Power Supply Surges

[HairyChickens]

Hi, all so I recently booted up my media PC and upon it booting up it showed a American Megatrends screen with a message saying "Power supply surges detected during the previous power on. ASUS Anti-Surge was triggered to protect the system from unstable power supply unit!". In the past I've read that Asus board are particularly sensitive to slight spikes, however in my case I don't think its the board being sensitive. This is because each time I boot up this PC  the power will temporarily go off for a few seconds (the lights, fan, hardrive noise etc.) and it will turn itself back on. When in use I don't notice any problems. It is only when I boot up. 

So I was just wondering whether if it is safe to use my computer as is or if I should replace my power supply.

 

The power supply is this 550 W penguin brand power supply. Its probs some dodgy chinese brand lol.

 

Please note that this PC is about 8 years. Its running a 2nd gen i5 so its more than capable for media consumption which is what this PC is for.

 

 

If you need the model of the mother board let me know, I was too lazy finding it when I was typing this post

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, HairyChickens said:

Hi, all so I recently booted up my media PC and upon it booting up it showed a American Megatrends screen with a message saying "Power supply surges detected during the previous power on. ASUS Anti-Surge was triggered to protect the system from unstable power supply unit!". In the past I've read that Asus board are particularly sensitive to slight spikes, however in my case I don't think its the board being sensitive. This is because each time I boot up this PC  the power will temporarily go off for a few seconds (the lights, fan, hardrive noise etc.) and it will turn itself back on. When in use I don't notice any problems. It is only when I boot up. 

So I was just wondering whether if it is safe to use my computer as is or if I should replace my power supply.

 

The power supply is this 550 W penguin brand power supply. Its probs some dodgy chinese brand lol.

 

Please note that this PC is about 8 years. Its running a 2nd gen i5 so its more than capable for media consumption which is what this PC is for.

 

 

If you need the model of the mother board let me know, I was too lazy finding it when I was typing this post

If all it's running is a second gen i5 unit replace it with a 450w or less psu that is at least c tier or higher from this list:

 

 

[frozensun]

check voltages with multimeter on all rails..I had same problem 2 weeks ago when I connected bad HDD,after then never got this error.

You should be able to turn off settings in BIOS when reporting power surges..

After all if you really have issues with PSU after checking it with multimeter replace it...not worth frying all inside PC.

[TomvanWijnen]

31 minutes ago, HairyChickens said:

This is because each time I boot up this PC  the power will temporarily go off for a few seconds (the lights, fan, hardrive noise etc.) and it will turn itself back on. When in use I don't notice any problems. It is only when I boot up. 

I have what sounds like the same thing as you have with my Asus board. Has been happening for nearly a year (I don't turn that PC on every day though), haven't seen any issues.

 

That being said, I don't have the power surge message, so it could be a different problem on your side.

[Juular]

Replace the PSU.

[HairyChickens]

13 hours ago, frozensun said:

check voltages with multimeter on all rails..I had same problem 2 weeks ago when I connected bad HDD,after then never got this error.

You should be able to turn off settings in BIOS when reporting power surges..

After all if you really have issues with PSU after checking it with multimeter replace it...not worth frying all inside PC.

Is there anyway I can check it without a multimeter because I don't have one and I don't want to run out and buy one given this current situation.

[Guest]

While Asus Anti-Surge is shitty, your Penguin 550W is equally as shitty.

 

They only sell it in Australia because it can't meet safety and efficiency requirements of other parts of the world.

 

Replace the PSU.

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, HairyChickens said:

Is there anyway I can check it without a multimeter because I don't have one and I don't want to run out and buy one given this current situation.

No.  You should run out and buy another PSU because the one you have is absolute garbage.

 

[frozensun]

13 hours ago, jonnyGURU said:

No.  You should run out and buy another PSU because the one you have is absolute garbage.

 

It doesn't mean it's PSU fault.

I had same error on my PC on great motherboard and hmm mediocre PSU,still using it because it would be such a shame to waste 1200 HXi on this PC

It happened for some reason when I connected HDD which fu..ked up smth so triggered this error.

But at same time,few hours before I turned ON PC there was electricity cut off in town.

His PSU is shitty,he needs to replace but you can read about this error on Asus motherboards and guys were told to replace PSU which they did and got same error even with new PSU (google it).

Now I'm not an engineer for electronics like maybe you are,but he needs maybe surge protector for his wallsocket better investiment and ofc new PSU.

15 hours ago, HairyChickens said:

Is there anyway I can check it without a multimeter because I don't have one and I don't want to run out and buy one given this current situation.

I think you can read out them in Asus UEFI but it doesn't mean nothing to us,because PC is not under load,it's not like that you will eliminate smth from equation.
Get antisurge protector and new PSU,and hope you won't need to replace MoBo.

