computer power supplies

[master]

OK. there are different wattages of power supplies. I understand that part.

Can power supplies be too powerful, and fry your mobo, or does it just give power that the mobo needs, and uses the rest to support your hdd, cd-roms, and fans, etc.?

The reason asking is because I bought a mobo, cpu, and case with a power supply in it, put it all together, and my computer for one reason or another just... fried, it burned some wires connecting from the power cables to one of the PCI slots that wasn't used. that computer is sitting down in my basement collecting dust right now, but:

1. would my cpu still be good? (haven't tested it on any of my other systems yet)
2. what exactly was the problem? (I didn't mess with the voltage, so don't jump to that conclusion)

Oh, and for no. 2, I did have a AGP NVidia/Geforce card in it. What happened is that it kept freezing on me when i went to cmos, or let it run. I thought it was the video card, so I put in one of my older pci cards in to it (took the AGP one out, of course), and then i found out it didnt help it, so I took out the PCI one and replaced the AGP one, then when I turned it on, and I smelt smoke coming from my pc, so I turned it off, looked at the mobo, and it was burned on the side...

Let me know if you need more info...

[edit] This all happened a year ago, and the warranties are all dead, so fuck to Shuttle and tigerdirect, where I bought it. (yeah, this is sorta the same post about my computer that fucked up, but I want to know exactly what happened in those fast five minutes...)

[GODJonez]

No, I don't think that PSU can give too much power. The consumption varies all time even when your computer is on. The wattage just means the maximum amount of power it can give when "requested".

Since the smoke thing was after putting the AGP card back, I suppose that when installing it you did something bad. Was the main power on when you re-installed the card? I mean power cord attached and the switch turned on at the back?

This is what happened to me once:

We built a new computer from various old components. There were some problems with it not starting all times. Then we finally got it working, Windows installed and so, ready for giving away to our neighbours. When we started the computer there, it didn't work. It just didn't start. We tried all we could imagine, no result. So we took the computer back and checked it. Finally we discovered that the processor wasn't properly attached. We had taken the mobo off the case and put the processor back to its slot, locking it securely this time. Everything looked good. But then:

When we put the motherboard back into computer case, a zapp sound, some smoke and nice smell. The power cord was attached to power supply, it was on and the motherboard had power attached. Just some components hit the case and short-circuited. Goodbye, motherboard. Fortunately it was only the mobo that took damage. All add-on cards, processor and memories were okay. I got a free motherboard from school, just kindly asked for one (actually I needed two, the first I got had non-working keyboard PS/2)

Nice story, eh

[master]

Yeah, I had the power in, but the button off on the psu. It started smoking when it flipped the switch and hit the power button.

[EGGO]

Can power supplies be too powerful, and fry your mobo, or does it just give power that the mobo needs, and uses the rest to support your hdd, cd-roms, and fans, etc.?

No they can't. Molex connectors only give off about 5 volts, 12 for your mobo, if I recall. No more electricity can be put on it, no matter how much wattage your PSU can have.

I bought a mobo, cpu, and case with a power supply in it, put it all together, and my computer for one reason or another just... fried, it burned some wires connecting from the power cables to one of the PCI slots that wasn't used.

On the motherboard? I don't get quite how you're describing this, it sounds like you had bare wires touching an unused PCI slot, but I'm sure you're not dumb enough to do that.

1. would my cpu still be good? (haven't tested it on any of my other systems yet)

Yep

I'd like pics of how this was set up, but that could be hard so the after pictures would probably be sufficient.

[master]

On the motherboard? I don't get quite how you're describing this, it sounds like you had bare wires touching an unused PCI slot, but I'm sure you're not dumb enough to do that.

The internal wires that power one of the PCI ports just... fried, I'll get pictures once I get my webcam working.

[glutto]

A power supply supplies enough power to power the parts attached, and no more.

It's possible to attach too many parts or too powerful of parts to a power supply and overwhelm it, and in that case a more powerful power supply is needed.

Hopefully you made sense of this wonderful post.

[master]

yeah, I'm a comp. tech, just not the "boss" yet...

[GODJonez]

yeah, I'm a comp. tech, just not the "boss" yet...

That's why there is other people to share knowledge, right to make all of us learn something new from each other.

[Bonster]

We can never no wat the heo happen but my guess is bad power supply or the loose wires where touching mobo. Or just the mobo itself . Maybe u didnt ground urself and cause a static electricity lols i donno

[master]

If you dunno, then why did you even bother to post? that was the stupidest answer I ever heard on my stay here. I always wear a .... what do you call those things?? that wrist band thing that reduces electric shocks... anyway, I always use that... good thing he's banned...

[GODJonez]

If you dunno, then why did you even bother to post? that was the stupidest answer I ever heard on my stay here. I always wear a .... what do you call those things?? that wrist band thing that reduces electric shocks... anyway, I always use that... good thing he's banned...

This time I agree with master. It might just have been that maybe there was something under the motherboard, maybe a screw? If it had accidentaly fallen there when changing add-on cards?

[master]

It could've been... I dunno, I'm not like, gonna worry about it... It was a while ago, one of my first computers I put together...

[edit] I was just asking you guys what the possibilities were that made it smoke and die...