Originally posted by scriptasylum
Can I assume you have your computer hooked to a working surge suppressor? If the PS fried that bad, the problem was most likely on the DC converter (before the transformer) side of it. If there was a real big surge the over-voltage devices might have blown, but they are supposed to do that if the surge is too high. These switch-mode power supplies are quite a bit more complex than their linear-mode brethren (but physically smaller, lighter and less expensive for the high current ratings you can get).
Ohh yes! All my electronics (PC's, TV's, Stereo, ect) is on high quality surge protectors.
On a side note update I sent an email to Antec reguarding what happen. Here is a copy of that email for your enjoyment. I used part of my post here for this email so most of it will sound familiar.
TO: <customerservice@antec-inc.com>
Subject: My experience with my new PSU.
To Whom it may concern:
I wanted to take a moment to share my recent experience with your TruePower 550W ATX power supply. Last week I purchased a brand new TruePower 550W ATX power supply from the online retailer newegg.com. This was my first PSU upgrade for this PC, so needless to say I was excited. I choose the 550W PSU so that I would not need to upgrade it for a very long time, I really only needed a 350 - 450W but wanted to plan for the future.
Well after using the power supply for 6 days my brand new Antec 550W PSU just blew up!!! I just installed the new Nvidia Driver 43.00 and needed to restart, well I accidently hit the shutdown icon instead. No problem, an anoyance at worst, so after the system shut down I hit the power button on the front of my PC and I hear (actually the whole house heard it) this very loud crackling sound like a sparkler firework, at the same time through the air vent that houses my 2 front USB ports I see blue lights flickering, and sparks, and then it shutdown. The whole event lasted approx. 3 full seconds.
So I quickly pull the power cord out of the back and flip the power switch on the PSU, and then I smell it, the smell of burnt electronics. I am thinking this is not good, not good at all! So I disconnect everything open up the case, disconnect the mobo power connector first, just in case there is still some life left in the PSU, unplug all the power connectors and remove the PSU. At this point I am really worried that I have lost my motherboard (Gigabyte G7-VKML) and CPU (AMD Athlon XP 2100+). Thankfully I have saved my old PSU, a generic 350W, hooked it up and my system worked. WHEW!!
I have requested an RMA to get the defective PSU replaced, and hopefully this was a one time incident, but I wanted to make you aware of the problem I had as it was so severe.
Thank you for your time,
William Baumann