pro power user prognosis

Thanks a lot!

[arthurleung]

If you have something that short-circuit further down the chain, it will be the first molex which burn (due to it carrying the most current)

The easiest way to check a PSU is to connect a fan to the PSU alone, then use a paperclip to power up the PSU (google is your friend)

[Hans Voralberg]

Sounds exactly like what happened to my m8 last month, the power is a tagan though. The hard drive survived but the PSU is gone forever, one blowed capacitor, i can replace it but cant be bother/risk to

[Koolpc]

I have a nice little PSU tester. Comes in handy for situations like this.

[herulach]

If you have something that short-circuit further down the chain, it will be the first molex which burn (due to it carrying the most current)

The easiest way to check a PSU is to connect a fan to the PSU alone, then use a paperclip to power up the PSU (google is your friend)

<pedant mode on>
With certain exceptions, everywhere in the loop will carry the same current
<pedant mode off>

Sounds like a short to me. LIke people have said, try it with just a fan, you need to short the green wire on the main connector to one of the black ones. Paper clips are good, but i find a staple to be just the right length, and it'll stay there, which is handy if youre a wuss cos you can put it in and then turn on at the wall.

[prehensile]

you are right on the money-


It turns out that the hard disk was actually ledged on the metal frame of the case, which is alright usually.

When I moved th PC around, it's just so happens that I placed the circuit board under the molex with the pins of the molex on a metal corner on the case.

In other words, the metal pins from the molex that go through the circuit board were joined by a piece of metal from the computer case and woof out came some smoke and the power supply jumped.

The moral of the story is not to pooss yourself and run around flapping your hands when you do something like that, and pull out the power supply, but really closely check out the molex or the area which smoked.

Thank you so much for being damn right

[prehensile]

erm, how should i phrase this?


ARGHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[prehensile]

HHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

i put in the same PSU again figuring it had just been shorted on the 5v rail (as above) and it banged n smoked 3 days later plus i stuck in a spare psu, rebooted and now another hdd (OS) puffed tons of smoke.

HHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPP-Multiple component xplosions

Plus 2 days ago we had a lightning strike over the house, sounded like a 70mph car hitting the house the loudest we ever heard...

plus the fusebox was put in by charlatans-dodgy crew young apprentice contractors that worked with a building company that did some extension works.

Should I check all the sockets and if so, can I use a multimeter. What parts should I change including all the leads. Should I get a new mother board as well as a power supply and some new hard drives ?

I think the most logical thing that happen is that the 5 volt rail in the power supply was shorted and degraded the power supply. Then that in turn that degraded the hard disk drive or some kind of domino effect .

HELP wot goin on!?!?!
NEW PC TIME- i'm all ears power users and engineers