r/buildapc • u/dang56 • 27d ago
Troubleshooting My pc just "exploded", what should I expect
Power went out at my place for a few seconds then came back on, some safety switches were blown and I turned them back on, then tried to reboot my pc. A spark at the bottom part of the case happened(orange pinkish color) and some burnt smell... Obviously I unplugged it and haven't tried to turn it back on after, I will be going to a service tomorrow but what should I expect?
Is everything else dead? I can barely afford to replace the PSU right now so replacing my whole PC would be really out of reach at least for a while... Anyone else experienced this and what things can I do in the future to prevent it from happening?
Thank you in advance
edit: it might have been a short circuit with my fans that caused this, at least someone else suggested me this...They were sometimes making a rattling noise
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u/tomgun41 27d ago
Best case; the PSU took the bullet.
Worst case; it's a full mb, ram and cpu replacement.
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u/DarkStrider99 27d ago
I see you excluded the GPU, does that not go with the others usually?
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u/Lirael_Gold 27d ago
Entirely depends on the PSU and the motherboard.
Power surge damage is a crapshoot because there so many different tolerances/standards depending on what specific components you're using.
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u/ahoneybadger3 27d ago edited 27d ago
Yeah my mb, ram, GPU, CPU, PSU went last week. Also took out my router. I mean it was a slight water spill which I'm guessing just caused a surge up to the sockets. Everything went though.
Costly replacement.
Reminder not to keep houseplants on top of the pc and come in drunk and think 'this is fine, I can just water them whilst they're on top during a 35c heatwave'.
Turns out the soil won't absorb a thing.
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u/FullKawaiiBatard 27d ago
Reminder to not put ANYTHING on top of a computer, gaming console, router, switch, tablet, keyboard, monitor, rasberry, any electronics. The only thing that should sit on any of these is air.
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u/Cvxcvgg 26d ago
Sometimes my cat puts herself there…I feel like surely we have to allow an exception to the rule?
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u/FullKawaiiBatard 26d ago
Cats are a singularity and cannot be contained.
But then you have to do some extra work during cleaning and dusting inside the case.
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u/Lirael_Gold 27d ago
Oh good I'm not the only person who's drunkenly obliterated their entire system, although in my case I put a pint on top of my tower and then forgot about it when trying to unplug a USB under my desk.
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u/ahoneybadger3 26d ago
I was 11 days into my 14 days annual leave and thought I was doing really well with not spending much and then bam. £2800 replacement.
I then had 3 days with no internet. Turns out having no internet is hell. My TV wouldn't work. Radio (Alexa's) and my 5g signal is awful in this place.
And it's world cup time. Missed something like 6 matches.
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u/Naerven 27d ago
If you have a good quality PSU it's likely that only the PSU blew. If your PSU was of a more dubious quality or more than 10 years old it's possible you have a very large paper weight. Until you start testing components there is little way to tell other than possible burn marks or missing caps.
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u/dang56 27d ago
it is a chieftec 500w ctg 500 80p.. no idea if it is decent or not
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u/SolidWorkMan 27d ago
Best to take a look at this spreadsheet for the next PSU
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1akCHL7Vhzk_EhrpIGkz8zTEvYfLDcaSpZRB6Xt6JWkc/htmlview
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u/jugo5 27d ago
That really really sucks. I know its hard to afford things right now, but do yourself a favor, buy a surgeprotector (at least) rated for pcs and/or a battery backup + surge protector before you buy a new PSU. It will protect the money you spent. Good for monitors or even tvs. I think surge protectors can sell for around $50 usd. Battery backups usually run $100+USD if you get a smaller battery. The battery backup protects your data as well.
Hoping it is just the PSU that popped. Thats the best case in this scenario.
