Source BeQuiet Pure Power, it has stayed in Puré

[albridi]

Hello everyone!

Well, you see, I'm annoyed. After a few months of being idle, I tried to start my PC. To my surprise, it turned off by itself after just a few minutes, I don't think it lasted more than 5. I started it up again, and it turned off again, this time much faster, barely 1 minute of startup.

Thinking it might be a heating issue, I cleaned it thoroughly and changed the thermal paste. I turned it on again and it turned off again. I decided to remove all peripherals and started it up... there was a bang, a flash, and the circuit breaker tripped. You can imagine my face (I still have it, I don't know if they've removed the frown). I'm crossing my fingers that nothing else has been damaged besides the power supply.

Now, I have to change the power supply and start again, but... what if the problem wasn't caused by the power supply? What if the explosion of the power supply is the consequence of something else? I wouldn't like to change it and have the new one suffer the same fate, or something worse. On the other hand, I only have one chance to know what damage the computer has suffered and that is to change the power supply, of course.

Any advice besides praying? Have you had similar experiences? I don't understand what could have changed for this to happen, since it has been completely idle for months.

Best regards.

[Sylver]

Hello,

In my experience, these things have happened to me when a power supply is very old, when the equipment has been left in a storage room for several months (there is usually humidity), or when the quality of the power supply is very, very bad.

Surely someone has deeper knowledge about this, but I would check the capacitors, both on the board and on the power supply, for any signs (one or several of these swollen ones stop filtering electricity properly, causing some components to be damaged).

To check if the equipment is alive, try to get a cheap second-hand power supply, it doesn't matter the brand or quality, because the idea is to find out if there is any damaged component. If everything works correctly and there are no blackouts like before, then you could proceed to buy a new quality power supply.
If on the other hand the equipment continues to turn off or the power supply dies directly, you know what was failing, and the loss will not be much.

Regards

[albridi]

Hello @Sylver, thanks for responding

Well, of the three possible causes you mentioned, it could only be the age of the power supply, almost 10 years old already.

I have spoken with BeQuiet! and they tell me that it is almost certainly that, that is, that it was already very old. They also assure me that it is “impossible that anything else has been damaged, due to the double protection against voltage surges of their power supplies” (verbatim). I hope and wish that they are right. I hope and wish that they are right.

Even so, I have followed your advice and I already have a power supply to test, which I will do this week. I will let you know if I have been lucky.

Best regards.

[Abelcenja]

It's just mind-blowing, almost 10 years...

[_Neptunno_]

Nothing is impossible with electricity, but the good thing about having a good power supply is that it is much more difficult for another component to break other than the power supply itself. Even if a spark occurs or a capacitor bursts, which leaves everything in a state where "surely the DVD reader has burned out", it may not have broken anything else.

Of course, there is always the possibility that if you had the PC in an area with humidity, in addition to the power supply, the motherboard may have been damaged, but the best thing to do is to try with a power supply that works and is of sufficient power.
The truth is that 10 years is quite a long time, although many power supplies would like to last that long. Some do not last even two years... of course, usually the bad ones for 15-20€. That said, keep in mind that nothing is eternal and the power supply suffers wear and tear and reaches a point where it says enough is enough.

Greetings!!

Edit: sorry for the reflote...I didn't look at the date jajaja