Short circuit of some sort ?

[JacobSijsma]

Hi,

The other day it was quite warm so I improvised me a cooling device on my desk consisting of an old jump started psu hooked up to some old server fans laying around. However as soon as I plugged in the device my screen briefly turned black and my computer made a roaring sound. ( I figure I must have done something stupid ) anyway it was kinda late so I just turned the thing off and went to bed.

This morning I started up my rig everything working fine except for my amplifier which goes into protect mode every time I power it up. I plugged it into different outlets and it still doesn't work, that's not a big deal per sé, its just an old av receiver hooked up to my soundcard.

Do any of you have an idea of what could possibly have happened ?, I'm sure I've used up far less wattage in total than my wall socket provides.

Jake

[Steve R Jones]

As you've seen, it only takes one fraction of a second to fry something... I guess you could double check the wiring on the new cooling device... Maybe you zigged when you should have zagged.

[stroyal]

How was the power supply connected electrically to the system.

The way you describe it, nothing should have happened, but fans running.

Fans connected to a jumped power supply, should only effect the fans, unless you had some king of connection the the PC also.


If you use more wattage than you wall outlet provides, the circuit breaker trips, and you have to reset it.

[JacobSijsma]

Yea no circuit breaker tripped, power still worked at that moment. It is a separate psu without on/off button, it turns on right when I insert the cable into its socket.

Of course it may not have been good idea to use an electronic device in a way its not intended to begin with.

[stroyal]

But if it had no connection to your PC, how could it effect it.

The wall socket is the first place they are connected.
There would have to be something seriously wrong with that power supply to effect a computer on the same circuit.

Not sure what it would do, but by any chance, was the voltage switch in the wrong position, 120/240v?

Many people power computers with 2 power supplies.
There are even kits, for starting them together, with the computers power button.

[Steve R Jones]

Does the separate psu smell burnt?

If it arched....I can see it freaking out the wall socket enough to freak out the working pc...

[JacobSijsma]

Nope and the psu still works, I can see how maybe something like a voltage drop occured.

[electric]

most PSU sense a short circuit and turn themselves off to protect you
and surroundings. [ ie fire ]

once you unplug the PSU it reset itself

while this event occurred their was properly a voltage drop which
effected the voltage to your amp,thus the loud noise.

thats my guess