230V instead of 115V

[TheGreatSatan]

If your power supply is on 230V instead of 115V will that certainly kill your motherboard? I think a friend just did that.

[mtekk]

If you supply 115V to a 230V supply the machine will just not start up. If you supply 230 to a 115V supply you will probably cause damage.

[Spawn-Inc]

most power supplies can do both.

they ship with 110v cables but i believe you need a 220v cable.

in the picture below you can see the red switch with 115v printed on it, you can flip that and it will show 240v.

http://www.isplc2006.org/b2b/pics/Computer_Power_Supply.jpg

[TheGreatSatan]

His computer was set to 230V and starts up, but shows no video signal. We tested the PSU, the video card, and proc and they all work. The board is DDR3, so I have no way to test the board or RAM. This happened last time and he RMA'd the motherboard thinking that was the problem, but the new board is doing the same thing. Now that we discovered the 230V switch, we're wondering if that's been the problem all along.

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

my thoughts... chuck the PSU... (if it is still not workin after flippin switch) no matter what... the PSU only outputs 12/5/and so on and so forth... so setting it to a higher voltage input.. and not givin it enough would only underpower the components within..
so i doubt they have taken any damage... so i would figure if anything it would be the PSU........ try it all out in a different setup..
the DDR3 situation makes that a lil limiting..
a few months back i converted a comp from use in the UAE (240v....they got plugs just like the british... potential bludgeoning tools)
i just swapped the PSU to a 120v (some ****e one i got from "the source" and everything worked fine!

[mtekk]

my thoughts... chuck the PSU... (if it is still not workin after flippin switch) no matter what... the PSU only outputs 12/5/and so on and so forth... so setting it to a higher voltage input.. and not givin it enough would only underpower the components within..

Pretty much. If it has a 110/220 switch then it either has passive PFC, or no PFC, both of which have fallen out of use in most quality PSU designs now days. Active PFC PSUs do not have a switch and can be safely powered with anything between 90V and 230V AC.

I still vote bad memory, if you haven't sent it in for RMA yet I'd look into doing that. Worst case scenario is that they'll test the memory and everything checks out, costing only the shipping out. Or you could always just buy one stick of cheap DDR3 for testing (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148147 ~$17 shipped).

[The Black Pumpkin]

It shouldn't affect it, but I had a situation where the switch got switched accidentally from 110 to 220, the button got pushed, and *POOF* there goes the magic smoke from the psu. New psu installed, no problems! :banana:

[Xpirate]

I have opened up several power supplies after they have died. Most of the time the 230/115 volt switch will go to an open circuit if you slide it to the 230. The switch will actually do something if you have a more expensive power supply.