[SOLVED] Blew replacement PSU on old system. Is MB bad?

[jqpa]

I have an older system that died and has been in storage for a while. I had some free time on my hands so I wanted to clean it up and get it running again. When I was taking it apart, I accidentally pulled out the entire CPU along with the heatsink because they were fused together. I got them apart but a few CPU pins were bent. I straightened them out, put the CPU back in, and put new thermal paste to reattach the heatsink after I cleaned it.

I discovered the PSU was dead and dug out a used but seemingly working PSU someone had given me. It was only 20 pin, so I ordered a 20 to 24 pin adapter along with some additional matching RAM and a new video card. Everything arrived today and I set it up (except for DP-only video card since I don't have my DP monitor with me or a DP/HDMI adapter yet). The PSU powered up and one of the indicator leds on the MB came on, but there were no POST sounds or video and the CPU fan did not start. I don't think the case fans came on either. After maybe 30-60 second, the PSU loudly popped and shorted out.

I'm now trying to figure out what to do next and what to try replacing. I don't want to order a new PSU just to blow it out, but I also don't want to replace the MB and/or CPU if I don't have to. For reference, the MB is an ASUS M5A78L-M/USB3, the original PSU was a Seasonic SS-400FB, and the replacement that I just blew was an ULTRA ULT-600P. All of these components are at least 5 yeras old.

I'm not sure how the PSU itself could have been the issue if it was providing power to the mainboard, although I don't know the history of this PSU or remember why the person gave it to me. Is there any way to test whether the PSU is the problem without buying a new one and risking blowing it again because of MB or CPU issues?

Any other suggestions or advice?

Thanks,
jqpa

 

[ArchitSahu]

The Ultra Series of PSU's are pretty poor. Especially considering now that it has shorted out for you. Do you have a reliable PSU you can borrow to test your system on? There is generally no other way to know if your components have spoiled unless you have another PSU. Get a proper PSU, something from Corsairs RMx, TXM series or Seasonic's Focus/Focus Plus are good options.

This thread should help you:

[SOLVED] - PSU Exploded please help

Hi guys, this is my first pc build, so I'm still a bit noobish, but my PSU exploded and made a cloud of smoke! Do you guys think any other components are broken too?

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[jqpa]

Hey thanks for the reply. I actually posted on another forum and got basically the same advice, so I picked up a cheap $13 open box PSU at Microcenter (to limit my risk in case it shorted the PSU) and it turns out the board boots fine. PSU is going back though bc it is loud and the cords aren't long enough for my case.

Struggled a bit with getting the board to recognize all 16GB (flashed the BIOS and played around with memory voltage and it worked) and now I'm dealing with issues getting Windows 7 to boot, which I really want to do so I can try to recover a 2TB drive that is was formatted in some wonky format that I cannot fully read on any other system. I have all of the files from data recovery but no name and folder information so it's just a huge mess that would take dozens of hours to properly sort through and would never really be right again.

Hoping I can get the original OS up and running but it keeps hanging after startup repair reboots. I tried booting from USB ISO image but that's not working either. Currently looking everywhere for my original Win7 install disc so I try booting from that and running the repair utils.

 

[ArchitSahu]

Whatever you do, make sure you get a proper PSU from the models I mentioned in my last post. Never risk with a cheap PSU.