My magical exploding computer [Solved]

Morblitz

So I just got back from vacation, my brother has used my PC while he was house sitting, but never for anything more serious than league of legends. Ive been back for a few days, and only just now decided to play some Skyrim. Before this, I'd only been playing moba type games.

About an hour in, I think we started to get a bit of an electric storm, but I had my air conditioner and headphones on so I didn't hear anything. The lights flickered, and there was a flash of light on the back of my computer, up the top, pretty much wear I plug the power cable in. It was accompanied by a bit of a bang, and then I could smell some smoke. I've unplugged my computer now and I don't dare turn it back on for fear of doing further damage. I'm going to take it to the PC shop sometime soon so they can have a look at it.

My questions are: What can I expect? I suspect the power supply fried itself, would that be an accurate assumption? Also, would there be any danger to the motherboard? I did some looking around for similiar problems, and people have expressed concern that when something like this happens, it can can also cause damage to the motherboard, which would suck. There isn't much that I think I could personally do about this, as I am terrible with computer hardware, I'm just interested in seeing what kind of mess I may be in before I need to send it off to get fixed or parts replaced.

Thanks H/A.

schattenjaeger

Yah, a power spike or surge from the storm fried your power supply. You should have your PC plugged into a good surge protector all the time, and I tend to refrain from having it on during thunderstorms (such a good opportunity to read!). Unfortunately that lesson learned comes a little too late for you Given the catastrophic nature of the failure I expect your motherboard is gone too. It's possible that it's just the PSU, but I'd count you very lucky. In addition, everything plugged into the motherboard and/or PSU (CPU, video card, HDD and RAM, basically your entire PC) was at risk too, and all of it or none of it may be damaged.

The only thing you, yourself, could do is replace the PSU with a working one, then unplug everything from the motherboard (in case it got screwed up but the other components didn't, you don't want to then screw them up too, so I wouldn't just fire it right up, but I might be paranoid) and see if it gives you the right beep codes, and plug things in one at a time and so on and troubleshoot to see if anything's broken. Since you probably don't wanna screw around with all that, you've got the right plan I think.

Morblitz

Thanks for the input.

And crap, that's what I was afraid of, and then some. The thing is, I thought my powerboard was a pretty decent surge protecter, my PC has survived many storms. Looks like I may be needing to go shopping for a better one.
Of course, I'm hoping the damage is less than more, but if only the hard drive makes it out alive, I suppose that will be okay, I have important stuff on it, I really need to find out how to do a full backup onto an external drive or something.

schattenjaeger

Well, it could be other things, like a capacitor on the motherboard failing, that produces a smoky smell too (at the same time as your lights flicker though? What are the odds). Or something else altogether that I'm unaware of. But you're sending it in anyways so I don't feel guilty sounding self-assured ^_^

How old is the power strip, and has it weathered many surges before? They do actually go bad. A nice one will last a decade, but repeated abuse will wear out the varistor (the MOV). The really nice strips have a little green light letting you know it's still working effectively.

Morblitz

I suppose it's pretty old, and around this time of year it probably cops a beating. I usually unplug my computer during storms, too, but this one caught me by surprise. It was a very sudden surge without any thunder or anything, and it was during the day so I didn't see any flashes of lightning. I have another powerboard that is new, but it was used elsewhere in the house, I'll put that to use now and hopefully it will be better off in the future. It has a red light indicating surge protection.

The smell of smoke wasn't very strong, it was quite faint and at the top of my pc tower. I only noticed it as I went past my computer to leave the room to get a screwdriver. So i'm hoping the damage is limited, but I guess I won't find out until I get it looked at. I'll mainly just be happy if the hard drive survived. My computers been toasted by a surge before I think, years ago, and I think the hard drive survived. So here's hoping. My biggest problem is I always learn the lesson too late. I have to be more proactive about back ups and protection

Apogee

If you had a good power supply, it's designed to absorb drastic over-voltages like that and protect the rest of the system; you might have goten lucky (so to speak :P). If so, just get a new PSU and you're good to go again.

Also, if your computer was indeed plugged into the surge protector, check to see if it had a warranty. A lot of them come with a guarantee to reimburse you for damages if the surge protection fails to work (which it clearly did). I have no idea if they'll actually do it, but it's worth a look if it'll save you some cash.

Morblitz

As it turns out, I either got lucky, or my power supply was indeed pretty good (or both!) because the damage was limited to solely the power supply, which was completely toasted in it's heroic attempt to throw itself on the surge grenade.

I took it to my regular repair shop this morning and had it back by the afternoon, which is a computer repair record in my experience. It still wasn't exactly 'cheap' to get the part replaced, and for them to install it, but I suppose it's better than needing to replace half my system. And my hard drive is fine. I'm mostly relieved about that.

I've now got it plugged into a better powerboard - that even has one of those lights indicating protectory goodness.

Whilst it's possible the powerboard I was using at the time may have had a warranty, it would have been a while ago. In all honesty I really shouldn't have had my PC plugged into it, but I figured since it had weathered enough surges in the past, it was fine. But that's the problem, it's kind of old at this point - plus this lightning storm came up quickly and quietly, and took me by surprise. My only warning was when the lights flickered, and then the power supply fireworks ensued.

Anyway, happiest ending that could have come from this I suppose. It was handy having an idea of what to expect in terms of damage and repairs. Thanks for the tips guys. It's actually good knowledge that I'll keep in mind for the future so I doesn't happen again. I guess I learn common sense the hard way.