PSU died?

[tongue_of_colicab]

After all of orans and Digi threads I want my own hardware problem thread

Today I turned on my PC and thought everything was normal but after a few minutes it rebooted and gave a PSU oversurge protection error on the BIOS screen.

Tried rebooting and got into Windows but turned itself off again after a couple of minutes.

Took out my r9 290 and things looked stable but again rebooting after a few minutes.

As a final resort I pulled out the mainboard battery and now nothing is working anymore.

When I press the power button the fans spin on for a second and then power appears to by cutting out (clicky sound coming from the PSU).

It's a three year old seasonic x that I payed almost 200 for. Probably has a 5 year warranty but with waiting times and shipping costs I might as well buy a new one...

I think it's the PSU though not entirely sure. The previous PSU I had that died on me had smoke coming out and killed the house's surge protectors hehe. The only thing I find a bit worrying is that it's not booting anymore at all over removing the mainboard battery.

 

[Davros]

it's not booting anymore at all over removing the mainboard battery.

not even when you put the battery back ?

 

[Cyan]

After all of orans and Digi threads I want my own hardware problem thread

Today I turned on my PC and thought everything was normal but after a few minutes it rebooted and gave a PSU oversurge protection error on the BIOS screen.

Tried rebooting and got into Windows but turned itself off again after a couple of minutes.

Took out my r9 290 and things looked stable but again rebooting after a few minutes.

As a final resort I pulled out the mainboard battery and now nothing is working anymore.

When I press the power button the fans spin on for a second and then power appears to by cutting out (clicky sound coming from the PSU).

It's a three year old seasonic x that I payed almost 200 for. Probably has a 5 year warranty but with waiting times and shipping costs I might as well buy a new one...

I think it's the PSU though not entirely sure. The previous PSU I had that died on me had smoke coming out and killed the house's surge protectors hehe. The only thing I find a bit worrying is that it's not booting anymore at all over removing the mainboard battery.

is the cable of the 4 extra AT pins well connected? That behaviour of turning off after a second is typical in those situations where the cable is not well connected or unplugged. You can also bridge the green and black cables on your PSU to see if it works by itself, but it might be the PSU, yes.

 

[digitalwanderer]

"Clicky-sound coming from the PSU" = very, very not good in my experience....always.

I was just playing with my new 750-Corsair GQ yesterday and the old Crosshair Formula V that's given me nothing but grief since owning it and it turns out that yes indeed the mobo itself is bad.

Just as an experiment, and because I'd read it helped some people, I tried starting it with the extra 4-pin CPU header unplugged and it just SCREAMED when I tried to start it. Did the same thing when I removed the 8-pin CPU connection and had only the 4-pin on it. (Q-code was 50 for VGA error, but it gave me that whether I had a viddy card in or not...and I used a "known good" viddy card for it.)

I understand wanting to just buy a new one, but might I suggest buying a temporary one for now instead while you have yours warranteed? That way you'll have an extra one to test things with or use when things next go wrong. I know the $60 one I just bought ain't nearly as good as an Ennermax, but it's got a 5-year warranty so I'm pretty sure I'll at least get my money out of it. (Corsair has been very good about warranties with me.)

Just a suggestion, I hate the idea of just scrapping a $200 PSU.

 

[digitalwanderer]

OH! One more VERY IMPORTANT THING!

My son's PSU came with a "PSU tester" which is basically just a 24-pin connector with the green and black wires jumped. I used it on the PSU I was using to test all those motherboards and to fix my wife's computer with, and THE TESTER TOLD ME THE PSU WAS GOOD WHEN IT WAS NOT!.

Sorry for the emphasis, but I just wanted to get that point across. Just because a PSU starts doesn't mean it's good, and if your PSU is clicking it ain't good and I wouldn't be using it on anything anymore. Next stop will be it releasing all its magic smoke and that can be bad for components.

My apologies for not mentioning earlier, but it just hit me. I'm still waking up.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

not even when you put the battery back ?

