What keeps killing my PSUs?

E

{EB}NuTSymPToM{EB}

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 1, 2003
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A brief history of my build:

- Put it together in March 2008
- Originally had boot issues, feared it was my Thermaltake 700W modular PSU, had a friend that worked at Best Buy get a Rocketfish 700W PSU to test with his discount
- Turned out I had a crap mobo and RMA'd it for a new one
- Rebuilt the rig but left the RF PSU in it
- After about a year, I could no longer boot with memory in channel A, so I only have two functioning RAM slots
- Bought 5850 3-4 months ago and installed the TT PSU since I knew it was higher quality and didn't trust my precious new 5850 with the RF
- The TT PSU died after a week of use, reinstalled the RF
- The RF PSU appears to have died peacefully on Friday after a month or two of working fine

I have yet to order a new one, looking at this, but I'm pretty sure the PSU ate it. I'm trying to figure out if there is something more to be concerned with, or is it just cheap/old PSU's dying off. My concern is that since I had a bad mobo originally and the one I've been using has a dead memory channel, there might be something up with it's power management and it's taking out my PSU prematurely. I don't know enough about what can kill a PSU besides a surge. Does anyone think I have anything to be worried with or should I just pick up a new high quality PSU and move on with my life?
 
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Please list brand and model for your dead PSUs, we'll get to the bottom of this!
 
I once lived in an apartment with unstable electric wiring, and it would fry electronics if you didn't add a layer of surge protection with a UPS or voltage regulator. I can't know if this is the case with your place of residence though.

I hope other people will share something more helpful
 
Nightbird said:
I once lived in an apartment with unstable electric wiring, and it would fry electronics if you didn't add a layer of surge protection with a UPS or voltage regulator. I can't know if this is the case with your place of residence though.

I hope other people will share something more helpful
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FWIW, my memory channel died at my old apartment. Both PSUs have died in my new apartment. It's a pretty new building though and I don't have any reason to believe the electric system is faulty. I've always used surge protectors, but never a UPS/voltage regulator. I intend to pick up a decent UPS with my next major gaming build.
 
Do you have other motherboards to test? I am not convinced that either of these problems were caused by a bad powersupply and not a bad motherboard or overclocking.
 
I currently don't have another motherboard to try out.

I've been running a mild overclock (~3.0ghz) since I built the system and never had any issues besides memory channel A failing. My memory was never over-clocked or had the voltage adjusted when memory channel A went. When memory channel A failed, some research indicated upping the voltage slightly to channel A might get it working again, and it did for a short period of time. After it failed again, I only used channel B.

I'm weary of my motherboard since it has had part of it fail and now two PSU's have died running it. That said, I'd really prefer not to sink more money than a power supply into this system until I build fresh and turn my current rig into an HTPC.

Can a motherboard really kill PSU's off like this? I have had absolutely zero stability problems with the system otherwise, so I have a hard time believing the motherboard is total shit.


Also, how is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005 for a replacment? I would think it'd be sufficient for a single GPU build, but I do have quite a few drives being powered as well. Just want to confirm it's the smart choice and it seems like a good deal with the MIR and discount code.

I know with Corsair HX is modular and TX seems popular, but what are CX, VX and AX?
 
That's what I'm thinking. I've had a motherboard die when a power supply went up in smoke, but I can't picture a motherboard causing a PSU to die. If it was drawing some absurd load, the PSU should shut down, if not it'd take the motherboard out too.

As far as knowing the PSU's are bad, I really only know that the TT PSU is dead. When I installed it with my 5850, it died after only a few weeks. When I put the RF back in, the computer worked perfectly fine as though nothing had happened, so it was definitely the TT that went.

I have yet to confirm that the RF PSU is in fact dead, but I'll be ordering the Corsair PSU tonight and will know for sure once I install it. If the motherboard is dead, I'll still keep the PSU since I'm tired of the blue glow of the RF anyway :cool:
 
Rocketfish is one of the worst PSUs you can get. Seriously. It's little better than getting one of those $15 '500 Watt' PSUs. Especially older ThermalTake PSUs weren't stellar either and thus the likely explanation in this situation is simply that you got two POS PSUs which did exactly what they were designed for: suck badly :)
 
Unstable power supply will do it. I work in a hospital and the power there is very unstable. Lights flicker a lot, power randomly browns out, etc... never seen anything that bad.

Power supplies die left and right at that place. The L2 tech goes through at least 10 a month.
 
Elledan said:
Rocketfish is one of the worst PSUs you can get. Seriously. It's little better than getting one of those $15 '500 Watt' PSUs. Especially older ThermalTake PSUs weren't stellar either and thus the likely explanation in this situation is simply that you got two POS PSUs which did exactly what they were designed for: suck badly :)
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I never expected the RF to last. I literally got it as a tester and waited too long to bother swapping it out. I expected more of the TT since it was relatively well rated at the time and it appeared to have high build quality. I wanted a modular and I got a deal on it.

Hopefully lesson learned, don't cheap out on PSUs!
 
