Power Supplies

[keystone]

Okay to make a long story short. A guy came into the shop and wanted a power supply. He wanted a Atx 250w and all I had was a ATX 300w. He took it home and plugged it into his socket 7 AMD 450 and it ran for a few minutes and then it smoked the motherboard. I have replaced alot of power supplies and have not had a problem. Of course I said that the motherboard was bad, he said that the power supply was to much for the motherboard. His old power supply supplied 20 amps to the cpu. The one I sold him supplies 29 amps to the cpu, 15 amps to the memory and 11.5 amps to the extras. Could the power supply have caused the burn up or was the motherboard bad? It really doesn't make any difference we are going to buy him a motherboard and cpu. I just want to know if I made a mistake. Thanks for any input.


Keystone

[DonJ]

Any power supply only supplies that current (amps) that is being called for by the device hooked up to it...it does not "force" current into that device.

If I had to take a guess, he probably hooked it up wrong or he did indeed have a bad mobo. Obviously, he had problems before he even came to see you.

[kato2274]

you can't "over amp" something as you can "over volt" it as DonJ nicely explained.

[gazzak]

This rings alarm bells with me. I have read something very very similar to this problem before but cannot find it for the life of me! The following comes close and gives you an idea of what I'm thinking. Have a read.

Proprietary psu's

[confus-ed]

This rings alarm bells with me. I have read something very very similar to this problem before but cannot find it for the life of me! The following comes close and gives you an idea of what I'm thinking. Have a read.

Proprietary psu's

Two words, Gary (no - not the ones you are thinking of ) .... but "proprietry pin-outs" ! (that might be three !) ...

So returning to the origianal question " I just want to know if I made a mistake" - errr I suppose you might have, in that you didn't check 'where' the motherboard came from (Well you didn't tell 'us' if you did) if it was dell or comcrap or HPooey there's every chance it might of had some 'annomolies' - put it this way if that'd been the case & you'd fitted it & it'd 'fried' - I, as a customer, would be wanting all new bits thank you very much !!!

[keystone]

Well I guess I learn more every day. I have replaced 100's if not 1000's of power supplies over the years and have had no problems. The computer the guy was worrking on is a clone with a Gigabyte GA-5AX. We learn lessons the hard way here. I understand that if we had replaced the power supply and the mother board fried that we would be responsible, but what if John Doe replaces and it fries who is responsible then. I guess now I want input about how to deal with this in the future. As far as I know there still is not proprietry pin-outs on any mother boards of the computers that I have worked on, clones Hp, Dells ect..... either that or I have been lucky (maybe I will win the lotto). I guess that I will start using words like should, maybe, we are not responsible ect.. to cover our shop. I am not to sure that I like that, there has to be a straight answer with out having to resaerch every power supply that I sell, I would have to mark them up another 50% to cover my time. Thanks for any imput. Keystone


NooNoo I would like to hear from you too.

[NooNoo]

OK, you want my two cents?

Since you do not have a policy, on this occasion you must find him an equivalent motherboard on the basis that you sold him something that was compatible.

My thoughts so far on the issue at hand is, IF it was proprietary pinouts, it would not have booted - smoke demons would have ensued immediately.

According to the customer it did boot. Now the only way to get to the bottom of this is to get the customer to bring the board in and lets see if its not a special for one of the big oems.

Yes he probably connected it up wrong, no you can't prove that right now.

No a powersupply cannot over supply - UNLESS that powersupply suffered a mains spike or similar problem and fed it to the board. That would cause this problem too. I believe (but I would have to get Ruslan's or Gary's opinion) that IF the psu is faulty it can smoke the board under certain circumstances.

Put it down to bad luck, find him a mobo, write a policy and get him to give you the old mobo so you can investigate.

[Radical Dreamer]

Unless the psu was F'd up then it would not have toasted the board, unless as above mentioned it was some sort of proprietary board with weird pinouts.

I'd say the customer just F'd up and wants someone to blame it on and as you know, the customer is always right

[confus-ed]

The guy is at least due a new PSU &/or his money back for it .. whichever - no doubt accepted all around.

Then you can play hard or soft ....

Hard - Then you ought to test the PSU - if its faulty [b] & only if [/i]- I'd then replace his board & grovel !

