Extra ordinarily high Corsair PSU Efficiency

[Bhavzzz]

Hi Guys

 

So I have a Corsair HX850i and I noticed I was getting efficiency of over 100% according to iCue which also coincided with system lockups which completely froze the system and all lighting effects stopped, and when the system "resumed" all devices connected to my Corsair Commander Pro seemed to turn off and then restart. I've tuned back my overclock and 

the issue persisted. Eventually I had 2 BSOD's with an error on "nvlddmkm.sys"  with error code: "VIDEO TDR FAILURE" (Everything, including display, turned off right before the BSOD). After the second BSOD the system felt completely stable again which really threw me off.

 

Naturally, I assumed Nvidia driver issues so I DDU'd and reinstalled, and everything was fine, but everything was fine immediately after the second BSOD.

 

So what I'm wondering, is whether the efficiency is a symptom or am I looking in the completely wrong direction? If I need to I'm more than happy to RMA the PSU but should I be looking elsewhere?

 

Any help appreciated

 

System Specs:

Asus ROG Strix z270-H

Intel 6600k

Nvidia RTX 2080

 

[MeatFeastMan]

Could be the iCUE software, I had problems with it to start with. It messed my keyboard up. I thought it was overheating or something, which would have been ridiculous. So I got rid of iCUE, and the keyboard was perfectly fine afterwards. It probably isn't that, but you could try getting rid of iCUE for a few days and see what happens.

 

 

[Turtle Rig]

11 minutes ago, MeatFeastMan said:

Could be the iCUE software, I had problems with it to start with. It messed my keyboard up. I thought it was overheating or something, which would have been ridiculous. So I got rid of iCUE, and the keyboard was perfectly fine afterwards. It probably isn't that, but you could try getting rid of iCUE for a few days and see what happens.

 

 

I agree with MeatFeastMan iCue is horrible... Use Corsair Link instead but you will lose your RGB sighs.  Something tells me its your PSU my friend.  I mean if you don't overclock with the rig you have, you should never get BSOD or freezes etc.  Make sure to go to BIOS and set optimal defaults, so no OCing for now.so we can make certain its the PSU failing.  

[Bhavzzz]

Really? I get that iCUE is hot garbage, but causing system lock ups and BSOD? 

 

I honestly assumed it had to be one of the Board/CPU, PSU, or commander pro.

 

Still worth an RMA?

[Turtle Rig]

2 minutes ago, Bhavzzz said:

Really? I get that iCUE is hot garbage, but causing system lock ups and BSOD? 

 

I honestly assumed it had to be one of the Board/CPU, PSU, or commander pro.

 

Still worth an RMA?

Yes like I said the PSU might be dying a slow death.  

[Jurrunio]

I wouldn't care about PSU readings tbh, they are never accurate across the range of operation.

[Bhavzzz]

6 minutes ago, Turtle Rig said:

Yes like I said the PSU might be dying a slow death.  

Thats sad. Been solid overall thus far. 

 

The funny thing is, not too long ago I was having similar lockups before I got the new GPU, and I pretty much narrowed it down to my old wifi/bt card and ever since then it was perfectly fine. The resurgence of the issues got me wondering if it was something else. RMA and hope for the best I suppose. Need a solid PSU for the planned CPU upgrade this year

 

3 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

I wouldn't care about PSU readings tbh, they are never accurate across the range of operation.

I figured, but it might help explain the loss of lighting completely.

[Turtle Rig]

4 minutes ago, Bhavzzz said:

Thats sad. Been solid overall thus far. 

 

The funny thing is, not too long ago I was having similar lockups before I got the new GPU, and I pretty much narrowed it down to my old wifi/bt card and ever since then it was perfectly fine. The resurgence of the issues got me wondering if it was something else. RMA and hope for the best I suppose. Need a solid PSU for the planned CPU upgrade this year

 

I figured, but it might help explain the loss of lighting completely.

