Question about a bad power supply in a Denver repair shop

I was fixing a custom gaming PC last week when the power supply let out a loud pop and smoked up the whole back room. I swapped it with a spare 750W unit I keep for testing and the system booted right up. What's your go-to method for testing a power supply before you plug in the rest of the parts?

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3 Comments

paigem766mo ago

Honestly, that sounds like a standard failure, not some huge crisis. A lot of times a bad PSU just takes itself out without harming anything else. My go-to is just a basic paperclip test on the 24-pin before I bother with anything fancier.

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wesley1396mo ago

Tried the paperclip test on a dead build last month, it saved me a ton of time. My old Corsair unit wouldn't spin the fan at all, so I knew it was toast right away. Just swapped in a spare and the whole system booted up like nothing happened.

5

jasonp306mo ago

Yeah, @wesley139, that paperclip trick is a lifesaver for sure.

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