Part of my PC exploded and damaged the rest, am I covered?

mad_pc_man

The (newish) power supply in my desktop computer exploded a week or so ago and because it was well within warranty, I sent it off to be replaced.

They found it was faulty and replaced it.

After installing the new power supply, the PC won't turn on. When the first one exploded it must have sent a surge of electricity or something through the PC and broken it.

I have a pretty good contents policy from Barclays, but it isn't clear if it is covered. Does anyone know if it would be? And how I should word a claim to make sure it is?

The only relevant clause I can find is that "electrical breakdown" is not covered. But this isn't really what I would be claiming for, it's the damaged caused by an electrical failure. Similar to if a washing machine floods a kitchen - the washing machine can be replaced but is the flood damage covered?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated - to replace the PC will leave me around £1000 out of pocket!

tempus_fugit

In the case of the washing machine generally the resultant damage is covered under the "escape of water" clause. Which clause would you feel that the electrical damage would be covered under? Also, do you have accidental damage cover for your contents?

mad_pc_man

I was using the washing machine example as an analogy, I don't know what this case would be covered by (if anything).

I think I do have accidental damage yes, would I count under that?

tempus_fugit

Possibly, yes. Might be worth speaking to your insurers if you do have accidental damage cover. I can't think of any of the standard clauses that would ordinarily cover it.

ThePants999

Are you sure the new power supply isn't simply DOA?

FWIW, even if the PSU did surge on one or more of its outputs (which would be quite unusual), it's pretty unlikely that everything in the PC is dead.

mad_pc_man

Yeah it has a button to do a self test which works, and also when you go to turn it on, it makes a sound like a relay clicking off, I guess for protection?

rs65

I think this is still a warranty claim rather than an insurance claim.

Sparx

Did the power supply not come with a guarantee e.g. If it fried other components with it, they'll cover the replacement costs?

If not I imagine it was a cheap nasty PSU was it? Never skimp on cheap PSUs.... What happens is exactly what you experienced.

mad_pc_man

Yeah I never skimp on the PSU, this was a £150 corsair hx750i - really surprised it went bang!

I've contacted them already but their customer support was useless. They kept trying to get me to RMA the PSU and couldn't understand I'd already done that and was now talking about the damage it had done to the rest of it

csgohan4

mad_pc_man wrote: »

Yeah I never skimp on the PSU, this was a £150 corsair hx750i - really surprised it went bang!

I've contacted them already but their customer support was useless. They kept trying to get me to RMA the PSU and couldn't understand I'd already done that and was now talking about the damage it had done to the rest of it

Look at the T+C of the warranty, it may not cover damage to other components


Are your other components still in warranty?

mad_pc_man

Some might be, it's been built over the years.

It's really hard to test what is actually broken or not