Now more then ever I believe its the PSU,  Those efficient percentage should not be at 100 percent, as that is impossible.  For this reason alone I believe its the PSU gone south.

[Turtle Rig]

Your rig is solid and new,  No reason to be the video cards fault or RAM fault or motherboard fault.  Im pointing my finger at the PSU especially showing incorrect efficient numbers.

[GMart84]

I have an HX850i, an HX1000i, and an AX1200i all of them show somethign similar in iCue once in a while.  It is momentary, but it shows that the efficiency is 108% for a second then drops back to in the high 90% range.  I would assume that it caused by the software not updating one number fast enough and therefore it is not showing an accurate number.

 

I did not realize iCUe was that bad.  But will admit that it uses a much larger portion of memory than it should and when you provide it deep access to the RAM lighting the amount of CPU power it consumes is high.

[Bhavzzz]

31 minutes ago, Turtle Rig said:

Your rig is solid and new,  No reason to be the video cards fault or RAM fault or motherboard fault.  Im pointing my finger at the PSU especially showing incorrect efficient numbers.

Well, besides the CPU and PSU everything in the system is brand new as well. 

 

19 minutes ago, GMart84 said:

I have an HX850i, an HX1000i, and an AX1200i all of them show somethign similar in iCue once in a while.  It is momentary, but it shows that the efficiency is 108% for a second then drops back to in the high 90% range.  I would assume that it caused by the software not updating one number fast enough and therefore it is not showing an accurate number.

 

I did not realize iCUe was that bad.  But will admit that it uses a much larger portion of memory than it should and when you provide it deep access to the RAM lighting the amount of CPU power it consumes is high.

It was momentary, but it generally coincided with the system lockups, so I had enough time to pull out my phone and take a photo of 152% efficiency etc. We'll have to see if the psu will even get replaced. I guess they'll have to replicate the issues.

[Turtle Rig]

23 minutes ago, GMart84 said:

I have an HX850i, an HX1000i, and an AX1200i all of them show somethign similar in iCue once in a while.  It is momentary, but it shows that the efficiency is 108% for a second then drops back to in the high 90% range.  I would assume that it caused by the software not updating one number fast enough and therefore it is not showing an accurate number.

 

I did not realize iCUe was that bad.  But will admit that it uses a much larger portion of memory than it should and when you provide it deep access to the RAM lighting the amount of CPU power it consumes is high.

Def use Corsair Link instead, it has no issues and its accurate.  I have no idea how you get 108 efficiency, that is incorrect,  More like in the 90's ......

[nacespeedle]

On 4/16/2019 at 10:32 AM, Bhavzzz said:

Hi Guys

 

So I have a Corsair HX850i and I noticed I was getting efficiency of over 100% according to iCue which also coincided with system lockups which completely froze the system and all lighting effects stopped, and when the system "resumed" all devices connected to my Corsair Commander Pro seemed to turn off and then restart. I've tuned back my overclock and 

the issue persisted. Eventually I had 2 BSOD's with an error on "nvlddmkm.sys"  with error code: "VIDEO TDR FAILURE" (Everything, including display, turned off right before the BSOD). After the second BSOD the system felt completely stable again which really threw me off.

 

Naturally, I assumed Nvidia driver issues so I DDU'd and reinstalled, and everything was fine, but everything was fine immediately after the second BSOD.

 

So what I'm wondering, is whether the efficiency is a symptom or am I looking in the completely wrong direction? If I need to I'm more than happy to RMA the PSU but should I be looking elsewhere?

 

Any help appreciated

 

System Specs:

Asus ROG Strix z270-H

Intel 6600k

Nvidia RTX 2080

 

If you are finding this thread and looking for a resolution to your issues, there is a good post on reddit that will help you resolve your  problem here: 

 

 

The tl;dr:  You likely have some software like iCue, aura sync, or some other bits attempting to exert control over your GPUs RGB, fan speeds, or OC settings and causing contention that makes the GPU delay response to the OS triggering a reset by the driver based on a timeout delay response mechanism.  Read the post.