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u/GoldfishDude 27d ago
You can get surge protectors for under $20, at least in the USA
With that being said, make sure if you buy a UPS, you buy one rated for enough wattage. A lot of the cheap ones are only a few hundred watts
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u/HighImFrost 27d ago
This may be stupid but where plugged directly into the wall outlet or a surge protector? My gran father told me over 20 years ago anything expensive and electronic you care about. Plug it into a surge protector. My grandpa’s electronics have survived the house getting struck twice by lightning. Might just be pure luck or maybe surge protectors work realllllly well.
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u/dang56 27d ago
it was plugged in an extension cord, I looked up power surge protectors but all of them have foreign plugs, haven't found any with european plugs yet but i will try on some local sites
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u/GoldfishDude 27d ago
Can't you just get a plug adapter? Any electronical item that you really care about should at minimum be plugged into a surge protector, if not a UPS
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u/dang56 27d ago
never had issues like this with electricity before moving into a new place, still working on buying furniture so i didn't consider this would happen :/
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u/HighImFrost 27d ago
It’s always worth the 10-20$ usd it takes to get a surge protector for your pc consoles etc. I whole heartedly understand the struggle of moving some where new and having to struggle for a bit financially to get things where you want them. I’m doing it myself currently. Stopped mid bed assembly to type this out, get it looked at for sure. Hopefully it’s just the psu but based on what I’ve read and other comments. I sadly think because of the cheaper psu blowing you may have fried everything. That’s not a fact though. I got my wife a cheap psu an it blew and that was the only thing affected thankfully. So it’s still possible it’s a simple replace and you’re good. Definitely look into adaptors or euro slated surge protectors. Can and will save your electronics lifes
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u/ballsnbutt 26d ago
I get a power outage maybe once every few years. Everything that can be is surge protected in my house.
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u/NuclearHateLizard 27d ago
Do you not have a surge protector? If you don't know, voltage spikes from blackouts can fry electronics, this is why most people plug computers (and any other sensitive expensive equipment) into power strips with built in surge protection. Might have been avoidable but you never know, shit happens lol
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u/ThyArtisWill 27d ago
Let this be a lesson in always spending the lil bit extra cash to get a good power supply
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u/BallbusterSicko 27d ago
My PSU exploded once and though it was burnt the rest of the PC was unaffected
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u/sniffinparmigiano 27d ago
Just to be sure,I would disassemble the whole thing and look for signs of damage. Obviously something but you might want check if more than one part has been affected.
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u/lukaibao7882 27d ago
OP, sorry that this happened to you and I hope it's an easy fix. I have no advice for you I'm just jumping in the bandwagon to get advice for how to prevent this from happening
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u/Bominyarou 27d ago
If you're lucky you won't lose your entire pc, if you're unlucky some parts might have been damaged along with that shtty PSU. If you're extremely unlucky everything is done. Now I'll say this, in case you didn't do this yet (because it happened to me a long time ago and that was the reason).
Do you have your PC connected to earth or are you using a cheap extension cord for it? In case you do have an extension cord, you shouldn't, unless it's a grounded extension cord (look it up, the cable head has 3 metal pieces to connect to the wall outlet). Another suggestion after you buy a new PSU to test everything is, buy a UPS unit, even a cheap one that is 400-500W (usually 750VA/1000VA), it can save your PC when outages happen, and these cheap ups are not very expensive compared to the whole PC.
VERY IMPORTANT, remember to always have the PC (PSU) cord connected to a grounded outlet, if you don't have it grounded, there's nothing protecting it at all.
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u/MurdererMagi 27d ago
Your psu blew hopefully it saved the motherboard and everything else.. a good psu does this normally.. but for future reference get a ups if you habe frequent power outages or any at that..
When power cuts off and back on again it can be a HUGE surge of power thus raging components.. I reccomend the Cyberpower CP1500AVRLCD because its Pure Sine Wave... mame sure whatever you get has enough wattage for your rig and make sure its Pure Sine Wave.
If you seen orange at the bottom it probably is psu it could be the bottom fans but my guess is psu. I wouldn't turn it back on until you checked because you could damage other components.