Nope. Maybe because of the combination of a failing psu and bios reset?

is the cable of the 4 extra AT pins well connected? That behaviour of turning off after a second is typical in those situations where the cable is not well connected or unplugged. You can also bridge the green and black cables on your PSU to see if it works by itself, but it might be the PSU, yes.

It happened all of a sudden, without having moved or touched anything. I checked the cables but they are all fully plugged in.

"Clicky-sound coming from the PSU" = very, very not good in my experience....always.

I was just playing with my new 750-Corsair GQ yesterday and the old Crosshair Formula V that's given me nothing but grief since owning it and it turns out that yes indeed the mobo itself is bad.

Just as an experiment, and because I'd read it helped some people, I tried starting it with the extra 4-pin CPU header unplugged and it just SCREAMED when I tried to start it. Did the same thing when I removed the 8-pin CPU connection and had only the 4-pin on it. (Q-code was 50 for VGA error, but it gave me that whether I had a viddy card in or not...and I used a "known good" viddy card for it.)

I understand wanting to just buy a new one, but might I suggest buying a temporary one for now instead while you have yours warranteed? That way you'll have an extra one to test things with or use when things next go wrong. I know the $60 one I just bought ain't nearly as good as an Ennermax, but it's got a 5-year warranty so I'm pretty sure I'll at least get my money out of it. (Corsair has been very good about warranties with me.)

Just a suggestion, I hate the idea of just scrapping a $200 PSU.

Tried the same but it just turns off after 1 second.

I'll try applying for warranty, just checked when I bought it and it's almost 4 years old. Bit early to break I think but the heat and humidity in Japan might not be ideal.

But I don't want to wait for a new psu. I'm now thinking about getting the same model again, which is roughly 140 dollars at the nearest shop or spend a bit over 200 for a 700+ watt model from either Seasonic or Corsair. I don't really want to spend that kind of money though, trying to save for a nice car

I'll probably just go with the same model. I could go for a cheaper one but I eventually plan to use this pc for server duty (its got a i7 4770 so it should be more than fast enough for years to come) so buying a decent psu won't be a waste of money.

Going with the same model will save me from having to redo the cable management as well hehe.

I just hope its not the mainboard.

 

[entity279]

I had my seasonic platinum 860 die as well some 2 months ago. After 5+ years of 'explotation'. The seasonic guys gave me a brand new (no refurbished or anything) Seasonic Prime 850 (these new prime series get 12 yrs warranty, too bad my original one had only 10 , of which i have 5 left). Transport costs also were about 10% of the PSU's value but still.. got a spare from a frient while mine got replaced.

Why are you buying a new one?

Also, since you got an "oversurge protection error", isnt it possible that there's a cause to all this? LIke real problems on the power line or stuff in your case that's not supposed to touch. Seasonic's 1 rail design means a lot of amps must get through to actually trigger that. If I were you, I'd tear appart the case and carefully put all the parts back. When a working PSU come, that is.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I don't have a different PC I can use while waiting for a RMA to go through.

I know buying a new PSU is a bit of a guess but I haven't touched anything inside the case, I wouldn't know what could be shorting it.

 

[entity279]

Ok, you can still RMA your PSU after the new one arrives and try to get some money by reselling, I guess. I'd be a bit scared that the new one may fail as well, if something ideed happened inside your case.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Okay so they didn't have the model I had so instead I bought a cheap 450w thermal take. Figured I needed something for testing anyway.

Wonder if that thing can power a r9 290 and i7 4770 while gaming

When I get back home I'll check for anything that might be shorting.

 

[entity279]

When mine failed, I had my fx 8350 + geforce gts 460 (2* 6 pin) + drives, cd rom & ~8coolers powered by a passive seasonic 450 PSU. Your cpu uses less power while your gpu more. I'd say you'd be fine, at least for a few months.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

After getting home I disconnected everything but still the same problem. Connected the new psu and... turned off... Hmm.

