Power surge help needed please.

[Bav101]

Hi guys,

I was hoping someone could clear something up for me. This may take a bit of explaining so please bear with me and I'll try not to waffle.

About a month ago I bought a new power supply, I installed it and I plugged it in to the wall socket and the unit soon as I flicked the wall switch there was a flash of light and a bang and a smell of burning it also tripped the trip for the wall sockets in the kitchen which is where my PC was. I reset the trip and everything was and has been working fine in the kitchen.

I've since been arguing with the company i bought the PSU from that it was faulty and has caused the damage to other parts of my PC.

A couple of things I need to mention, I've been a PC engineer for over 15 years so I know how to fit a PSU so I know that was done properly. The Electrics in the house I'm living in was redone about 15 years ago, and was checked approx a year ago, the council where I live seem to come round and check it periodically.

The company I'm currently arguing with are saying its a power surge and have politely told me to go forth and multiply. But would a power surge only affect that one thing or would it have taken out say everything in the kitchen as well or the house and not just that one thing?

Any help would be appreciated and thanks for your time.

 

[Jono Pashley]

in all honesty if it went bang the minute you plugged it in, the flash and burning would suggest a dead short inside the PSU

 

[Bav101]

in all honesty if it went bang the minute you plugged it in, the flash and burning would suggest a dead short inside the PSU

Thanks a lot for the reply, you confirmed something I was thinking as soon as i read there reply to my last mail. I knew they were trying to fob me off, but I dont know enough about electrics to be 100%.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

The trip you refer to in on the kitchen circuit.....

do you mean an RCD (shock protection) device In which case something is making path through earth... Trapped wire in metal PC case???

or an MCB (overload protection) device. If something has taken out a 32amp MCB then it is most probably a dead short.

Does the PSU have a setting for 110v / 230v? Was it set for the right voltage?

Putting 230v down a 110v PSU will cause pops & bangs!

Is this "Company" a real business or a Flea-Bay seller??

If a real company their products should still be fit for purpose and of merchantable quality and not go pop if plugged in corectly..

I've been a PC engineer for over 15 years so I know how to fit a PSU so I know that was done properly. The Electrics in the house I'm living in was redone about 15 years ago, and was checked approx a year ago, the council where I live seem to come round and check it periodically.

I knew they were trying to fob me off, but I don't know enough about electrics to be 100%.

Slight contradiction in my mind here..

It is very easy to train very unskilled person to swap plug & play components ..

and it has been that way for many many years now..

Did you test continuity & polarity of leads etc & earth before applying power to your new device?

Did you power up the PSU standalone first and meter the actual output voltages first before connecting to the PC?

I know I would if it was a flea-bay purchase!

:C .

 

[Evans Electric]

The market is full of dodgey bits of kit such as Phone chargers , PSU for games etc. Importers will ship anything in as long as they can turn a profit out of it, even if it puts your kids at risk.

As Jono says , if it wwent bang when you plugged it in , its faulty, probably cheapo imported crap from the far east . The seperation of the transformer windings on some of this stuff leaves a lot to be desired, shelac breaks down and allows mains voltage onto the secondary side in some of the worst cases.

There was a case of a guy making a call while phone was charging , charger went faulty and put 240V into his phone , which blew up and caused some severe burns.

 

[Bav101]

The trip you refer to in on the kitchen circuit.....do you mean an RCD (shock protection) device In which case something is making path through earth... Trapped wire in metal PC case???

or an MCB (overload protection) device. If something has taken out a 32amp MCB then it is most probably a dead short.

Does the PSU have a setting for 110v / 230v? Was it set for the right voltage?

Putting 230v down a 110v PSU will cause pops & bangs!

Is this "Company" a real business or a Flea-Bay seller??

If a real company their products should still be fit for purpose and of merchantable quality and not go pop if plugged in corectly..

Slight contradiction in my mind here..

It is very easy to train very unskilled person to swap plug & play components ..

and it has been that way for many many years now..

Did you test continuity & polarity of leads etc & earth before applying power to your new device?

Did you power up the PSU standalone first and meter the actual output voltages first before connecting to the PC?

I know I would if it was a flea-bay purchase!

:C .

The PSU was bought from Ebuyer, I did buy lots of other things from there before and they worked fine.

The Trip i mean is on the main fuse box (sorry to seem so stupid about these things). The one with the big switch that turns the eleccy on and off for the house.

Also As far as I was aware the PSU was set to autoswitch between 110v and 230v as far as I'm aware I haven't seen a new PSU for years with the switch on the back to change between the two.

I do agree they should be fit for purpose which is why I've also spoken to the local trading standards guys, and am getting ready to put a case together for the small claims court, there's just one or two loose ends I need to tidy this being one of them.

Tbh I did check to make sure the seals were in tact on the PSU itself and i never actually undid any screws or moved any other hardware around in the PC because of the way the case is I didn't actually have to.

While I agree you could train a monkey to put together a PC it was my work experience in school, plus I used to be a senior IT analyst with Orange on the Service Desk then a 3rd line printer support, so its been my bread and butter so to speak to find faults and fix them with PC's and laptop's etc.

I will admit though, I never powered it up before hand, which I'll hold my hands up to and I dont have a meter because I've never really needed one. I dont enjoy playing with eleccy specially after getting a mild shock off of a faulty network card about 10 years ago, i didn't find it a enjoyable experience so tend to stay away from messing with it.

