A gamer wanted to assemble a computer and used a modular power supply. But that would almost be his undoing become.
If you want to assemble a gaming PC, you have to avoid many traps and stumbling blocks so that everything works smoothly in the end. Other users have to find a hidden bug before they can use their PC.
A particularly annoying error has now happened to a user. He had only replaced one power supply unit. But he had inadvertently made a small mistake.
Gamer installs a modular power supply and uses cables from another power supply
What exactly did the user do? The hobbyist tells on reddit that he replaced the power supply on a computer. He used a modular power supply. The advantage of a modular power supply is simple. You can connect the cables to the power supply yourself and thus provide better cable routing.
But it was precisely these cables that were almost fatal to the user. Because he replaced the power supply, but then used the old cables from the previous power supply. As soon as he started the computer, it smelled like burnt plastic.
He describes his post accordingly with the sentence: “Do not change power supplies without the cables [mit] switch.”
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There is no official cable standard for power supplies
What exactly is the problem? The cables of power packs are not standardized. Many modular power supplies rely on different cables, which you can then connect to the power supply. A user explains on reddit that this is the biggest problem with such power supplies:
Modular Power Supply (PSU)? This is because there are no standards for modular power supplies. We have to fix this.
If you buy a modular power supply, the right cables for the device are usually always included, which you can and should use directly.
However, the manufacturers are free to set up their power supply. That means, in the most annoying case, you pack a plug into your power supply that has the completely wrong pins. A user on reddit describes the resulting result: “Attempting to insert a power connection of the 24-pin plug into a ground connection = smoke.”
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Community believes that the problem with the cables could be easily solved
The community is discussing the issue: Some users are of the opinion that the manufacturers of power supplies could solve these problems quite easily: If the manufacturers were to use proprietary connectors instead, such “accidents” could not happen in PC construction. Because proprietary plugs can then only be installed in the corresponding power supply unit from the specific manufacturer.
There are also such fuses for other components, so that nobody would think of plugging DDR3 RAM into a DDR4 slot or an AMD CPU into an Intel socket. Only in the case of power supply cables no one has thought that accidents can happen.
Some users in the thread on reddit think that a few thick warning stickers would be enough to prevent worse things from happening.
Incorrect cables can be dangerous: A YouTuber also shows how dangerous supposedly harmless-looking cables can be. Because he installed a small cable in his gaming PC to show how much damage you can do with it:
YouTuber shows how you can ruin your gaming PC with a single cable