Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

[Drew]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

Whining noises, buzzing noises, popping noises, funny smells, random instability of the PC such as blue screens or rebooting or failure to power on.

This is a bit off the subject but I saw blue screens and thought hey while I'm here I might as well ask. So anyway I recently got a new laptop a month ago, it's a dell studio xps 16. It blue screened within the first week I think, but I know it's blue screened 3 times total since I got it. I don't know what could of caused it, if you have any ideas or need anymore info to determine what could be wrong shoot me a pm (don't want to get this thread off topic) and I'll get back to you.

PS: Forgot to ask but could any of said things occur and there not be an issue with the psu?

[retiredcaps]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

I don't know what could of caused it, if you have any ideas or need anymore info to determine what could be wrong shoot me a pm (don't want to get this thread off topic) and I'll get back to you.

Start a new thread for the Dell laptop.

[Drew]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

Start a new thread for the Dell laptop.

Sorry about that, got a bit lazy there

[Drew]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

I know I sound like a broken record here but I would just like to get a solid statement that sums up what the presumed cause of the issue is, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all for the help, its been great. I will have more information about the issue tommorow and hopefully can get a definitive answer for this problem.

[shovenose]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

omg dude. the original problem (according to you) was the hec 400w was dead. so you stuck in a 350w antec smartpower that was faulty and now you are going to put the allied 350w and see if the pc at least boots up. if it does, get a better psu. if not, then you know you fried your motherboard. not sure what else yu need to know!

[Drew]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

omg dude. the original problem (according to you) was the hec 400w was dead. so you stuck in a 350w antec smartpower that was faulty and now you are going to put the allied 350w and see if the pc at least boots up. if it does, get a better psu. if not, then you know you fried your motherboard. not sure what else yu need to know!

I'm aware of what happened and I do not know for sure that the antec is faulty, I just would like to know if it at all there is another possiblity that could of caused what happened. That is what I would like to know.

[Wizard]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

Either that PSU was whining because it was faulty or mainboard was shorted out because of that faulty PSU. We will not know why what happened.

Should had yanked plug the instant you hear or think unusual thing with this PC like odd power button that need prodding few times to get going, hear squeal, or whining.

New thread on notebook please in right subject.

Cheers, Wizard

[Drew]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

Either that PSU was whining because it was faulty or mainboard was shorted out because of that faulty PSU. We will not know why what happened.

Should had yanked plug the instant you hear or think unusual thing with this PC like odd power button that need prodding few times to get going, hear squeal, or whining.

New thread on notebook please in right subject.

Cheers, Wizard

Sorry about that, when your talking about the prodding your referring to a pc that has been plugged in for more then 10-15 seconds correct?

Edit: Dell thread moved

[shovenose]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

the antec has a 99% chance of being faulty...

[Toasty]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

Arrgh! This is why you -MUST- post pictures of what you are working on. I'm chasing crapola pics across the net of this mobo.



The caps near the RAM slots are on a group of VRM MOSFETS. The spark and pop you heard could have been one or more of the FETs blowing. It will not work until repaired.

--------------------

The manual and a poor web pic are attached.

The manual states that one of the two 4 pin connectors *MUST* be connected for CPU power.

--------------------

Given the suspect list, I'd hang heavy bets on the PSU. There are -known- problems with these. As to what specifically happened, we may never know or find the answer.

These PSU's are -known- to blow the 5vsb line and it can rise to 20v or more. It is an inherently bad 5vsb design. The PSU whining sound is a sure sign of something gone -very- wrong.

Surmising a blown FET - If the blown FET is part of the 5vsb onboard, and the 5vsb from the PSU went nuts with high voltage, the FET would self destruct, trying to keep the onboard 5vsb regulated. The fact that you left this on for 45 minutes would have been more than enough time for the PSU 5vsb to die and go high. Not that it was "good" to begin with, mind you.

I know nothing about the previous PSU. Again, looking for others input... (Hello 370..?) It appears from what I found that it too was not a good quality PSU, just going by some old prices.

The motherboard is a different story. I seriously doubt the motherboard was the source of the problem. Those P2SCE are well made boards and use Sanyo caps. You'd have to do something seriously wrong to have it fail. That PSU will do it though.

Toast

[Drew]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

Arrgh! This is why you -MUST- post pictures of what you are working on. I'm chasing crapola pics across the net of this mobo.



