PSU explosion

Hardware PSU
1

I just turned on my PC and heard a loud bang, saw what appeared to be flame coming from behind it, then nothing.

I’ve pulled the PSU out. I won’t know for a while if it took anything with it, because I don’t have a spare.

The PSU was Be Quiet Straight Power 10 700w. 80 Plus Gold. About 2 years old.

Any ideas what could cause this? Is it just bad PSU? Just don’t want to get a new one and have it explode.

I keep the filters clean, and the PC sits on it’s own little desk with perforations so plenty of air to breathe in.

2

Sounds like a capacitor blew, though I have no idea why or anytning else to add after that. I hope your parts are okay.

What’s the warranty on the PSU?

6 Likes
3

Like Zibob says, it’s most likely a capacitor. These things happen, even in the best products. It can, to some degree, be less likely to happen, if you buy parts that are MIL Spec, but it’s impossible to prevent.

It is possible to replace it with a relatively cheap part, but you SERIOUSLY have to watch what you’re doing if you chose to do so. Unless you know what you’re doing, or know someone that can do it for you, don’t.

1 Like
4

No idea. I can afford a PSU, so I’d rather just get something else reliable than with about warranty.

5

I was more thinking if it covers damage to other components. It might have to be valid for that.

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6

I don’t want to try and repair anything.

I’m running a Ryzen 2600 and sapphire Vega 56. Is there anything specific to consider with this combination and compatible PSU?

7

Seasonic makes some great stuff.

4 Likes
8

Ah. I didn’t think of that, I doubt I kept anything warranty related though.

9

The same basically happened to a Corsair HX850i of me.

I guess there were a few bad Actors on the same outlet that probably influenced the PSU to fail prematurely.

Something on the AC side caused sparks and such without actual burn-marks etc.

The good thing and message i wanted to relay is that since that happened on the AC Side, all Protections did their work and nothing happened on the component and DC side.
Just a dead PSU.

10

Various causes:

  • Overload
  • Overtemperature (clogged intake vent, dust/cigarette ash)
  • liquid spill
  • bad input power (incompatible UPS or varrying grid voltage/frequency)

So 450 to 500W max, leaves a really healthy buffer. Very strange.
FSP (OEM for the straight power line) usually does not make fireworks…

yup, very happy with all their units I worked with.

Any 550W or greater PSU is fine.

11

Holy crap! What are you running that needs 8kW of power?

3 Likes
12

This thing? Taking guesses like you

13

HA! That got a chuckle. Those beasts could probably heat my house.

14

just a typo. I think my cheapo cherry Blue keyboard is showing it’s price and some keys somehow double fire.

1 Like
15

Cherry MX Switches are cheap, soldering is not hard, there is your weekend project.

16

yea, thanks for the endorsment, but i havn’t jet figured out if i’m the problem or if it’s indeed the switches.
Cherrys are cherrys and shouldn’t have those problems.

if it turns out to be the switches, i’ll totally replace them.

For now, this weekend is stufffed full enough though.
Have to replace a few dead DDR4 chips on some Dimms : D

1 Like
17

You can assemble your system here and this way get the total power requirement. A good idea is to always go a bit bigger than what’s needed. When I build systems, I always make sure the PSU can deliver what’s needed + 10-15%, so PSU is running at around 85-90% load when everything is running at full speed.

18

I meant more along the lines is there any PSU considerations to make in regards to the sudden power spikes with Vega, or the 2xxx series Ryzen boost?

19

I think the problem is either input spike or just a bad cap which blew. If you want to be certain, you’ll have to lift the lid of the PSU and see if the blown cap is on the AC or DC side. Just follow the leads forward or backward depending on which side you start.

Just don’t stick your fingers in there, at least on AC side of the PSU.

I’d think that a PSU is electrically separated, to prevent hardware from being destroyed incase of a spike in supply.

Also, caps are used to stabilize the voltage on the input side (noise cancellation), which flatten these spikes, on the output side they act as battery/buffer also to stabilize.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong please, 20 years since I learned about analogue electronics.

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20

There should be good isolation between input and output side. Yet there are a few failure modes wich can lead to high voltage making its way to the output side.

All good.

1 Like