My PC just blew up

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My PC just blew up, i think he hates me.
or possibly he killed himself as a result of sitting beside the mac for so long, who knows...

have been having problems with it for a couple of years: ram showing up as 235 MB when in fact it was 2GB installed etc (the amount of available memory would randomly change each time it booted, assuming it got past BIOS check/GRUB - it would often just show a memory leak error)

i hadn't used the thing for a few months, it has been sitting there with the power cable disconnected.
tonight, alas, i plugged it in. the green LED on the motherboard came on, and there was a gentle "fizzing" noise emanating from the PSU.
i pressed the start button, and BOOM!! ! blue/green sparks etc from roundabout the power cord input. no scorch marks. burny smell coming from psu tho.


the PSU is just over a year old, 480Watts, bought from dabs.com, was branded as "dabs value", is labeled as "Colors IT"
pooter: Packard Bell iMedia 1507, Intel Pentium 4 3.06Ghz SIS chipset, not overclocked
Mainboard: Asus P5S800 - VM/S
Drives: 200GB Seagate HDD, Pioneer DVD-RW, AIWA 3.5 inch floppy nicked from an old Win95 Desktop
original 300Watt PSU removed due to ATI Radeon video card being fitted, altho removed shortly after as it was needed in another build.
not sure if i should put the original 300W PSU in (ie is it just the 480W PSU turning faulty), or if its a mainboard type problem.

i don't understand. why would it just suddenly blow up? and only when i press the computer power button.

Sounds like PSU gone faulty, but it could also be the motherboard. I'm not a hardware specialist, so wait for someone here who is to give you the right advice needed. Otherwise, just take it to the nearest computer store and let them diagnose the problem for you.

I have killed a total of three computers, and i have never had on do that. Congratulations.

power supplies are known to explode, over time the capacitors leak.
Did you place 220V into a 110V or vice versa.

no, there is no voltage selector switch, is and has always been a 220 supply into a 220 unit.


usually i would just shut down, but because i knew i wasn't going to use it for months i turned it off at the wall, only when i turned it on again again after months did it blow.


when applied power for the first time in months, the internal green light on the mainboard lit up, but it only blew when i prssed the main power button, thereby drawing the most power.


i will check for leaking caps tho

the sad thing is you'll likely have to replace the power supply before you can test anything else.
Fortunately, Power supplies aren't that expensive any more. Getting one with the correct connections... may be a little harder. It might be a good idea to know what kind of case type (ATX, or something newer) before you go.

My brother blew up an organ too...had to put oil into a Hammond L100, and didn't know any better, so he used 10W30... great stage effect, though he could only do it once...

Since your PC is just over a year old your power supply is an ATX, which is good. There are 3 basic ATX power supply sizes, small, medium, and large. Measure your blown up power supply and see what its dimensions are. Make sure you do not buy one that's bigger. Also, look at the type of connectors the power supply has. They should consist of a 20 or 24 pin main power connector, a 4 or 8 pin for the processor, and some 4 pin connectors and/or some SATA connectors. Also, you might need a floppy connector or a 6 or 8 pin connector for your graphics card if you have one.

^^ that is if you want to buy a new power supply. After reading your post a second time I would put your old 300w PSU back in and see what happens. If that doesn't fix your problems, try taking out the battery on the motherboard for at least a few minutes, or maybe even buy a new one. Then if that doesn't work it has to be your motherboard, which means you'll need to buy a whole new computer. If you decide to do that I can help.

rule of thumb when building computers: never EVER go for cheap PSUs

I hope it didn't drag any more hardware into sparky oblivion... cheap PSUs tend to do that often.

When buying a power supply the true rating isnt just watts its amps. How many amps does it supply on the +12v side.

As someone who fixes computers professionally, you dont diagnose the power supply you just replace it.

I will say sometimes even good power supplies go bad. If the power supply is still under warranty, take it back to the store
and see if they will exchange it if not. The fizzing noise should have been a cue not to turn it on. When you turn on a computer
there is an initial surge of power.

The colors IT brand seems to be well reviewed on amazon uk. You might be having issues with power surges so you might
want to invest in a good quality surge protector.

The ram showing up incorrectly sounds like one or both of the memory sticks is bad or failing.
Once youve replaced the power supply, you might want to test the memory sticks one at a time by taking them all out
and then putting one back in and then powering the system on to bios and let the system do the memory tests.

i've tried each ram stick individually - no luck - each shows up as 700mb, then 35mb, then whatever etc.

GRUB just shows one big-ass mem leak.




i had the atx case literally beside me, im sure it was the psu making the fizzing noise.



the psu has itswarranty run out as its just over a year old, the cpu is over 3 years old. have had a masterplug surgeguard and belkin UPS on it from day 1.


peripherals still ok.

Swapping out PSU is 2 minute job, after that motherboard is my guess. Which is more annoying to deal with.