The caps near the RAM slots are on a group of VRM MOSFETS. The spark and pop you heard could have been one or more of the FETs blowing. It will not work until repaired.

--------------------

The manual and a poor web pic are attached.

The manual states that one of the two 4 pin connectors *MUST* be connected for CPU power.

--------------------

Given the suspect list, I'd hang heavy bets on the PSU. There are -known- problems with these. As to what specifically happened, we may never know or find the answer.

These PSU's are -known- to blow the 5vsb line and it can rise to 20v or more. It is an inherently bad 5vsb design. The PSU whining sound is a sure sign of something gone -very- wrong.

Surmising a blown FET - If the blown FET is part of the 5vsb onboard, and the 5vsb from the PSU went nuts with high voltage, the FET would self destruct, trying to keep the onboard 5vsb regulated. The fact that you left this on for 45 minutes would have been more than enough time for the PSU 5vsb to die and go high. Not that it was "good" to begin with, mind you.

I know nothing about the previous PSU. Again, looking for others input... (Hello 370..?) It appears from what I found that it too was not a good quality PSU, just going by some old prices.

The motherboard is a different story. I seriously doubt the motherboard was the source of the problem. Those P2SCE are well made boards and use Sanyo caps. You'd have to do something seriously wrong to have it fail. That PSU will do it though.

Toast

Yes! Thank you for the in depth explanation, just 2 things one of which is probably a typo and unimportant but the mobo was a super p4sce. The only reason I was wondering if maybe it was the mobo is because I read through the badcaps FAQ and it said that supermicro was among the board manufacturers that were involved with it. The other thing is that I did not leave the psu plugged in for 45 minuts I had it off and unplugged from the power chord. I did however let it run for 5 minutes before that 45 minute period of being off to see if maybe the reason I wasn't seeing a light on the mobo is because the board itself hadn't had power going into it for quite some time (how long exactly is unknown to me). The reason I left it unhooked from the power chord for so long is because I read somewhere that if your computer isn't turning on you could unplug the psu from all power and let it sit there for about 30 mins and then hook it up again and see if it worked. Clearly did but it just was faulty, bad luck on my part...

PS: I can't take any pictures because I don't have a camera currently and my cell phones camera is terrbile quality. Another thing I'm going to see if I can grab this weekend.

[Toasty]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

Super Micro does not distinguish on their pages between P4SCE's. I think the Super P4SCE is a 1U server with that mobo in it. The boards certainly don't appear any different, and the manual is the same.

Okay on the time with power applied. It doesn't take much time for the PSU to cook. It was most likely bad already. Perhaps the P4SCE board requires a higher amperage 5vsb than the Antec or HEC could provide.

Regardless, until BOTH problems are fixed, nothings going to work.

Toast

[Drew]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

Super Micro does not distinguish on their pages between P4SCE's. I think the Super P4SCE is a 1U server with that mobo in it. The boards certainly don't appear any different, and the manual is the same.

Okay on the time with power applied. It doesn't take much time for the PSU to cook. It was most likely bad already. Perhaps the P4SCE board requires a higher amperage 5vsb than the Antec or HEC could provide.

Regardless, until BOTH problems are fixed, nothings going to work.

Toast

That may be the case and to be honest I really didn't even check any of that because I have no idea what that means or what it does. I just went and found the watt requirement for the board. On the note of the HEC though. It may very well have worked fine with the system. Just by the time I received it there was no noise when I turned it on and there was no response from any of the devices in the system. I'm not an expert but I think that means it is dead. I find it suprisingly odd though that my boss only told me to just unplug the psu when I told him that the psu was making a high pitched whining noise and when we had the miscommunication I don't know why he told me to go ahead and plug in the four pin connector, (and maybe I'm giving him too much credit here) he acted like plugging it in would cause the noise to go away because he wants me to learn these things on my own, but then again maybe I'm reading too much into it.

[seanc]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

What your boss said and what you did, are kind of irrelevant now - I read that on the first page.
We need to move forward, not keep covering the same point.

Did you get a multimeter?

[Drew]

Re: Flipped the power switch on my psu and spark on mobo

What your boss said and what you did, are kind of irrelevant now - I read that on the first page.
We need to move forward, not keep covering the same point.

Did you get a multimeter?

I haven't yet, I asked my boss if there was one around the office but there isn't. So I'm going to pick one up over the weekend and I'll be able to get the results monday.