Power supply blown ?

Tusky

Hi, posting this on behalf of my flat mate. He came home tonight and tried to turn on his Pc and nothing happened, his monitor and speakers would turn on but not the pc. We turned the pc off at the switch at the back and tried using my power supply. We plugged it in and pressed the switch at the back of the PC and there was a bright flash and crackling noise. A small amount of smoke came from the back of the PC.

The pc itself is from overclockers.co.uk and cost about 3.5 grand, it's about one month old. I'm assuming at the very least, the power supply is blown. Is it possible that it could have done damage to the motherboard or processor also ? How could we find out ? I have a reasonable knowledge of computers but Im not an expert.

Also, what could have caused this ? There was a party here at the weekend and we were wondering could it have been caused by a spillage or someone knocking into the pc ?

Last but not least, where would be the best place to repair/assess the damage to the pc itself?

Thanks in advance.

Ruu_Old

It is possible that other parts were damaged, but you could be lucky. I think there are normally burn marks around the parts that caught some of the whack. As for the cause of the power supply blowing, it just happens sometimes or maybe got something spilled which would cause problems too.
You could grab a power supply if you had one handy (maybe from your own computer?) and try it in your mates.

Khannie

I had a PSU go on me like that before, on the same day that I bought it. Sometimes they just crap out. It didn't damage any other parts (they're usually kind enough to die on their own ) though as Ruu said...they can do.

Anti

If its a 3.5k pc, the chances are that it was a good psu, probably seasonic or enermax knowing overclockers.

So most of them have redundant circuitry that will prevent a feedback loop leaving the psu and damaging other components.

Like ruu said, there will most likely be scorch marks on the products that have been fried. But i very much doubt anything is damaged at all.

Now the cause of it could be many things. From a insect crawling onto the circuitboard. to a large dust build up, spillage. Or just the psu giving up. So grab your psu And test it out.

Also, since its a new psu you will be covered with your guarentee. I have had a psu blow and take a mobo and cpu plus ram and graphics card before, and i had it all exchanged no probs at all.

Tusky

Cheers for replies, my friend will be pleased to hear that it shouldnt effect warranty. He initially thought that someone must have kicked into it but I would have thought that that would be an unlikely cause.

alphasolutions

If you are going to ring the place you got it i would keep the bit about putting your psu into your mates pc quiet obviosuly as tampering with it yourself might have ended any warranty you had.