Soft - I wouldn't anticipate that some guy with a k2 450 is exactly a 'top drawer' spender - so the next bits on judgement - if you think he's 'genuine' then $20 on a second hand board & some free labour will make a very happy camper, but 'sod off' will buy you a lot more bad press...

Somebody already 'called' for you, I take it? - in that you said his board & psu were being replaced, but lets face it this guy wanted to save dosh by swapping his own psu - for all we know he shorted it with a screw or whatever, I'd be playing hard ball - but it seems its decided anyway.

[techs]

I have replaced at least 100 power supplies. I carry at minumum 300watt power supplies in the full size ATX style. I would say I put a higher wattage rating psu than I replaced in about 80 percent. I have almost never had the problem you described. I have had a couple of mobo's go shortly after I installed a new power supply. I tested the psu's and they met spec. I explained to the customer that a failed power supply often damages a mobo when it fails and that it was not the new ones fault.
Under the cirumstances I might do this just to keep the customer happy. Get him a similiar mobo and say thanks for your business. Since I didn't install the psu I am not responsible for the installation of the mobo. If he is still bent out of shape have him contact the psu manufacturer.
I would also tell him this. If you go to an auto parts store and buy a starter for your car and put it in and the engine blows the following week would the auto parts store give you a new engine much less install it? No.

[iceman]

Many times those that replace PSU's do so because of lightning damage... that damage can take up to 3 weeks to show it's ugly head in a motherboard if some 'leakage' came from the PSU.

[Ya_know]

When I did retail and service I once had a guy bring in an old Acer PC for a mem-upgrade, then on the way out wanted to buy a keyboard. I only had a few on hand, but was genuine and sent him to best buy to get the Microsoft natural he had his eye on. Two hours later he brings in just the new keyboard with a bent pin, and I straightened the thing out for him and got it working on one of my PC’s. Two hours later he calls and says the keyboard is in, but the system won't boot cause it can't see the keyboard. He also said that he "called Acer" and they told him that I (Me) might have bumped into something and that my shop should make things right. I asked that he bring the system and new keyboard in, and I would take a look at it.

The PS2 port had years of wear from countless times that this guy had been twistin' and turnin' over the port with meathead styles of pressure. Plus the new keyboard bent pin fiasco; I had him buy the short hairs. I called him back to the store, and told him that there was nothing I could do but refund the price of the memory, not even the labor. He proceeded to cuss me up and down about how he was being F-ed . I let him have his moment. I then retrospect our recent encounters, that I knew he broke the thing, he knew he broke the thing, and that the only problem was that he wanted me to absorb the cost. He left unhappy, kept the memory, and I never saw him again. No great loss!

Long story short, you don't need policy, just tell it like it is and let the customer sort it out on their own. If even for a moment you think this was a mistake on your part, correct it. If it was faulty equipment, you need to contact your vendor, or the manufacture and see what their policy is on a failing component damaging other components, because that certainly is possible that they have a coverage for claims of this nature.

[CeeBee]

I don't trust people... There is no proof (except his word) that the mobo wasn't gone before he got the new PSU and all he hoped for was getting a free replacement. I've seen plenty of those! Innocent until proven guilty? NEH! Guilty until proven innocent! All you should do is offer him a return/exchange for the PSU.

[keystone]

This is what we did. The mother board is a Gigabyte Ga-5Ax with a standard atx pin out. We we bought him a mother board and cpu, couldn't find a socket 7 mother board. The coustomer did pay for half the cost, it was a upgrade for him. Thanks for all of the help. Keystone

[TripleRLtd]

"...you don't need policy, just tell it like it is and let the customer sort it out on their own. If even for a moment you think this was a mistake on your part, correct it. If it was faulty equipment, you need to contact your vendor, or the manufacture and see what their policy is on a failing component damaging other components, because that certainly is possible that they have a coverage for claims of this nature."

This is the way!!
But you did admirably, I must admit.
You obviously saw the mainboard and noted it is standard ATX.
Nothing different=any full size ATX PSU should have worked!!
I don't even know of full sized PSU's less than 250/300 anymore.
Personally, I would have had him bring in the unit and test the PSU.
Did you do that?
That is what we need to know.