Red Squirrel said:
Unstable power supply will do it. I work in a hospital and the power there is very unstable. Lights flicker a lot, power randomly browns out, etc... never seen anything that bad.

Power supplies die left and right at that place. The L2 tech goes through at least 10 a month.
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Sounds like time for online UPSs and/or a proper rewiring job? :)

{EB}NuTSymPToM{EB} said:
I never expected the RF to last. I literally got it as a tester and waited too long to bother swapping it out. I expected more of the TT since it was relatively well rated at the time and it appeared to have high build quality. I wanted a modular and I got a deal on it.

Hopefully lesson learned, don't cheap out on PSUs!
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In case you're wondering how bad Rocketfish is, here's a review of a '700 Watt' unit HardOCP did a while ago: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2008/05/13/getting_best_buy_on_power_supply/5

You are quite lucky your system didn't light on fire, to be honest :) And yes, always get a good PSU, it's just not worth saving a few bucks on.
 
Sounds typical of a home with shitty and/or old electrical wiring.

Surge protector? I am 99% sure there are how-to articles on how to SAFELY test your wiring to see if its shotty.

Other than that....... was there storms that day? I never got owned by lightning, EVER, and I usually keep on in rainstorms.... but I have fixed many computers that supposedly have. Maybe you just got a bad lightning hit? You could invest in a lightning rod if so.

Other than that, I dunno..... might just be bad luck.
 
The weather was fine at the time both power supplies died.

I definitely plan to invest in a UPS at this point but I need to do a little more reading to see what's really worthwhile.

Also, what do you mean ground my system?
 
I did not ask that question however I assume the question was about the following..

You are not using a cheater plug that converts a 3 pin plug to 2 pins so that you can plug it into an old plug that does not have 3 pins?
 
drescherjm said:
I did not ask that question however I assume the question was about the following..

You are not using a cheater plug that converts a 3 pin plug to 2 pins so that you can plug it into an old plug that does not have 3 pins?
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Absolutely not. My PC is plugged into a 3 pin surge protector which is plugged into a 3 pin outlet. I am definitely grounded in that sense.
 
I think the problem may be that both PSUs were not of the best quality. Try purchasing a good brand such as Corsair and if that dies you know you have a problem and you will have a warranty on it to fix it.
 
Elledan said:
Sounds like time for online UPSs and/or a proper rewiring job? :)
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Yep, thankfully the servers are on a redundant 70kva UPS, but everything else is not. I keep trying to stress to them that the wiring closets should at least have floor UPSes but it goes in one ear and out the other. I'm just a contractor, nobody listens to contractors. :D
 
Red Squirrel said:
Yep, thankfully the servers are on a redundant 70kva UPS, but everything else is not. I keep trying to stress to them that the wiring closets should at least have floor UPSes but it goes in one ear and out the other. I'm just a contractor, nobody listens to contractors. :D
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That's the problem with management: generally they don't have a clue what has to be done, don't realize that they don't have this clue and thus refuse to listen to those who know WTH they're talking about. Dilbert-esque situations ensue :)
 
I've had a problem with my PSU in a rig where it kept getting hair stuck in the fans; the PSU would overheat and die out. This happened until I bought a new case with a bottom PSU mounting and the fan faces downward, PSU has not died since.. 2 years running.
 
I have a similar problem. Here's the story. We had a flood 6 months ago. Then we decided to remodel the office. We had electrians come in and install new ceiling fans and outlets. Then about two weeks after that a PSU in a HP Compaq dc7700 died. I replaced the PSU with another junk PSU and the computer has worked fine ever since.

Then about 2 weeks after that a custom built computer that had no problems for 1.5 years lost its OCZ700MXSP power supply. So I had a spare OCZ600MXSP i replaced that with. Then about a week later the OCZ600MXSP died. So I started to think it was a faulty outlet.

Then yesterday I tested the computer in a different cubical location where another computer was running just fine and the replacement OCZ700MXSP produced smoke on the first power up and now the motherboard will not post.

What the hell would cause power supplies to die so sudden? They can't all be bad power supplies could they? Are you sure motherboards can't cause power supplies to overload? I'd like to test the motherboard on cardboard just to make sure it isn't dead, but I am reluctant to test any power supplies on the motherboard in fear of losing them too.

System Specs:

Core i7 920
Biostar x58 Tpower
OCZ3G1600
MSI GTX 275
500 GB WD green
DVD RW drive
 
Have you checked your motherboard and components for bulging capacitors?

I've come across this problem where a mobo with bad PWM caps that were bulging would work intermittently, and eventually fry the PSU.
 
Well I didn't see any leaking capacitors, and its pretty hard to tell wether they are bulging or not since they are all capped. In the mean time I've replaced the motherboard and power supply and all is well so far. So something in the motherboard was hosing my power supplies. I guess its just one more thing to check for now on.

Do you see anything wrong with this board?

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Looks okay to me other than the dust around the CPU. :rolleyes:
 
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