Yesterday I thought I saw smoke coming out of the power supply unit. My computer was running on UPS power for last 5mins and I was just shutting it down. After about 15 mins I rebooted. The computer seems to be working fine. Intel desktop tools show correct voltage on all rails. The temperature of CPU, HD motherboard are all right as per Intel tools and HDD sentinel. Problem is I can still smell acrid smoke around the computer. Can see no smoke right now. I am afraid to keep the computer on for longer period of time. Can someone please guide me on how to test the PSU or am I being paranoid.
Some power supplies do not play well with UPS's that don't generate a true sinewave , especially under high loading. Tom's hardware and others have covered the powersupply and UPS issues, Tom's tests power supplies on an APC UPS now as part of his power supply testing. In my experience cheap power supplies (and some decent ones too) have problems with the quality of the AC that some UPS's kick out (specially cheaper UPS's)...what's happening is the true RMS out of the UPS is a modified (read that chop filtered) squarewave usually and some powersupply designs (specially cheaper ones) cannot work on the lower RMS voltage or the poor quality of the switched AC... PFC does not work well with a RMS of 90-something volts either. To test a power supply without expensive equipment, the easiest is to load your CPU and graphics card at 100% all cores (prime 95xcores+furmark, etc.) and use a multimeter to carefully check each voltage at the ATX power connector on the motherboard. They all should spot on and not vary more than 5% MAX. Then try the same measurements while on the UPS. Testing a ATX power supply when not under a load can mask defects in the power supply.
Thanks alot 2centsworth. Can I keep on using the same Powersupply without testing(seems to be working well at present). If I have the same problem again then can the powersaupply failure also damage other components.
I guess so, but the fact something inside burned is an indicator it needs service/replacement. I have seen el cheapo power supplies take the motherboard with them when they died, poorley designed cheap power supplies often do not safely shut off as they should when problems occur. I have never had a quality brand name like Seasonic die on me and take any hardware with it.
What sort of SMPS is that? The SMPS connected to what type of board? I need more info in order to help you out.