I'll cut straight to the chase:

Two of my power supplies out of my servers have blown up.

Here's what's happening: The first one blew up right as I was booting up, and the second power supply: the server was switched off, and it woke me up during the middle of the night.

It looks like some sparks are shooting out where the power cable connects to the power supply, and then I smell some electrical burning.

Also, the first time, I was using a crappy power cable, so that might've caused it, but I don't think it would completely burn out the power supply.

Additionally, I'm using a fairly old "extension" cord. It's not industrial grade or anything, maybe that's causing some sort of short out?


The computers are fairly old, but I don't think that would cause any sort of issue.

So do you guys have any idea what might be causing this?

I have never heard of that happening to a Power supply but I have worked quite a alot with electricians, and using a old, damaged, or partially frayed power cord or a cord that has too high a gauge (too thin) can very easily cause a fire, that may be what happend.

You can get a shorter (10ft) low gauge cord (thicker) cord fairly cheep at any hardware store. (around than 10$ Cad)

Hm yeah...they were both attatched to the extension cord when they blew up.
Of course, this room is very dusty, so I wasn't sure if it was the dust (which was doubtful) or the morelikely extension cord. I think I'll go and buy an industrial grade extension cord...

Hmm, thanks for the advice.

A even better bet is to get a power bar with a surge protector at the end of the cord and plug your PC into that, so even if something happens, the breaker on the abr will pop, instead of your PS, also usefull in case of power spikes or lightning strikes.

Also, make sure you're using a decent power supply. Don't use power supplies that are included with a case unless you know it's a quality part. Just because you have enough wattage doesn't mean it has the necessary voltage variance on the 12v rail. Power supplies can be dangerous if you try to pull more than they're designed to handle, which is especially true for off-brands, and even moreso in a server environment that may have a RAID setup. Drop the cash on an Antec or a Thermaltake and you won't be disappointed. Every day I see people hooking their $400 graphics card and $500 worth of hdds to a power supply that came with their $40 budget case, and then they act surprised when everything gets fried after a few months of 24h duty.

If the room is dusty and hot (no air conditioning ?) the dust will serve to act as insulation inside the PS and as it gets hotter it draws more power... Since you are also running on a household extension cord (something designed to run hmmm say a 100 watt light and maybe a television all together about 250 watts or so) most PS's are 350 watts easy and I will assume you also have your monitor plugged in as well... Electicaly speaking your in danger of a fire.

don't exagerate M$, i have my 17inch monitor + computer with a 550w PS + my speakers + my alarm clock + my TV all on the same power bar and it has been like this for over 6 months and i never had a single problem lol

Ouch lol well hey run a game of Doom 3 with your speakers turned up and have your TV on at the same for like 15 minutes then while everything is running touch that cord... you may find it rather hot ! Just know that I wouldnt recomend running under those conditions lol If your PC is on dont have the TV on as well or your insulation might melt and cause a short ! I would hate to see a poor PC taken out in its prime by a 2$ extension cord lol

Edit: back in my youth I had my 19 inch TV and my Comadore 64 AND my stereo hooked up to one of those cords (I think I had a NES/Atari 2600 connected to it too) but I think my C64 might have consumed like 12 watts lol hmmm and people thought I was crazy

...which is the same justification given by everyone who has a similar fire hazard in operation. If it weren't a danger, there would be no need to have a circuit breaker to limit power consumption over your home electrical wiring. It's like saying "I never stop at stop signs, but I've never had an accident. Therefore, running stop signs doesn't cause accidents."

Yeah, it was the crappy extension cord that was shorting everything out.

Well, thanks anyway guys!

P.S.- The room is very hot, but tolerable, and there is lots of dust, but it doesn't get near the PSs.