[SOLVED] White smoke from PSU

[iam480p]

Good day. My PC won't turn on these past couple of hours and I'm worried that it's because of the power supply. And I made a very idiotic move. I switched the voltage of the PSU to 115v and plugged it in to my 220v outlet and suddenly, white smoke came out of the PSU and I heard a little pop inside of it. I'm worried now that the PSU took the other components with it until I can confirm for myself by borrowing a known good power supply. Is there a potential damage to other components?

Unit is a Cougar SL500.

 

[DSzymborski]

Ideally, no, but there are no guarantees and this PSU was rather junky in the first place. The only way you'll know is with that known good power supply.

 

[TheOldieRNZ]

You got a blown capacitor and probably a couple diodes inside the PSU. Your motherboard and other PC components should be safe. Its the AC part of the PSU that got blown up, not the DC part which went to your rig. You can actually repair it easily and cheaply if you have a solder kit and know how to de-solder and solder things (depending on your country/location, usually between USD$1 to $5 (total cost for component replacements) not including equipments like solder, de-solder, flux, etc). But if it is a cheap and old PSU (usually the ones that came with your DIY-PC case), just throw it away and buy a new one. Nowadays pretty much every electronics uses automatic voltage switching mechanism so incident like what happened to you is quite rare.

Edit: just realized about the brand/model
Also kinda curious, is that an older model? As far as I know Cougar SL500 (or the many brands that uses the same thing) don't have voltage switch (automatic 100-240V input).

 

[iam480p]

I forgot to mention that the PSU in question was a weird one this couple of months ago. Yes, I know that the SL500 is old and I should've upgraded years ago. I knew my lesson but the fan on this PSU was acting odd. Whenever I turned my pc on, the fan seems to be stuck on something, creating this vibration noises. I guess bottom line is, I should upgrade, no?

 

[iam480p]

Both of your replies just boosted my hopes that the other components are okay. I really appreciate the answers and explanation. I'll update once I get a hold of that good known PSU that I am going to be borrowing.

 

[jonnyguru]

Good day. My PC won't turn on these past couple of hours and I'm worried that it's because of the power supply. And I made a very idiotic move. I switched the voltage of the PSU to 115v and plugged it in to my 220v outlet and suddenly, white smoke came out of the PSU and I heard a little pop inside of it. I'm worried now that the PSU took the other components with it until I can confirm for myself by borrowing a known good power supply. Is there a potential damage to other components?

Unit is a Cougar SL500.

Bridge diode blew up. Main transformer works to insulate the primary and secondary sides of the PC, so your PC parts are very likely fine.

Your PSU was about as cheap garbage as they come. Consider this an opportunity to get something descent.