PC Power supply question

[sofakng]

Ok, I think I'm drawing way too much power from my junky, generic, power supply...

Here's what I have plugged into it:

Motherboard + Athlon 1.0 GHz CPU
  - ATI Radeon 7000 (AGP)
  - SB Live! (PCI)
  - Networkl card (PCI)
  - USB card (PCI)
5400 RPM Hard Drive
JBL Car Amplifier (40W x 2)  (connected using +12 V)

Now everything worked PERFECTLY with that setup.  The sound worked beautifully through my car speakers and car amplifier... Windows XP worked great, TV-out, etc...

However, I tried plugging in my P360 joystick and then the sound card wasn't even recognized anywhere and thus, I had no sound.

Was this because I'm pulling too much from my power supply, or perhaps another reason?

What do I need in a power supply to use all this stuff?

[JustMichael]

Did you recheck the wiring of the P360?  Also what do you have the P360 wired to?

[SirPeale]

Junky PS could do that, also having a PS that isn't powerful enough could do that.  What's the wattage on that beast?

[sofakng]

Well, one part I left out was that last night when I plugged in my P360 into the power supply connector I hacked up, my PC wouldn't boot and I heard a loud POP and I smelt something burning really badly...

After that I couldn't get anything to boot and I could've swore I smelt the burning coming from the motherboard.  Well, after a few tries I got everything to boot just fine (motherboard, amplifier, speakers, I-PAC, etc).

The P360 didn't work but I didn't have any time to try diagnosing anything further.  I'm praying I didn't fry the P360 -- I don't see how in the world that could have happened though.  All I did was connect the +5v (red) and GND (black) wires to the P360 cables...

*sigh*

The fact that the sound card stopped being recognized when I plugged everything in leads me to think the powre supply is not strong enough to power all the components, but I really don't know.  I'm just looking for suggestions before I go back home tonight and try to figure everything out

[dasme]

Popping and burning is bad. You let all the magic smoke out!

Ok bad joke aside that is never a good thing to happen to a pc. I would assume that one of 2 things happened. Either you fryed something on your sound card, or even potentially on your logic board.

I would disconnect EVERYTHING and try your sound card in another slot. If it is recognized then the PCI slot it was in got fried. Otherwise it may be your soundcard.

Not sure how that could happen by connecting up a 5V connector though, did you maybe short the 12V connector by connecting it right to a ground?

[SirPeale]

Well...yeah.  Everything would be likely fine, except audio amps pull a lot of juice.  That's likely your "straw that breaks the camel's back" right there.

[sofakng]

Oh, I forgot to mention another thing, heh...

After I unplugged my P360 from my power supply connection, the sound card started working again fine so I know all my components are fine except for the P360.

Maybe it's fine but my connections are goofed up... *shrug*   What do you think?

[SirPeale]

You got the pinout wrong?

The P360 is the fabled straw?

[sofakng]

Almost positive I have the pinout correct, but it does seem the P360 crashed the whole system.

I was able to boot it back up with the P360 connected (I double-checked the wiring before hand) and it booted fine, but thats when the soundcard wouldn't show up.

So, I disconnected my amplifier from the power supply and left my P360 connected.

The soundcard showed up but the P360 wouldn't send any keys to the computer.  Like I said, I'm praying the P360 isn't fried or anything...

Do I need to connect EVERY button for the P360 to work?  I only connected +5V, GND, and "UP".  My purpose for this was trying to find which direction on the joystick was up (for mounting purposes).

[RayB]

All this time, you don't bother telling us what the wattage of your power supply is.....

Smoke and a pop is a sign of something burnt. I'm amazed you got anything working again. Though you say the P360 isn't.... I'd bet it's dead now.

[pointdablame]

Well something is definitely dying or dead.  Pop and smoke guarantees that something either a) died, or b) is going to die soon.  Computer components don't smoke just for fun heh.  If it came from the case itself, you may have fried something on the mobo.  Like was mentioned, PCI slots may be blown, caps may be ready to pop, etc etc.  I don't know how long I'd trust that computer working if I were you.  Time to rip it apart and test each component individually I think.

We need to know the wattage of your PSU.  For just the components and the joystick, a 300-350w would be fine.  That car amp however probably draws a hell of a lot of juice.  I couldn't even guess what you'd need, but I bet its way more than a 300w.

[sofakng]

All this time, you don't bother telling us what the wattage of your power supply is.....

Smoke and a pop is a sign of something burnt. I'm amazed you got anything working again. Though you say the P360 isn't.... I'd bet it's dead now.

Well, I'll post a follow up later tonight, but I'm almost positive the power supply is VERY generic and 250 watt.  I'm at work so there is no way I could know for sure until I go home.

The power supply seems to run everything BUT the joysticks just fine.  I even have the amplifier cranked up fairly loud.  The power supply doesn't seem to even flinch (everything runs stable, etc) with all that hooked up.  However I will agree that I'm probably at MAX capacity or NEAR MAX capacity with all that hooked up and perhaps the joysticks are pushing it over the edge...

As for the smoke and pop, I didn't see smoke, I smelt something burnt...  Yes, I know... no difference really.  The motherboard was already near death (usb barely works, ps2 ports are broke, etc) so I won't be upset if thats the defective part.  All I hope is that the other  components and joysticks are OK.

[sofakng]

Ok, small update.  I've gotten BOTH P360 joysticks to work just fine.  It turns out I had a keyboard mapping problem which made me think the joystick was defective.  Anyways, I'm very happy all my joysticks are working just fine...  I'm a bit worried about what happened though because I definitely smelt something burning, but everything seems to be OK, at least for now...

As for the power supply being able to supply enough power, I didn't have enough time to check it out any further (and I forgot to check the ratings on the power supply itself).

Just thought I'd give an update to anybody curious.

Thanks for all the help!