I am the luckiest sob...

Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
My PSU in my MCEPC literally caught fire, here is what I wrote on FB soon after it happened at like 2am....

I woke up to this erroneous smell in my room. I thought it was a fire in the hills or something my step family added to the dryer. Well it wouldn't go away and so I looked around nothing. Couldn't fall back a sleep and a little while later I saw smoke coming from my Media Center PC!!!! NO SHIT!!! My psu caught fire, I yanked the damn power cable, got the fucking box out side before it spread! Holy shit that freaked me the hell out!!! Now I am venting my room and going to look for a new psu on Amazon. I seriously, seriously have the worst luck with my PC parts as of late, but I seem to have the best luck when it comes to saving to my ass!! Holy shit! I am on my neb my asthma is going ape shit right now.....holy shit.

Here are the pics
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p151/Kayden3/IMG_0807.jpg
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p151/Kayden3/IMG_0814.jpg

It's been about 3 hours since that happened and figured I would share in my excitement. My luck has been bad with pc parts as of late, I've had 2 psu's crap out and a 1 hdd. To be honest, I look at it like this the fire didn't spread so I am lucky in the best way possible. Hardware can be replaced, a house and all it's contents really can't, I am lucky I woke up.

Hope your Monday is better than mine!
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
The question must be begged... what PSU?

That sucks man, but it's a damn good thing you caught it before it had the chance to spread. Ugh. I had a fire incident a couple of months ago (not computer-related), so I know what the excitement is like. Not great excitement, but excitement nonetheless.
 
Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
That 460w in my MCE PC has been in there since Jan 2008 when I first got it. Warranty ran out 7 months ago, figures right?

Optix, I'll ship it to you, you can let me know how it all works out okay? dc;
 
Doomsday

Doomsday

Tech Junkie
Damn! Badluck for the PSU but goodluck it was that the fire didnot spread! I would recommend Corsair this time! :D
 
marfig

marfig

No ROM battery
Holly, Kayden!

I mean, wow! It's never enough repeating, have you any idea of how lucky you were!? There's a god after all. I've been wrong all this time.

Thank goodness, mate.
 
Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
Appreciate all the positive responses guys, thanks!

Also happy to report that nothing else went out in the fire. It was all contained to the PSU, which I consider very lucky cause it could have easily screwed everything else. I am counting my blessing with this event, that's for damn sure.
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
So glad that you caught this early Kayden! Looks like it would've kept spreading to the rest of the system, or in the very least put out enough toxic smoke to choke a horse...

I've studied PSU design before, and while I'm no electrical expert I gotta say that is the cheapest PSU design I've seen in awhile. It's a perfect candidate for a cheap offbrand to avoid at all costs, most units at that wattage rating will actually have way more components in them. ;) Make sure to stick to reputable name brands even if they cost more! And feel free to post here before ya buy another!
 
OriginalJoeCool

OriginalJoeCool

Tech Monkey
I was going to ask how to avoid this (since I don't really want my house to burn down), but I guess you get what you pay for? :p

I usually don't leave computers on overnight, but I can think of instances where I might want to.
 
RainMotorsports

RainMotorsports

Partition Master
OriginalJoeCool said:
I was going to ask how to avoid this (since I don't really want my house to burn down), but I guess you get what you pay for? :p

I usually don't leave computers on overnight, but I can think of instances where I might want to.
Click to expand...

Other than having an automatic extinguisher aimed at the pc? I would keep it on a surge protector of course after the fire destroys enough it may trip it up or even stop its own feed. But neither guarantee stopping the fire.

You do get what you pay for. If your manufacturer doesn't make their own psu's say Corsair doesn't they also have multiple sources. Corsair uses Seasonic and Channel well. Some models might be made by a good manufacturer like FSP and others by a cruddy one so be aware.

Any PSU could fall victim to defect or failure though.
 
Kougar

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
RainMotorsports said:
Any PSU could fall victim to defect or failure though.
Click to expand...

True. But look at that PSU design... the PCB is mostly empty. You should never see that, entire stages are missing in the layout. That looks like a passive PFC power supply as well, and nobody should ever buy anything other than an "Active PFC" power supply these days. The build quality is generally better and the power efficiency will jump from ~60-70% up to 80+

Just look at that "heatsink" in the middle with the voltage regulators attached to it. It's nothing but a metal plate! There are no metal fins or anything else to help cool those VREGs, and that is not just cheap design but also dangerous... the voltage regulators are one of the hottest components in a PSU, and without good heatsinks they will eventually fry or melt down. It looks like that is what happened here, as a matter of fact...
 
Kayden

Kayden

Tech Monkey
@Kougar; I reached the same conclusion. I paid $100 for it and it still goes for $100 on Newegg. Never buying a Zalaman PSU ever again.

@DarkStarr; It was powering my Media Center PC. It is a Intel Core 2 duo, with 4gb of ram, has 4 hdds, a dvdrom and a nvidia 8500 with a hdmi out fanless gpu.

I got a 500w Cool Master psu to replace it.
 
RainMotorsports

RainMotorsports

Partition Master
Kayden heres the bad news.

Zalman = Enhance, FSP, Channel Well, Seventeam, HEC
Coolermaster = AcBel, Enhance, Hipro, FSP, Solytech, Seventeam

The worse news is depending on which of the three zalmans i was looking at on newegg it might have actually been made by FSP :eek: and id be pissed to know theyre making junk now too. What you had before was junk but the question is what did you get this time?

I just learned something new though. That board is made of the bad flammable stuff...
 
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