Psu Overload?

[ryan000]

Hey,

I was recentally reinstalling xp, and had to take out my old IDE hard drive so i took off the side of the case and unpluged the power to the drive i booted up the pc and installed xp i had just finished installing the drivers when i thought this would be a gd time to plug the hard drive back in with the power on :eek: i didnt realise what i was doing luckly i was using a tagan 430w psu. So upon connecting the drive all i saw was a small flash of light and a bang and then the computer went dead. The psu does feature over voltage and over loading and any other over whatevers so could my computer have been saved my psu or do you think some of the parts could be dead i am currently reordering a new psu.


Cheers please help

[dcc]

I guess you now realize that you should try hot swapping items in the case.

Not knowing what happened to the PSU when it went bang, all I can say is yes there is a possibility that other components could have been effected. You won't know until you install the new PSU.

If you are comfortable with this, open the PSU and there should be a pc mounted fuse on the board, take a multi meter and read voltage across the two leads, this is a precaution, and the read the continuity between the two lead on a Ohm scale. If the fuse is blown and you have any soldering skills you could try replacing the fuse.

I can't help but feel that I should tell you to do this with the power off. You should also be aware that the capacitor/s in the PSU will hold a charge for a long period of time, if you should discharge the caps to yourself...let's just say that you ain't gonna like it.

[ryan000]

Thanks i am sending my psu back for repair under warrenty so i am getting a new psu just to test the components it wont be a very good one just one that can do the job

[dcc]

You may have a problem there with the warranty, you probably voided it by you actions.

[ryan000]

I can always try though.

[caperjack]

wow ,where did the small flash come from!!

[dcc]

The flash most likely came from a little DC arc welding when he shorted something. A 12V DC circuit at 18amps will be strong enough to burn through a trace on a board when shorted, or weld components together.

[ryan000]

The flash came from the 3rd pin on the molex connector when i plugged it into the hdd