Question PC Loud Pop, Circuit Breaker turned off

Jun 19, 2023
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So I just finished building a PC and after building I connected to the nearest outlet just to make sure everything was connected correctly and it was fine all the fans and rgb’s were going. So I was comfortable enough to bring it to the set up and begin using it. When I brought it up to my setup, upon turning it back on I hear a loud “pop” and the PC now won’t turn on after research I believe it’s the PSU and I’m currently having my PC being looked at. But I’m just wondering why this happened after it initially turned on before, another thing to note is that after I heard this pop, the breaker to my room was also turned off. Just wondering what everyone’s thoughts were. I’m using a 3070/5800x build and the PSU was 850W Super Flower Gold III. Please let me know as I’m stressing especially since I’ve spent a lot of money on this build and am praying that it’s only a small fix needed. I’m also wondering that if I replace the PSU, if I should continue using the same outlet. One last thing to note is that I was using an amazon basics power bar that is supposed to protect from surges. TLDR: PSU went pop, circuit breaker to my room turned off. Thanks for reading if you got to here hoping to get this resolved soon.
 
How old is the PSU? It can just happen anytime. Defective electronics are very common.
The PSU has 7years of warranty though

Are you using the cables from this exact PSU model or others?

Spacers to the case are installed correctly, so it can´t touch the motherboard?

Are any other devices plugged into the PC?

What else is plugged into the outlet? Any other high wattage devices in the same room?

a surge protector can safe devices from overvoltage, nothing else.
 
How old is the PSU? It can just happen anytime. Defective electronics are very common.
The PSU has 7years of warranty though

Are you using the cables from this exact PSU model or others?

Spacers to the case are installed correctly, so it can´t touch the motherboard?

Are any other devices plugged into the PC?

What else is plugged into the outlet? Any other high wattage devices in the same room?

a surge protector can safe devices from overvoltage, nothing else.
The cables are all original, but I am using some sleeved extensions for the motherboard and gpu. The spacers are also pre installed in the case.

I had my monitors and peripherals plugged into the pc when this occurred and the other devices connected to the outlet were the monitors and a fan.

Thank you for your reply, currently hoping it is just a faulty PSU, just weird how it can randomly happen like this even after working initially.
 
The cables are all original, but I am using some sleeved extensions for the motherboard and gpu. The spacers are also pre installed in the case.

I had my monitors and peripherals plugged into the pc when this occurred and the other devices connected to the outlet were the monitors and a fan.

Thank you for your reply, currently hoping it is just a faulty PSU, just weird how it can randomly happen like this even after working initially.
Things just fail randomly; that's why troubleshooting is so much fun.
 
For a start I'd ditch the Amazon Basics power bar even if it purports to provide protection against power surges. Most of these cheap devices (below $100) are junk. I doubt that it caused the problem but it may well have died when the PSU gave up the ghost. A lot of the MOVs in cheap protectors are "one time only devices", i.e. they get (partially/fully) destroyed when hit by a voltage or current spike of sufficient intensity.

What rating (in Amperes) is the mains circuit breaker in your room?

Many ATX PSUs pull up to 100A for a few milliseconds when connected to a nominal 220V AC supply. The figure for nominal 120V mains supplies is usually lower, e.g. 50 to 70A surge. During this time, the 400V bulk capacitor in the PSU presents a virtual short circuit across the mains, until it charges up.

Check out any of the PSU tests on Tom's for corroboration. In these tests, they warn that switch on surges can damage circuit breakers, fuses and switches in line with the PSU. They give figures for 220V and 120V AC inputs.

The result is it's easy to trip a low current room circuit breaker with an ATX PSU. The breaker in my Hall of Residence at Uni was rated at a miserly 1.35A, so I promptly bypassed it (highly illegal and dangerous, but I was an electrical engineering student at the time).

Again, I doubt your room breaker was the cause of your problem. Can you be 100% certain that all the extension cables you fitted were fully compatible with your PSU? I know it's not always safe to connect DC cables (SATA/Molex) supplied with one Corsair PSU and use them on another Corsair PSU. Sometimes they change the pinout on seemingly identical cables.

