Waaa! My PC went POP! PSU and UPS questions.

[NiceGuy]

At about 7.45pm today the worst thing which can happen to a PC happened to mine. I was watching telly and I heard a loud POP and then smell the acrid stench of burnt electronics. Yep you guessed it my PSU had blown. After the initial panic had subsided I tested my PC with an old 145W PSU I had knocking around and much to my amazement (and joy) my baby booted. So it seems I got lucky, all things considered.

And now to my reason for posting (other than to get some sympathy). I'm faced with two problems. Firstly I need a new PSU. The question is do I go for a cheap £20 one or a more expensive one (my finances aren't as great as they might be)? The PSU that was in there was an Antec 340 tru power (it came with my sonata case) and up until today was great. But if I get a cheap 'generic' one what risks am I running?

My second problem is why did my PSU go in the first place? On closer inspection the fuse in the plug has blown so I'm assuming a powersurge. I know the fuse isn't necessarily going to stop my pc getting fried, but I would have hoped that the ~£20 masterplug surgeprotecter extension block would have stopped it happening.

Apparently my 'surge protection' offered no protection at all so I started reading about other ways to protect my pc and UPS seems to be the answer - the only problem is that is quite expensive but as we have three computers, can I afford not to get it? I know there are 3 types: off-line which only seems to provide as much protection as a surge protector, line-interactive which seems better but I'm not sure how/why and on-line which seems to be the best as it converts the ac to dc 'cleans it up' and then converts it back to ac. The problem is that the online-ups seems to be out of my price range (£200+) but even the line-interactive ones aren't cheap (£60+).

So there you are Ubuntu community! Any suggestions, advice or flowers (for the deceased psu - may it rest in peace) would be greatfully received.

[Stew2]

I would get a good midrange PSU, the cheap generic units dont offer as "clean" power as the better ones and the high end ones are usually for high draw gaming type PC's. I would go for another Antec power supply, they usually stand up really well. I have two of the Sonata cases with the 340 and they have a single low speed PSU cooling fan to keep the noise down, perhaps they run hotter with one slow fan contributing to the shorter lifespan? Cross fingers and touch wood, I havent had any problems with either of mine yet. Unless you have really unusual power demands (really high end graphics card or lots of hard drives etc.) you dont really need much more wattage than you had. I also dont think I would spend a ton of money on UPS systems either. More than likely your power supply just died and a surge wasnt the cause. Usually a surge will fry a lot more than just your power supply. I hope this helps but I am not a technician or anything, just a hobbiest, so hopefully some more knowledgeable forum members will give their opinions as well. Hope it all works out well for you!

Regards,
Stew

[NiceGuy]

Hi there Stew2, thanks for your reply. As I haven't had any problems with my power supply till now I think I will go for another antec.


More than likely your power supply just died and a surge wasnt the cause. Usually a surge will fry a lot more than just your power supply.

I'm no expert on electronics either but if the fuse in the plug was blown, wouldn't that indicate a power surge? Maybe I'm wrong but if the powersupply just 'failed' wouldn't it do just that and not blow any fuses. Also I would be inclined to think if it was going to fail it would do so when I tried to turn the pc on not after it had been on for 30 minutes or so.

Just incase it sheads any light on the situation the powersupply seems to be working except the +5v SB (2.0A) rail is faulty (acording to my antec psu tester). But I'm not going to be trying it in my pc as I got lucky the last time and I don't want to tempt fate.

[Jason_25]

Sounds like bad luck. All I use is Antec. Are you sure the case/psu is not still under warranty?

[NiceGuy]

I doubt it as I built it over 3 years ago. Its a bit irrelavent now as I've ordered a new psu, a 'SilverPower True 350W' if anyone is interested and a bargin at under £14 (ex vat). I went for that one as its cheap :-D and got a good review in custom pc (a UK pc mag).

Oh and I've opted for getting another surge protector instead of a UPS system as with the addition of postage etc. the price of the system would be more (well getting that way) than the cost of replacing the equipment that could be damaged. However I did go for a belkin surge protector as they have lifetime guarantees on them (not just the 3 year ones that masterplug seem to offer*) so if anything goes wrong then they should cover the cost.

So all in all my 'disaster' looks like its going to cost me ~£35 to sort out so it could have been worse. But it makes me wonder how many people would have replaced their whole pc if this had happened to them.

*If I was cynical I might suggest that its a little odd that their guarantee last for 3 years and the surge protector doesn't do its job 3 1/2 years down the line but I'm not cynical so I won't suggest it!

[Jason_25]

Yikes. Well if you run into random instability and low performance then you know what the problem is. That PSU probably weighs a pound or so. You probably replaced your supply with one that delivers half the amps on the 12v rail.

[NiceGuy]

I sincerely hope not! Do you have any experience of this make of PSU then?

I know its only a review in a magazine but here is what custom pc have to say about it:

"While the generic 400W PSU has a very old-fashioned balance of power (the 3.3V and 5V rails are rated higher than the 12V rail), the SilverPower is much better balanced, with a 25A 3.3V, 28A 5V and a single 18A 12V rail.

Also, unlike the generic 400W PSU, the SilverPower provides a stable voltage on all of its rails, even at 100 per cent load"

Anyway here is a shortened version of the article I read.
http://www.custompc.co.uk/custompc/labs/79280/silverpower-sp400p1b.html

The full article had a rundown of loads of psu's and this one actually beat a load of more expensive ones, some of which apparnetly exploded!

ps. I'm having trouble getting on to the site at the moment so here is the google cached version: http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:6g6TmdSDk0cJ:www.custompc.co.uk/custompc/labs/79280/silverpower-sp400p1b.html+SilverPower&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox

[Jason_25]

Sorry to worry you. 18 amps on the 12V rail is ok.

[NetInsanity]

It's far from the worst thing that could have happened, either the fuse blew (easily checked, open it up and look at the glass fuse, is the wire whole, is the glass black? if so, exchange it and you'll be just fine) or your PSU popped a capacitor (i have ALWAYS bought the cheapest possible PSU that would support my setup and this has NEVER happened to me) in which case you'll need to replace it with something that will work with your setup.

Just make sure that it's rated for what your setup requires and shop for price.