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, frozensun said:

It doesn't mean it's PSU fault.

I had same error on my PC on great motherboard and hmm mediocre PSU,still using it because it would be such a shame to waste 1200 HXi on this PC

It happened for some reason when I connected HDD which fu..ked up smth so triggered this error.

But at same time,few hours before I turned ON PC there was electricity cut off in town.

His PSU is shitty,he needs to replace but you can read about this error on Asus motherboards and guys were told to replace PSU which they did and got same error even with new PSU (google it).

 

You are absolutely correct.  75% of the time Asus Anti-Surge is a false error and should be disabled in the BIOS.

 

But he has an absolutely abysmal PSU and it shouldn't be used for any PC except for maybe an emergency, last minute replacement for your mom's old Compaq.

 

[frozensun]

2 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

You are absolutely correct.  75% of the time Asus Anti-Surge is a false error and should be disabled in the BIOS.

 

But he has an absolutely abysmal PSU and it shouldn't be used for any PC except for maybe an emergency, last minute replacement for your mom's old Compaq.

 

Yep,he has 2 options:

1.Disable option in BIOS and hope it was false,and continue using PC,if it's not false then he would have unexpected errors,reboots all kinds of problems with bad PSU,and maybe fried MoBo,RAM who knows...

2. option 2 is to buy a better PSU for like 70 bucks at least
It all depends what system specs are,but if his PC is midrange components,better PSU is out of question.

[Guest]

Too bad they can't be bothered to put the total +12V capability on the label....

Interesting AC input range.  103V - 253V.  Not 100V - 240V, not 115V to 230V.  103V to 253V.  Do you think it really has full range input APFC?  Cute logo, I gotta say.

[frozensun]

16 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

Too bad they can't be bothered to put the total +12V capability on the label....

Interesting AC input range.  103V - 253V.  Not 100V - 240V, not 115V to 230V.  103V to 253V.  Do you think it really has full range input APFC?  Cute logo, I gotta say.

Sorry my friend I'm just chemical engineer,not into this stuff...who knows...this is even premium compared to old stuff I had back in 90's.

does it have 2 separate 12V voltage rails?

I just want to say:God help him with this PSU.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, frozensun said:

Sorry my friend I'm just chemical engineer,not into this stuff...who knows...this is even premium compared to old stuff I had back in 90's.

does it have 2 separate 12V voltage rails?

I just want to say:God help him with this PSU.

No.  The way it works is you have a single +12V output, then they split them, and put an 18A current limitation on each one in case there's a short that creates a high resistance load, it doesn't melt the cables, connectors, etc.

 

Since they don't tell you what it is, in reality, the actual +12V output can be anywhere between 216W and 432W (very unlikely it's anywhere near the latter).

[frozensun]

2 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

No.  The way it works is you have a single +12V output, then they split them, and put an 18A current limitation on each one in case there's a short that creates a high resistance load, it doesn't melt the cables, connectors, etc.

 

Since they don't tell you what it is, in reality, the actual +12V output can be anywhere between 216W and 432W (very unlikely it's anywhere near the latter).

so not bad for SWITCHNG psu ?

Those Chinese will clone us all

[frozensun]

Jonny I think he should send you this model for review (I wish i could see what is inside),and you should make another website for us who are poor and buy those PSUs made who knows where...at least you would put smile on my face

Whenever I see made in China,immediatly I get headache,I don't remember seeing anything nowdays specially here in Europe made in Taiwan

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, frozensun said:

Jonny I think he should send you this model for review (I wish i could see what is inside),and you should make another website for us who are poor and buy those PSUs made who knows where...at least you would put smile on my face

Whenever I see made in China,immediatly I get headache,I don't remember seeing anything nowdays specially here in Europe made in Taiwan

Unfortunately, they're pretty much ALL made in China.

 

Some production has moved back to Taiwan or over to Vietnam due to the 25% tariff in the U.S., but the supply chain in those two countries sucks and the labor is no longer well trained (they have engineers, but nobody to put the stuff together!) so you end up with mostly low end, higher cost product.... all because of stupid tariffs.

 

[frozensun]

Just got my unopened box with 1200 HXi and I see:Made in China.and did wikipedia since you work for Corsair wikipedia tells me production faccilities are in Taiwan,so I wonder is quality the same China vs Taiwan,when we talk about Corsair?

Same if we talk about EVGA since those are stationed in USA.

[Beerzerker]

On 5/8/2020 at 7:47 AM, HairyChickens said:

Hi, all so I recently booted up my media PC and upon it booting up it showed a American Megatrends screen with a message saying "Power supply surges detected during the previous power on. ASUS Anti-Surge was triggered to protect the system from unstable power supply unit!". In the past I've read that Asus board are particularly sensitive to slight spikes, however in my case I don't think its the board being sensitive. This is because each time I boot up this PC  the power will temporarily go off for a few seconds (the lights, fan, hardrive noise etc.) and it will turn itself back on. When in use I don't notice any problems. It is only when I boot up. 