If any of the wires in your extension cables were crossed, the resultant short circuits or rail to rail bridges could have fatally tripped the over current or over voltage limit in the PSU. A decent PSU like the Super Flower should normally recover from a fault, but this cannot always be guaranteed.
 
For a start I'd ditch the Amazon Basics power bar even if it purports to provide protection against power surges. Most of these cheap devices (below $100) are junk. I doubt that it caused the problem but it may well have died when the PSU gave up the ghost. A lot of the MOVs in cheap protectors are "one time only devices", i.e. they get (partially/fully) destroyed when hit by a voltage or current spike of sufficient intensity.

What rating (in Amperes) is the mains circuit breaker in your room?

Many ATX PSUs pull up to 100A for a few milliseconds when connected to a nominal 220V AC supply. The figure for nominal 120V mains supplies is usually lower, e.g. 50 to 70A surge. During this time, the 400V bulk capacitor in the PSU presents a virtual short circuit across the mains, until it charges up.

Check out any of the PSU tests on Tom's for corroboration. In these tests, they warn that switch on surges can damage circuit breakers, fuses and switches in line with the PSU. They give figures for 220V and 120V AC inputs.

The result is it's easy to trip a low current room circuit breaker with an ATX PSU. The breaker in my Hall of Residence at Uni was rated at a miserly 1.35A, so I promptly bypassed it (highly illegal and dangerous, but I was an electrical engineering student at the time).

Again, I doubt your room breaker was the cause of your problem. Can you be 100% certain that all the extension cables you fitted were fully compatible with your PSU? I know it's not always safe to connect DC cables (SATA/Molex) supplied with one Corsair PSU and use them on another Corsair PSU. Sometimes they change the pinout on seemingly identical cables.

If any of the wires in your extension cables were crossed, the resultant short circuits or rail to rail bridges could have fatally tripped the over current or over voltage limit in the PSU. A decent PSU like the Super Flower should normally recover from a fault, but this cannot always be guaranteed.
I believe it’s rated for 15A but I’m not sure. Do you think I should just ditch the sleeved extension cables? I ordered them on amazon and used them for my prior build with no issues, they were just for aesthetic purposes. I’ll look into a better power bar do you have any suggestions? Thanks for the reply
 
First thing to do as helpstar said is to check underneath the motherboard to make sure there are no short circuits to ground (chassis) caused by metal spacers in the wrong positions. It's easy to do if you change motherboard size from your last build, e.g. ATX to microATX. If you do find a mis-placed metal spacer, chances are the motherboard has died too.

Quite often when a PSU stops working, all the other components are fine, but your PSU went out with a spectacular bang, so there's no guarantee the motherboard will have survived. If the 15A room breaker tripped, the fault current must have been quite high (tens of Amps).

A 15A breaker should continue to work at 15A for tens of hours. With a 30A fault current, I'd expect it to trip in a couple of seconds. Over 60A it should trip in tens or hundreds of milliseconds. Check the I/t (current/time) curve on the manufacturer's datasheet for your breaker if you know the part number (unlikely).

If you have a multimeter, you could buzz out each wire in the extensions and make sure they're wired one-to-one. If not, they could be the culprit but I suspect the fault lies elsewhere.

As for the power strip, I suggest you don't bother with "surge protection" for the time being. There's a possibility the MOVs inside the strip have died during the calamity. I'll have to find the article on-line which said most cheap surge protectors are just junk.

ATX power supplies have a combination of chokes (inductors), plus X and Y-rated capacitors on the input circuits to reduce EMC (emissions and immunity) and they do a reasonable job of coping with external spikes.

Good luck with the new PSU, but bear in mind you may need to replace other components. Build a basic computer first, i.e. no surge filters, extension cables, etc.

The same outlet protected by the 15A breaker should be safe, provided the mains socket on the wall is wired up correctly. Get a qualified electrician to check the room wiring if you have any doubts.