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Not sure what popped, but everything still works.

hardware custom-build

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#1 Beefster

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Posted 09 December 2017 - 04:46 PM

So I just got my motherboard back today from repairs. I set everything up just fine. I noticed there are some switches on the top of my case (I think they control fans or something), and I flipped one, which caused something to pop and reset the computer. A little bit of smoke and a strange smell came off the case, but the computer proceeded to boot with no issues. I took a look inside and saw no discernible damage. Fans all work still and the smoke was a little too far from the PSU for it to be that. I suspect and hope that it was just the PWM controller for the outside fans. I probably hooked it up wrong. But that isn't a big deal because the fans are all really quiet to begin with.

 

Any other theories?

 

PS: the mysterious popping was the last straw; I have decided I won't be building a computer in the future. It doesn't save enough money to be worth the hassle. Too many things can go wrong in a custom build.



#2 Anthus

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Posted 09 December 2017 - 05:10 PM

Uhm.. That sounds pretty serious. Good thing your system seems to be fine, but I feel like that is the type of thing can can fry a whole system, or worse, injure/ shock you.

 

What I would do, is try to get a hold of the case's manual (either online, or if you have it physically). I'd see what exactly those switches do, how they are supposed to be hooked up (what voltage, which plug, all that fun stuff). I'd definitely not be using that machine, until I knew what exactly caused it. Though you are unlikely to be fatally shocked from something like this, it is still a pretty serious issue. Good luck. :)



#3 Beefster

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Posted 09 December 2017 - 05:42 PM

I just checked and it looks like the switches are just fan speed controllers, so I probably only fried those. It looks like they're only supposed to get 30W max, which is way more than the PSU would have been feeding, thus why it got fried. Then it power-cycled from the resulting brown out.

 

The computer has been on for about 2 hours now and nothing bad has happened, so I think it's fine. It probably would have POST-ed with a beep code if I broke a critical component.

 

The ethernet controller is also acting a little funky, but it was like that before the popping.


Edited by Beefster, 09 December 2017 - 05:45 PM.

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#4 Nicholas Steel

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Posted 03 January 2018 - 12:07 PM

Question: Did you flick the voltage switch on the PSU (110v/220v)? Some of them have a Voltage switch while most modern PSU's tend to auto-sense which voltage to use. Setting the wrong voltage is very bad for the PSU!


Edited by Nicholas Steel, 03 January 2018 - 12:07 PM.



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