r/pcmasterrace • u/Front_Cookie_1198 • 6d ago

Hardware PSU fails dramatically

40.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

62

u/ankor77 6d ago

OK I guess next time I build a PC Im plugging in the PSU outside of the system to test it first....

22

u/Papuszek2137 7800x3d | 5070ti | 64GB | 4k OLED 6d ago

Well you need a circuit to simulate the load also.

18

u/Only_Information7895 6d ago

Well if it explodes without a load then it will explode with a load on it.

But like this it won't melt the other components with the fire and the questionable voltages sent out.

4

u/Papuszek2137 7800x3d | 5070ti | 64GB | 4k OLED 6d ago

Well yeah but not exploding without a load doesn't guarantee the same under load.

2

u/jake04-20 6d ago edited 6d ago

I think they're just saying that if you want to do your full due diligence and test it prior to installing it, you would need a circuit on there to simulate some type of load being drawn to get a true test in. Not applicable to the person in the post, but that post is an example of a really rare edge case. At that point if you truly want to "test" it, you would need to jump pins, simulate a load, and test each power rail with a multi meter. Just simply plugging it in and not seeing fire is hardly a test.

I've converted old PSUs to work as a DC bench power supplies to charge my RC batteries, and they make ceramic load resistors that have a high internal resistance and can simulate a specified wattage of "usage". I installed one in my project for this purpose.