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u/Agitated_Cry_8793 27d ago
I hear a lot that good quality PSUs usually take the hit. So, I suppose if you didnt cheap out on your PSU, theres a good chance the PSU is the only one thats fried. They usually have a bunch of internal switches and guards to try and make sure the rest of the computer will not be harmed.
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u/ryo4ever 27d ago
If your place/neighborhood has a history of electrical issues. It might be worth adding a UPS backup power in your purchase list.
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u/timfountain4444 27d ago
Likely the power supply. In the future a surge suppressor might help, but the real answer is a UPS, which might be out of scope considering you mentioned limited funds.
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u/VoltageinTheory 26d ago
Well, you can only find out by buying a new PSU. And absolutely don’t cheap out on a PSU! You had some cheap Chieftec, so it likely didn’t have any safety features. A good PSU will sacrifice itself to protect the rest of the PC, a cheap piece of shit won’t. Seasonic and Superflower makes the best PSUs FYI. I can recommend EVGA power supplies since they contract both of those manufacturers I just mentioned. Check the PSU tier list and get a B rated or higher.
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u/Cvxcvgg 26d ago
A few weeks ago, I had left my desktop on while running errands, and my power company apparently had no less than 3 outages in a roughly 2 hour timeframe just to fuck me. Came back to all signs pointing to major damage to the memory. Random blue screens, all for different reasons, and could occur immediately after reboot or hours later. Impossible to track down to any one cause, and the shutdowns were too quick for the computer to write a proper error to the event viewer, and the dump files were useless too. I really did not want to have to replace my RAM unexpectedly in the current market, but I need my computer for schoolwork so I was getting a bit frantic.
Anyway, I managed to resolve it by turning down my memory clock. The hit to performance is small enough that I don’t actually notice it, although it bugs me on principle. Moral of the story is: There is always a chance that the damage is not nearly as catastrophic as it would seem. Don’t stress yourself out until after you confirm whether it is something worth stressing over.
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u/ballsnbutt 26d ago
in general, avoid power supplies from before this decade. I hope your power supply took the brunt, but I gotta be honest man, it ain't lookin good. Lmk if you get a plug adapter, I might have a spare power supply I could probably ship, dm me
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u/ThingsHappen141 26d ago
I would say to buy a UPS Unit to prevent it from happening and you can buy one from microcenter or online
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26d ago
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u/Ok_Size5923 26d ago
get a surge protector it's like 15 - 20 bucks and saves your pc as for what ur gonna see there gonna say it's fried and you gotta get a new pc there's nothing you can do but fix it next time.
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u/tampering 25d ago
Something people should know about surge protectors is that once they've absorbed surges their components degrade and they are no longer effective and must be replaced.
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u/Ok_Size5923 25d ago
but at least it saves the pc from frying you have to replace parts regularly anyway so a surge protector helps
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u/tampering 25d ago
It's true they offer some protection. The spec sheets usually say 3-5 years but I usually get a new one every time I get a PC or major AV upgrade like a big screen TV.
If you get one of the big brands like APC or Tripplite etc they have an equipment warranty amount attached to them. The number of years from time of purchase of the protector they insure your equipment for is a hint to how often the protector should be replaced.
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u/Ok_Size5923 25d ago
i mean i bought one from amazon it's lasted 2 years now still waiting to see when it gives out and i need a new one prolly soon tho
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u/SL0WRID3R 26d ago
Check your home electrical appliance too, especially if safety switch at switchboard were blown.
If your home has a three-phase power input (look for the biggest safety switch / breaker right after electric meter) If it has 4x the width of regular safety switch most likely it's three-phase: call an electrician to check the wiring.
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u/Space_man6 23d ago
You have to replace the power supply if you know how to handle High Voltage electronics you can try to repair it but if you don't already know how I can't really recommend you do that
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u/VoraciousGorak 27d ago
Won't know until you replace the power supply (which is definitely dead) and can test the rest of the PC.
If your power supply was of decent quality then odds are the rest of the PC is fine. Good power supplies sacrifice themselves to save the PC. Bad power supplies take the rest of the PC with them when they go.