Blown PSU - anything I can do at this stage?

Gingervitis

I'm wondering where to pinpoint the problem, and whether this will happen again.

So I bought a prebuilt PC in Korea back in 2013. PSU is by Phoenix CNS (600W). Can't really find anything about them online, so it's not reputable at all. Still, it's worked fine up until today. 

I bought a RX480 two months ago. No problems. 

Problem happened when I bought a new monitor. I have two plug sockets. One is connected to a surge protected power strip with 4 plugs. All of these plugs are in use (first monitor, speakers, PSU and powerline ethernet adaptor). The other is connected to the new monitor.

 Everything was working fine for about an hour or two, but when I tried multitasking (full screen Youtube on one monitor, The Division at 1080p 144hz), everything died. There were two loud pops and a smell of smoke. In addition to this, the fuse was tripped and all the outlets in the room went with it. Reset the fuse at the box, but the PC is dead. Everything else in the room is working.

My brother is bringing down a crappy PSU on the weekend. I'll take out the GPU just in case, to see if the motherboard is gone. I had a look at it but couldn't see anything in particular damaged. Is there anything I can visually identify while the PC is dead?

I'm looking to buy an EVGA Supernova 550W G2 as a replacement.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-GOLD-Modular-Power-Supply/dp/B0141B21JG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1484599457&sr=8-2&keywords=evga+psu&th=1

I have a couple of questions:
1. Did the second monitor cause the PSU to blow, or was it a coincidence? I'd prefer not to repeat this experience. 
2. Is there any way of knowing the damage done to the PC before the new power supply is tested? 
3. Should I buy the new PSU if the one on the weekend shows that more extensive damage has been done to the motherboard and so on?

I'll note that despite it being a no-name brand, the old PSU serviced my 560TI, 280X and 480X without a hitch (except for increased temperatures on the 480x, but I attributed that to the GPU fan, not the PSU)

Thanks for any assistance.

extra-ordinary_

Guessing PSU gave up the ghost due to age/quality and/or power draw. Unless you've another system you won't be able to check functionality of the other parts before you get another PSU.

Solitaire

Phoenix Contacts is a US industrial PSU manufacturer.
CNS seems to be significant to industrial power and Russians
By their combined power and its monetized desire to sell you a new PSU, Google doesn't want to know jack about your deathbox

1. Power draw could have been a minor factor but heat was likely the killer as deathboxes tend to use bad caps rated for at most 50 degrees. Such failures are usually primary-(mains-)based and surge the secondary (PC) side killing the rest of the PSU and often the PC as well. Grand mal cap failure with a deathbox using badcaps and cheapo ICs usually has a pretty bad prognosis unfortunately, its kinda where they get the "death-" bit from

2. If there's scorch-marks and damaged caps and/or VRMs on the mobo you'll know you'll need a new one of those at least Other than that you'll need a known-good PSU (usually sourced via a good and nearby friend) to test the system with.

3. Test the system first with a mate's PSU and if worst comes to worst try components such as RAM/drives/GPU in a friend's PC (quite possibly the one supplying the donor PSU ). The CPU is a tricky beast as it may also have been killed by the deathsplosion but is a bit more... involved ...to try and test in a known-good system Outside of desperation there's little to be had in ordering a new PSU before you know exactly what else needs replacing too.

Gingervitis

Well, that is worrying...All I can do is test the system with a new PSU and cross all my fingers and toes.
Thanks for the heads up.

Gingervitis

Solitaire wrote: »

Phoenix Contacts is a US industrial PSU manufacturer.
CNS seems to be significant to industrial power and Russians
By their combined power and its monetized desire to sell you a new PSU, Google doesn't want to know jack about your deathbox

1. Power draw could have been a minor factor but heat was likely the killer as deathboxes tend to use bad caps rated for at most 50 degrees. Such failures are usually primary-(mains-)based and surge the secondary (PC) side killing the rest of the PSU and often the PC as well. Grand mal cap failure with a deathbox using badcaps and cheapo ICs usually has a pretty bad prognosis unfortunately, its kinda where they get the "death-" bit from

2. If there's scorch-marks and damaged caps and/or VRMs on the mobo you'll know you'll need a new one of those at least Other than that you'll need a known-good PSU (usually sourced via a good and nearby friend) to test the system with.

3. Test the system first with a mate's PSU and if worst comes to worst try components such as RAM/drives/GPU in a friend's PC (quite possibly the one supplying the donor PSU ). The CPU is a tricky beast as it may also have been killed by the deathsplosion but is a bit more... involved ...to try and test in a known-good system Outside of desperation there's little to be had in ordering a new PSU before you know exactly what else needs replacing too.

If I can't get access to a friend's PSU, shouldn't I order a new PSU anyway? It will have to be replaced regardless of the state of the other components, and it is the only way to test said components. I didn't see any physical damage to the parts, but I noticed that the power cables no longer work either (fuse blown probably). Is this indicative of anything?

Polar101

It's impossible to say for sure if all the components work, but if you didn't see any damage on the motherboard, that MIGHT indicate the power surge didn't get that far and the components might be OK.

When I had a similar incident once, there was visible damage to the motherboard - it didn't work at all, so I had to replace that as well, but the rest of the components were fine.

K.O.Kiki

Just buy the EVGA G2 - worst comes to worst, you can start a new build around it.

Gingervitis

I ordered a Seasonic G550W. Tier 2 should do me grand. Now to play the waiting game...

Gingervitis

Happy ending. Plugged in new PSU, and no damage to anything. GPU didn't output to monitor on first reboot, but after second reboot, everything is back to normal.

Thanks to everyone for the advise!