Edit : I've just checked and it was the RCD that tripped off when the PSU was turned on at the wall socket. Sorry for my ignorance but I went away and checked.

 

[NozSpark]

TBH they probably have a limited warranty to just the power supply it self.

If the PSU has tripped the house RCD then that would indicate a fault on the primary side

 

[Bav101]

They took the PSU back and tested it and said its faulty, then when i told them its nuked other parts of my PC they basically came back with the whole its a power surge that caused it not our problem line. Which is why I posted, to actually get some ppl's opinion on whether a power surge would just take out that one item or everything else etc.

If I'm understanding everything that ppl's posted correctly I'm correct in thinking it wasn't a power surge at all they've been talking out of there backsides in the hope of getting rid of me, now the fun starts in trying to prove it heh.

 

[NozSpark]

Well, PC PSUs are usually switch mode power supplies, they are full of filters and voltage regulation, a small "surge" as they say shouldn't have too much of an effect however it wouldn't like a lightening strike or 410V

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

I plugged it in to the wall socket and the unit soon as I flicked the wall switch there was a flash of light and a bang and a smell of burning it also tripped the trip for the wall sockets in the kitchen which is where my PC was. I reset the trip and everything was and has been working fine in the kitchen. .

I will admit though, I never powered it up before hand, which I'll hold my hands up to and I dont have a meter because I've never really needed one. I've just checked and it was the RCD that tripped off when the PSU was turned on at the wall socket. Sorry for my ignorance but I went away and checked.

RCD tripped... That could be as little as 30ma flowing to earth...

But..

you say flash bang and burning smell...

that would indicate a bit more current to my mind...

I assume this is a metal cased PSU for a PC tower?

Could there have been some component or PCB track touching the metal case inside the PSU?

giving a live to earth short?

 

[Bav101]

RCD tripped... That could be as little as 30ma flowing to earth...But..

you say flash bang and burning smell...

that would indicate a bit more current to my mind...

I assume this is a metal cased PSU for a PC tower?

Could there have been some component or PCB track touching the metal case inside the PSU?

giving a live to earth short?

Yeah your correct a PSU for a PC. I just took it out the box, checked it over to make sure the warranty seals were intact and put it into my PC, and then flash bang icky smell, i sent it back to them the same day, Ebuyer said it was faulty and refunded my money but all they prolly did was get someone to plug it in, it either went bang again or not and that was it, I never got a detailed report of what was up with it, when I said to them that it caused damage then they started coming back with, well it was probably a power surge that caused the damage, have a good one pretty much.

 

[sammers230]

Don't most modern power supples have a basic level of smoothing circuits that would handle a small surge? it normally just interferes with the PSU and not normally the mobo etc. I second the flash bang and funny smell comment to being a little more than a standard domestic surge, correct me if I'm wrong but aren't most surges just power stations switching on and off and usually make just a small ripple in the supply which is why lights flicker at night sometimes. It seems to me like the said company who sold it doesn't want to have to payout because someone just slapped the Q.C sticker on it and boxed it up.

 

[NozSpark]

Like I said earlier, it's probably got a limited warranty (to the PSU it's self)

If it's faulty and you don't test it before fitting then unfortunately IMHO that would be your own look out.

 

[Bav101]

I agree with you Noz, I was complacent. With everything I've bought from there I've never had an issue with it and couple that with in over 500 or so machines built I've never had a PSU do that to me before. Maybe I was just lucky I dont know, but I never expected to take something out of a box and have it do what it did.

 

[NozSpark]

TBH I would have just bunged it in like you did.... Indeed I have done just that several times in the past:|

 

[remustered]

played with a few pc myself..when you fitted internal psu into pc case, did you use all power molex connectors to drives etc. or were there spares left loose that could have shorted the open end on pc case frame.

 

[ampad]

They are right with it being a power surge, but it would of been a localised surge caused by the short in the power supply.

If it wasn't a localised surge, then other things in your house. Like dimmer switches and any other more sensitive items. would almost certainly of been effected. IMO

 

[Evans Electric]

I have to be honest , conjuring up this mythical power surge is just a smoke screen to save them having tp pay for resulting damage .

I understand what the device is now , and I think all of us would have unpacked it and wanged it in without any testing.

At least you got your refund.

This talk of Power surges is bovine droppings IMHO.

 

[Bav101]

Its good to know we're in agreement and i like "bovine droppings" will have to borrow that if its ok? heh

Problem is I got a refund on it, but it took out my Mobo, CPU and memory, this is why I'm arguing with them atm, under the sales of goods act they are liable, then the whole power surge thing came about in one of there emails to me. But you guys have been awesome thanks alot for your help with this, its nice to know I'm not going nuts.

 

[sprocketflup]

Im sorry to say that I personally think you may be urinating into the wind with trying to get them to compensate you, and as others have said, i doubt theres anyone would have done anything other than fitted it and switched it on.

Just playing devil advocate here, the company are probably thinking "this guy has had a faulty PSU and we have given him a refund, and now hes doing the standard "you owe me compensation" thing, like a phony whiplash claim. ******** if hes gonna get a penny more out of us!"

I can see them digging thier heels right in, maybe just cut your losses? I dunno, just saying like