Exploding Power Supply

[.Sy.]

Some problems I have been having lately, namely, this morning. I just got the components for my new system yesterday, put it together, using the 300W power supply from my old system that has working since last Christmas and it worked from around 8:30 till around 2AM, when it made an odd sound and turned off. It was late, so I went to bed, this mornin' I turned it on, it made a horrible popping sound and I smelled burned electrode. Took it apart and the smell is coming from the power supply. What happened?

Stats:
L&C 300W ps (blew up)
Gigabyte GA-7DXE motherboard
Athlon XP 2100+
Seagate 20Gb ATA hd
Standard Floppy
Standard CD Drive
ThermalTake Volcano7 CPU heatsink
Leadtek Gf4 128DDR TI3600 video card
512 DDR Ram
Creative Labs Sound Card
Motorola 56K NetODragon Modem

I dont think it was heat because the side panel was off and my window was open. It was(is) cold. (Northern California)

[Unl3Ashed]

dude, I am sure there is something wrong with the power supply. I don't know if it could be repairable or not but I would like to reccomend you to not turn your pc on till you change the power, cause it might hurt other parts too eg. HDD, CPU ,...
Sorry for not able to help more.

Cheers

[.Sy.]

I have completely dissassembled the computer, and am using a different one. Right now the case that computer was in has absolutely nothing in it except the front panel connector wires. I am just wondering what could have caused that so I can avoid it in the future.
-thx

[doktorf00bar]

300w eh? You blew the internal fuse in the power supply. I'd use AT LEAST a 400w supply for that rig. If you open it up you should be able to change the fuse. These are readily available at Radio Shack.

[.Sy.]

I did open it up. It appears as though the fuse is welded to the circuit board. I agree that I need a bigger ps. Do you think that 400W will be enough? I found a relatively cheap PS. If anyone with more experience would look at it and tell me what you think I would appreciate it.

[doktorf00bar]

450w might be safer. One time I powered up a shorted motherboard and got to see GOUTS of flame shout out the back of the power supply. That was pretty awesome:)

[allenb1963]

uhmmmm...just to play it safe, make sure the power supply you get is AMD certified, and go with a 450 at least.

[.Sy.]

How bout brands, which are better or worse?

[allenb1963]

Here's a link to the cheapest Enermax I could come up with. It's a good P/S, dual fan (1 intake, 1 output) and fairly quiet.

http://www.aicmicro.com/productdetail.asp?id=8198

[aj67my]

Here are some guidelines for chooseing a power supply, by Oreilly

http://safari.oreilly.com/main.asp?bookname=pchardnut2&snode=219

[aeallison]

My Favorite Pwr solution is dual, hot swapable 350watt power supplies, should be enough, together they are 700 watts, mine has an alarm should on of them fail, and if I am not there when it fails, my OS monitors the CPU temps and voltages and will shut the system down shoul the mobo start pulling more current than the pwr can supply, and this supply is cheaper than a 450Watt single unit. This is what works for me, your application may require more power, I am running 2 eide hard drives, 2 CD-ROMs 1 is a burner, a similar video to yours, a USR internal modem, Sound Blaster Live audio, and an intel Pro100+ Server NIC card, on a GigaByte GA7ZX MOBO with a 1.2gb Athlon Thunderbird CPU.

Not that this will help much, allen's advice is definately safe, and aj's requires some study, all are good advice...just my 2 cents worth.

[imported_Frumpy]

Get a 600w

[avdven]

In my experience, the power supply is the one thing you absolutely don't want to skimp on. If you want reliable power, go with a big name and a big power supply. Many "cheap" power supplies don't even have fuses built into them, which can lead to some pretty serious problems, espcially if you have the same problem again... if you don't have a fuse, you'll basically fry everything in the box (it happened to a friend of mine). I'd go with at least a 450, maybe even a 500 if you think you'll be doing a great deal up upgrading in the future.

AJ

[Und3ertak3r]

300w eh? You blew the internal fuse in the power supply
lol...

[doktorf00bar]

As in: "hope you didn't burn your lips......"
:)