So I was just wondering whether if it is safe to use my computer as is or if I should replace my power supply.

 

The power supply is this 550 W penguin brand power supply. Its probs some dodgy chinese brand lol.

 

Please note that this PC is about 8 years. Its running a 2nd gen i5 so its more than capable for media consumption which is what this PC is for.

 

 

If you need the model of the mother board let me know, I was too lazy finding it when I was typing this post

The issue with it powering on, then back off for a moment or two then starting again at boot is actually common with Intel setups, it's "Training" the RAM during this time.
Some find it annoying and I do at times but not alot you can do about it, the system is doing what it was designed to do by that.

However the issue with the error message is a different matter.

I'd go ahead and replace the unit with a good quality to be safe as said.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Beerzerker said:

The issue with it powering on, then back off for a moment or two then starting again at boot is actually common with Intel setups, it's "Training" the RAM during this time.
Some find it annoying and I do at times but not alot you can do about it, the system is doing what it was designed to do by that.

 

It should only do that if the user is cutting the power to the PSU.   As long as the PSU is "live" and providing +5VSB to the motherboard, it should retain these settings.

[TomvanWijnen]

10 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

It should only do that if the user is cutting the power to the PSU.   As long as the PSU is "live" and providing +5VSB to the motherboard, it should retain these settings.

I know this is off topic, but I always cut power to the PSU when I shut my PC down. Is that what causes my situation of it turning on for a second, turning off for a few, and then turning on with no issues again?

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, TomvanWijnen said:

I know this is off topic, but I always cut power to the PSU when I shut my PC down. Is that what causes my situation of it turning on for a second, turning off for a few, and then turning on with no issues again?

Yes.  ATX computers are not meant to have the power discontinued in between uses.  There is an "always on" +5V in standby.  If you cut the power to the PSU, there is no longer a +5V in standby.

 

Why are you cutting the power to your PC when you shut down?

[TomvanWijnen]

24 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

Yes.  ATX computers are not meant to have the power discontinued in between uses.  There is an "always on" +5V in standby.  If you cut the power to the PSU, there is no longer a +5V in standby.

 

Why are you cutting the power to your PC when you shut down?

Oops.

 

I'm cutting the power because by flipping that one switch, my PC, my speakers and my 4 monitors all turn on/off. It's really convenient! Some of the power buttons are quite hard to get at, so using this one switch really helps.  EDIT: another reason is that it ensures all lights are turned off (this motherboard for some reason has lights that are always turned on...).

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, TomvanWijnen said:

Oops.

 

I'm cutting the power because by flipping that one switch, my PC, my speakers and my 4 monitors all turn on/off. It's really convenient! Some of the power buttons are quite hard to get at, so using this one switch really helps.  EDIT: another reason is that it ensures all lights are turned off (this motherboard for some reason has lights that are always turned on...).

Ok.  Plug everything BUT the PC into that switch if you want the monitors, speakers, etc. to turn off. 

 

As for the lights on the motherboard:  There should only be one LED that stays on on any motherboard and that's the one to tell you the PC is in standby.  If you have one of those motherboards with RGB lighting, you can disable the lights being on in standby in the BIOS.

 

Example of an Asus board with AURA lights:  

 

 

If you have RGB RAM, however, there's nothing you can do.  The same +5VSB that keeps your memory timings stored is the same +5VSB that powers the RGB on the RAM.

[TomvanWijnen]

16 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

Ok.  Plug everything BUT the PC into that switch if you want the monitors, speakers, etc. to turn off. 

 

As for the lights on the motherboard:  There should only be one LED that stays on on any motherboard and that's the one to tell you the PC is in standby.  If you have one of those motherboards with RGB lighting, you can disable the lights being on in standby in the BIOS.

 

Example of an Asus board with AURA lights:  

 

 

If you have RGB RAM, however, there's nothing you can do.  The same +5VSB that keeps your memory timings stored is the same +5VSB that powers the RGB on the RAM.

Hmm, that could work, actually! Would take me a while to switch the plugs, though (they are in a desk organiser thingy that clearly wasn't meant to be used :P - I can't get at them well).

 

My motherboard (nor my RAM) doesn't have RGB, but if there is a light that stays on, then that's a deal-breaker for me. My PC is in my bedroom, and it's (not on purpose) positioned so that I can see the motherboard lights from my bed... that doesn't seem very fun if they're on at night. 

 

For some reason turning the power on also turns my PC on, which is quite convenient.

 

Thanks for the tips, though!