Power Supply smoked out

[totalcommand]

Story: I just moved and am renting out a pretty old house. I plug my computer, monitor, etc. in to the surge protector, plug the surge protector into the outlet. Little did I know that this old circuit line had reverse polarity outlets, which means death for the computer. While I'm fiddling with cables around the computer before turning it on, sparks start spewing from the power supply (luckily I have a clear case which allowed me to observe this, or I wouldve had a fire inside the computer on my hands).

Anyhoo, while I'm hoping and praying that the landlord will get an electrician to really fix up this place (and pay for a new power supply), I wanted to get a few recommendations on a new PS.

My previous PS was a trusty Enermax 300W. My budget is $50-$100max, and I do mostly light gaming, a lot of internet and a lot of watching movies. I'd like to get a very efficient PS, and I don't think I really need 700W or anything

My computer has the following:

Athlon 64 3000
1gig ddr400 ram
3 7200 rpm harddrives
radeon X600
Audigy soundcard
Leadtek Expert tv tuner

I'm hoping to upgrade over the next year to a mainstream Core2 Duo, with appropriate motherboard and ram, and a new generation mainstream gfx card for starcraft2.

Thanks.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Enhance ENP-5150GH from ewiz.com. $67 at Ewiz before shipping when going through froogle. It is a 500W, 80+% efficient PSU. Would easily handle your current computer and would give you some room for upgrade to the C2D and such. Probably could do a E6600 and a 8800GTS without any trouble.

 

[mpilchfamily]

With an AC line there is no set polarity. You have a hot wire and neutral wire. AC is alternating current meaning the hot wire supplies both a negative and positive polarity alternateing between the two at a set frequency. Having the Hot and Neutral wires reverced shouldn't damage a PSU like that. Sounds more like the system took a few hits durring the move that may have damaged the PSU. Chances are the landlord will send an electritian out but he won't find any problems and the ladlord won't pay for the replacement of the PSU. I just hope the PSU didn't damage anything else in your system.

 

[totalcommand]

Originally posted by: mpilchfamily
With an AC line there is no set polarity. You have a hot wire and neutral wire. AC is alternating current meaning the hot wire supplies both a negative and positive polarity alternateing between the two at a set frequency. Having the Hot and Neutral wires reverced shouldn't damage a PSU like that. Sounds more like the system took a few hits durring the move that may have damaged the PSU. Chances are the landlord will send an electritian out but he won't find any problems and the ladlord won't pay for the replacement of the PSU. I just hope the PSU didn't damage anything else in your system.

Well, I had tried the computer the day before in another outlet, and it worked. I was just moving the computer to the area I wanted to put my desk at. The outlet was 2 prong - I bought a 2 to 3 prong converter and incorrectly assumed that the screw was grounded. After my computer blew out, I called up the landlord and they sent in an electrician. It was the electrician who told me that the live and neutral wires were reversed, which damaged my power supply. On top of that, the circuit was not properly grounded, and the circuit breaker was rated for 20A when the circuit can really only handle 15A.

My guess is that when you reverse live and neutral with electronics, it can damage diodes and other such stuff in the PS because of the reversed current flow. Perhaps this is why plugs for electronics are "handed", with a big prong and a little prong that can only be plugged in one way.

Thanks for the PS recommendation Sparky.

 

[totalcommand]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
Enhance ENP-5150GH from ewiz.com. $67 at Ewiz before shipping when going through froogle. It is a 500W, 80+% efficient PSU. Would easily handle your current computer and would give you some room for upgrade to the C2D and such. Probably could do a E6600 and a 8800GTS without any trouble.

How would this one compare to the Enhance one?
Shipping from ewiz is 14 bucks or so, making it come out to ~$83.

http://www.buy.com/prod/antec-...loc/101/203477216.html

 

[SparkyJJO]

Antec Earthwatts are decent PSUs and probably a good alternative to the Enhance unit. The enhance is better but the earthwatts would do fine.

 

[us3rnotfound]

OK, so why have these reverse polarity outlets?

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: us3rnotfound
OK, so why have these reverse polarity outlets?

It is called bad wiring. Someone wasn't paying attention/didn't know what they were doing when they wired it up.