PSU Blew today due to a screw falling in to it

[Trixz_D]

Hello,
I rather stupidly blew my coolermaster 500w psu today i was reseating the graphics card and a screw fell into the psu i thought i had got it out then plugged the damn thing in as i plugged it in it instantly blew and forced the cable back while in my hand causing the trip box in my house to trip. Since my pc was not acutally turned on what is the chance my mobo, processor, ram and disc drives etc will be ok. I have ordered a new psu due to arrive tomorrow after i begged the company for it to be sent asap lol.

 

[jay_nar2012]

There would be an equal chance, most likely that you shorted the mains line, you have to see tomorrow if it works and lets just hope it does.

 

[Trixz_D]

Incase it is any use my specs are:

Asrock 990fx extreme 3 motherboard
AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 Black Edition 3.60Ghz
Sapphire HD 6750 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
4gb Corsair vengance DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz
1x 320gb sata hard drive
1x 250gb hard drive 2.5 sata

 

[Trixz_D]

There would be an equal chance, most likely that you shorted the mains line, you have to see tomorrow if it works and lets just hope it does.

Hope so I am just so worried. Mobo itself looks fine and no scorching and such. So hopefully I can just plug it in and have no issues

 

[InvalidError]

Since my pc was not acutally turned on what is the chance my mobo, processor, ram and disc drives etc will be ok.

With the PSU in soft-off mode, the only part providing power would be the 5VSB supply which has insufficient energy to cause major sparks and certainly not enough to trip the mains' breaker so whatever blew up is certainly on the primary side. The likelihood of damage to any PC components is very low so the rest of your PC is most likely fine.

 

[Trixz_D]

With the PSU in soft-off mode, the only part providing power would be the 5VSB supply which has insufficient energy to cause major sparks and certainly not enough to trip the mains' breaker so whatever blew up is certainly on the primary side. The likelihood of damage to any PC components is very low so the rest of your PC is most likely fine.

So basically as I hadnt turned the pc on using the case power button it is most likely to just be the psu and it will be safe to plug my new one in when i get it also?

 

[InvalidError]

So basically as I hadnt turned the pc on using the case power button it is most likely to just be the psu and it will be safe to plug my new one in when i get it also?

Even if your PC had been on, the likelihood of a primary-side short severe enough to trip a breaker (and likely vaporize the PSU's fuse) causing damage on the secondary (output) side would still be very low.

There is a tiny possibility that the short may have been across primary and secondary sides but with all the keep-out zones between sides and usually grounded heatsinks on both sides of critical areas, this is unlikely unless you dropped a (very) long screw.

 

[Trixz_D]

There was a small bang and little spark from the plug input and the screw was in the side containing the large capacitators right below them resting on a tiny metal strip which now has a small burn mark on it and it was a tiny screw for keeping the graphics card secure so not too big.

 

[Trixz_D]

Even if your PC had been on, the likelihood of a primary-side short severe enough to trip a breaker (and likely vaporize the PSU's fuse) causing damage on the secondary (output) side would still be very low.

There is a tiny possibility that the short may have been across primary and secondary sides but with all the keep-out zones between sides and usually grounded heatsinks on both sides of critical areas, this is unlikely unless you dropped a (very) long screw.

There was a small bang and little spark from the plug input and the screw was in the side containing the large capacitators right below them resting on a tiny metal strip which now has a small burn mark on it and it was a tiny screw for keeping the graphics card secure so not too big.

 

[pacioli]

Make sure you mount your PSU fan side down...

 

[Onus]

Hopefully nothing else fried. That would be great news, because the silver lining in this dark cloud is you're getting rid of a near-junk overrated, inefficient, CM PSU. Hopefully your new one is of higher quality, such as anything [built by] Seasonic, Antec, Corsair, XFX, Enermax/LEPA, or even FSP.

 

[Trixz_D]

Make sure you mount your PSU fan side down...

That was confusing on mine at the fan looks like it at the top as the label was upside down and some of the screw mounts in the back of my case didnt match although that may just be me as this pc is my first successful build lol did 2 builds in 1 week.

 

[pacioli]

You should be able to mount it either way, but when the fan is sitting open like a cup... Well Murphy's law dictates that the screw will always fall into the fan...
Plus most bottom mount cases have air intakes on the floor of the case to allow air to come in from the ground.

 

[Trixz_D]

Hopefully nothing else fried. That would be great news, because the silver lining in this dark cloud is you're getting rid of a near-junk overrated, inefficient, CM PSU. Hopefully your new one is of higher quality, such as anything [built by] Seasonic, Antec, Corsair, XFX, Enermax/LEPA, or even FSP.

Hope so too although this pc is a cheap build i still dont want to have to fork out for new components

 

[Trixz_D]

You should be able to mount it either way, but when the fan is sitting open like a cup... Well Murphy's law dictates that the screw will always fall into the fan...
Plus most bottom mount cases have air intakes on the floor of the case to allow air to come in from the ground.

I know i defo gunna do that with new one cheers for advice

 

[jay_nar2012]

No problem and i hope you learned your lesson.

And congrats on the working computer.

 

[Trixz_D]

UPDATE

New PSU arrived today all plugged up and working like before All components are fine. Thanks for all your comments.

 

[Trixz_D]

No problem and i hope you learned your lesson.

And congrats on the working computer.

Cheers and I have lol this time i made sure the fan was facing the bottom of the case so no chance of a screw falling in again .

 

[jay_nar2012]

You could put dust filters on the PSU's fan, that would keep out any screws and dust and bugs.

 

[Trixz_D]

You could put dust filters on the PSU's fan, that would keep out any screws and dust and bugs.

I got two with the case one for top and one for bottom got them both in use now should see amount of dust they catch

 

[jay_nar2012]

Do you clean the dust off?

 

[Trixz_D]

Do you clean the dust off?

Yep I do it at least once a week and clean the fans to best thing to do i think lol

 

[Onus]

What PSU did you get?