installed new ram and it blew my power supply?

Hi everyone,
a friend bought some new ram off ebay and when he installed it his computer wouldnt load. As I thought it may be an incompatibility issue I decided to try it in mine as mine is a far newer machine. Almost instantly after turning mine on it made a strange noise and smoke started coming out of the power supply. I have tried another psu and the computer boots but the monitor doesnt come on and it resets when loading. My specs are:

550w power supply
Athlon 939 X2 4200 manchester
Abit AV8 mobo
1gb DDR pc2700 ram (2x512mb)
7600GT agp graphics
sound blaster audigy 2 sound card
2x 80gb western digital HDD (ide)

the ram that was installed when the power supply blew was advertised as:
"NEW 1GB PC 2100 DDR 266 Mhz 184PIN 1 GB G 1024MB IN UK"

I wanted to know if ram could blow my whole power supply? if so then will it have destroyed all my other components? thanks to everyone!

 

That does not sound good. I'd go back to the site, and get a hold of the seller. It might be bad memory.

 

im in discussion with them at the mo and think they are gonna tell me its a fault my end. could faulty ram actually cause a blown psu tho?

 

Could be why it was for sale on e-bay, in the first place.

There are lots of dodgy sellers out there. Unless it came from a power seller with a good reputation, I don't fancy your chances. :cry Bazza

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I can't see a memory module sinking enough current to blow a power supply, faulty or not.

I would look very hard at the rest of your system to ascertain what other damage has occurred.

The 266 module is surely too slow for your processor in any case?

All this does not mean that the memory was not faulty, just that something else also happened.

Let us know how you get on.

Studio T

 

Unless it shorted across the RAM, and backfed into the power supply somewhere else. It is booting? You might have damaged the video card. You might also have done something to the processor. Check to make sure the BIOS isn't corrupted.

 

IMO unlikely the ram blew your PSU
If the ram is the culprit you should see some burn marks across the fingers

In your specs you didnt specify the exact PSU so I'd assume it's a generic PSU and that usually lead's to disaster (also note! there are many so called brand name models that suck, cough cough, to name a few, Aspire is the worst, thermaltake has many crap ones on the market, I could go on & on :cry)

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When PSU goes its not uncommon to take other hardware with it.
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You installed a new PSU still no worky

The first thing to do is reset the system CMOS/MOBO BIOS then try to boot or only post your system with only basic hardware installed.

Basic hardware is PSU, MOBO, CPU with HSF, one stick of memory and Video card if your mobo doesnt have onboard video, and ofcourse a monitor (no other hardware is needed to post)

If you can post add in your other hardware ( turn off then add in other)

If you cant post, Test all hardware starting with the PSU

Good Luck :major

 

Memory modules are fed indirectly through a step down arrangement on the motherboard from the 5V line.
The psu itself has quite a bit of short circuit protection (switching regulators are inherently sc proof). Any current large enough to cause smoke would surely leave its mark on the motherboard and other places as well. And as ASUS says on the memory connectors.

I think you will find this pc was running in dual channel mode. If either of the original memory modulus are now damaged the pc will not boot. Sorry.

Studio T

 

If it's running dual channel, it might have damaged the connection. In which case, you might be able to skip around it using the second channels.

I've always had good luck with Termaltakes. That's what's in mine now. They last for around a year, barring nasty effects like lightning, or putting drywall screws into the wiring.

And when they start to go, I get weird reception on the TV which is on the other side of the wall from the computer.