Question PSU probably blown - could defective parts damage other components ?

[jbrighton]

I have the following system:

Asus B450 F Gaming 2
Ryzen 5 3600
2x 16 GB HyperX Fury RGB 3200MHz
Crucial P3 500 GB NVMe
DeepCool LT 520 240mm AIO
EVGA 600W non-modular PSU
Sleeved extensions for ATX & EPS (can't remember the brand)
3x various SATA SSDs
Gigabyte RTX 4060 Aero 8 GB
Some huge old Thermaltake case with motherboard rotated 90°, modded to fit 9 fans & 240mm radiator

I've been using the computer mostly for a bit of Blender, some Python programming, image editing and for music production. A couple of weeks ago I unplugged it so I could do some decorating and move furniture around. I've got another computer that's good enough for YouTube, email & browsing, and while I've been busy with home improvement jobs I haven't really had any time for productivity.

A few days ago I plugged the computer in again and turned it on, but I could only hear some fans spinning for a few seconds (probably the radiator fans) before everything shut down again. There was never any video signal. I decided to leave it until I had more time to check everything, and yesterday I unplugged all fans, drives and ARGB connectors, and then plugged everything back in again. I didn't unplug the ATX and EPS power connectors, but I made sure that they were securely plugged in.

With the back of the PSU pointing upward, I could see a large blue spark inside when I turned the power on, and nothing happened except for an LED (the red one indicating a boot problem) lighting up on the motherboard.

As I was going to upgrade my PC one last time before I buld an AM5 system, I had planned several purchases for the near future - a Seasonic modular 850W PSU and MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk motherboard in 2 weeks, and a month later a Ryzen 9 5900X or 5950X (depending on the price at the time). I'll also want to replace those SATA SSDs with M.2 NVMes. But because I (regrettably) haven't got a bunch of old components around for testing, I'm unsure how much damage has been done. I assume that whatever happened could have also fried the motherboard , CPU and/or memory, and (what a horrific thought!) maybe even the GPU? So I'm not sure whether it would be a good idea to hook up a new PSU to potentially damaged components?

Although I can't afford to buy a completely new PC, I'm happy to spend a bit of money on some cheap old parts to do some testing. What would be the best approach for this? Even though I realise that I could just get the new components when I can afford them as originally planned, and wait with assembling everything until I have all the bits together, I don't really want to be stuck with a cheap Celeron and intel UHD graphics until then if I can avoid it. And I'd also lie to resuse the memory for the time being, if it's still working. What should I do?

 

[Lutfij]

If the rest of your parts were fried by your older PSU, they will be dead and won't fire up and cause no further damage to your new PSU. I say new PSU since you state buying parts for an upgrade path. If not, you should source(borrow, not buy) a reliably built, higher wattage PSU from your friend or neighbor.

You would need to have known working parts(equivalent to a whole PC) to test out your current hardware, one step at a time. Like a known working motherboard to drop your processor onto, if that checks out then drop your rams into the board.

 

[jbrighton]

If the rest of your parts were fried by your older PSU, they will be dead and won't fire up and cause no further damage to your new PSU. I say new PSU since you state buying parts for an upgrade path. If not, you should source(borrow, not buy) a reliably built, higher wattage PSU from your friend or neighbor.

You would need to have known working parts(equivalent to a whole PC) to test out your current hardware, one step at a time. Like a known working motherboard to drop your processor onto, if that checks out then drop your rams into the board.

It's my first Ryzen PC, so I haven't got any compatible parts. My previous PSU was some cheap crap that I've no longer got (used for powering an ancient Phenom II X6), and I don't know anyone nearby whom I could ask to borrow theirs. But as I was planning to get a new modular PSU before anything else anyway (as it's the least likely component to degrade in price over a few months), I'll hook that up to see what happens. I just needed to know if any damage could cause more power to be drawn from the power supply than it's designed for.

So if I try a faulty CPU in a working motherboard or vice versa, that shouldn't be a problem either, if I understand you correctly (apart frrom the computer not powering up, obviously)?

 

[Viking2121]

If you install CPU you think is fried into a working board, normally it just wont work, wont hurt anything.

But I would not hook the PSU up to anything, throw it away. If you get a new PSU a good known brand, if the system is fried from the old PSU, normally it just wont work or do vary little, should hurt the new PSU though, if there is a short on the motherboard or other components, it should trip the OCP, unplug it and way a few and plug it back in and it should be good.

I personally would just get a new known working good brand PSU, no cheap junk, and hook it up and see if it boots, if not, try to taking some stuff out or unplugging things like SSD's, disk drives or other accessories, even try a different GPU just to see, but chances are it'll be alright, I've had many systems come in with a blown a PSU, spit out sparks and everything, and I've only had a handful ever take out something else its usually storage devices for some reason.

Good Luck!

 

[NedSmelly]

I once had a PSU blown up whilst using it. Puff of magic smoke. Went to the local computer shop, bought a replacement, swapped it out, and everything worked again. Just went back to what I was doing.

Sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're not.

 

[jbrighton]

If you install CPU you think is fired into a working bored, normally it just wont work, wont hurt anything.

But I would not hook the PSU up to anything, throw it away. If you get a new PSU a good known brand, if the system is fried from the old PSU, normally it just wont work or do vary little, should hurt the new PSU though, if there is a short on the motherboard or other components, it should trip the OCP, unplug it and way a few and plug it back in and it should be good.

I personally would just get a new known working good brand PSU, no cheap junk, and hook it up and see if it boots, if not, try to taking some stuff out or unplugging things like SSD's, disk drives or other accessories, even try a different GPU just to see, but chances are it'll be alright, I've had many systems come in with a blown a PSU, spit out sparks and everything, and I've only had a handful ever take out something else its usually storage devices for some reason.

Good Luck!

Thanks, that sounds reassuring.

Yes, I'll definitely be throwing the old PSU away. Didn't even consider trying if I could jumpstart it with a paper clip.

A new PSU has sounded like a good idea for some time, not just to get rid of all those unneeded power cables inside my PC but also for my peace of mind. After originally planning to get a Corsair RMx I've settled for a Seasonic Focus RX instead, but I'm pretty sure that both are excellent power supplies..