Took the whole thing apart and connected the new psu. Booted up without any problems and appears to be stable. Checked the 12v rail in the bios and steady at 12v, with my old psu it was going up and down between 9v and 12v.

Reconnected the old psu but immediately turns off again after 1 second so I think it's the psu that gave up and went to psu hell.

 

[entity279]

Since the new psu was not working for a while as well, still looks to me as if you had some actual short circuits inside the case (be it due to a superior design or to the more limited exposure to the problem), and the new PSU somehow survived it.

Congrads for the resurection of the PC

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I checked everything and didn't find anything that could have caused the short. Didn't move the case either. Who knows what happened.

I'll be checking the RMA procedure tomorrow. The seasonic website didn't list anything for Japan even though they have an office here...

Ow and the new psu doesn't have a double pcie connector so no gaming for now. I'll finally get some use out of the onboard Intel gpu though. Maybe I'll try running transistor, that might run okayish on this.

 

[entity279]

You can always get an adapter from Molex connectors to PCIe.. I'd certainly do that, it's going to be ok so long most of the 450W of you PSU are actually provided via the 12v rails

 

[digitalwanderer]

I checked everything and didn't find anything that could have caused the short. Didn't move the case either. Who knows what happened.

It literally could have been a bug that landed on your mobo somewhere and shorted it out burning itself to almost a crisp which came off when you removed/replaced bits. Also if the dust is made up of conductive enough stuff it can cause shorts too. (Live long enough and you see a LOT of weird PC problems. )

I'm just glad to hear it is working, now get on that RMA before you put it off! (I'm the type who puts them off....)

Ow and the new psu doesn't have a double pcie connector so no gaming for now. I'll finally get some use out of the onboard Intel gpu though. Maybe I'll try running transistor, that might run okayish on this.

I HATE that, you have my feels. Get yourself a molex to PCIe connector like Entity279 said. I wish you lived closer, I got literally half a dozen of those things laying around my desk and in drawers of it. (Also got one on my PC right now since I still haven't swapped out PSUs)

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Nah Digi I cant rely on you for that, you already did enough when you sent me a Radeon x1600 it was I believe many years ago. Used that card for a couple of years till the fan gave in

I don't have a lot of free time anyway so to be honest I haven't really missed being unable to play games yet.

I applied for the RMA the other day and sometimes it's nice to have Japanese customer service. I can drop the PSU off at the local convenience store (there's one on every corner here) and they'll ship it for me free of charge. It will take a massive five days to test and ship a new one back to me. Seven if it's really busy. I can live with that

Timing is good though because next week I'll have a week off so I might actually have some time.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I applied for the RMA the other day and sometimes it's nice to have Japanese customer service. I can drop the PSU off at the local convenience store (there's one on every corner here) and they'll ship it for me free of charge. It will take a massive five days to test and ship a new one back to me. Seven if it's really busy. I can live with that

That's one thing I love about Japanese convenience stores. They are really convenient. And while not the healthiest of foods, they also have decent food if you need something quick.

Regards,
SB

 

[Malo]

I had a friends computer that was completely "dead", wouldn't turn on at all. In the end it wasn't any of the components inside but the USB port on the front the pins were so mangled they were resting on the outer USB casing and causing the entire PC to not power up. Disconnecting the front USB from the motherboard and it was fine.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Okay this sucks.

Got a new PSU from Seasonic and put it in last Saturday. Had it on for a couple of games, played games for an hour or two and everything looked alright. Turned off my pc as usual last night and this morning... nothing. Dead.

This time the PSU isn't giving as much as a clicky sound or even turning on for half a second. Yanked out the damn thing and put the shitty replacement I bought back in and of course it turns on right away.

I've sent another email to Seasonic but this week being a national holiday and all I don't expect a reply. Even if they did I can forget about gaming this week.

How big is the chance of a second PSU dying in mere days? I've looked at the case again and there isn't anything I can find that might be short circuiting or whatever. I'm not moving my pc around either so apart from bad luck I have no idea what could be causing this issue.