Power supply failure: what happened and what do I need to check?

[terminalinfinity]

I just had my first power supply failure.  EVGA W2 series 450 watt.  The failure was enough to cause power to dim in my entire house.  The system would boot to a black screen (screen was on and recieving signal as it was not going into no signal found mode) and the VGA light came light came on.  At first I thought it was a video card failure, but switching power supplies made the system work again. 

 

What, if any, checks do I need to perform now that I have the system running again? 

Its a home server/home lab running 24/7 mostly at idle, not a gaming rig:

Ryzen 7 1700

64 GB DDR4-3200

Gigabyte R9 270

New PSU: EVGA BQ 500 watt.  Old PSU: EVGA W2 450 watt

Windows Server Datacenter Edition

[jaslion]

26 minutes ago, terminalinfinity said:

I just had my first power supply failure.  EVGA W2 series 450 watt.  The failure was enough to cause power to dim in my entire house.  The system would boot to a black screen (screen was on and recieving signal as it was not going into no signal found mode) and the VGA light came light came on.  At first I thought it was a video card failure, but switching power supplies made the system work again. 

 

What, if any, checks do I need to perform now that I have the system running again? 

Its a home server/home lab running 24/7 mostly at idle, not a gaming rig:

Ryzen 7 1700

64 GB DDR4-3200

Gigabyte R9 270

New PSU: EVGA BQ 500 watt.  Old PSU: EVGA W2 450 watt

Windows Server Datacenter Edition

Well you used a firehazard pc killer psu and you got insanely lucky that your system still works. However you did get a crappy psu (it's better but not much) as a replacement which isn't great. Since everything still works it's good you just got lucky that nothing else broke.

[terminalinfinity]

31 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Well you used a firehazard pc killer psu and you got insanely lucky that your system still works. However you did get a crappy psu (it's better but not much) as a replacement which isn't great. Since everything still works it's good you just got lucky that nothing else broke.

Darn, I thought EVGA was a safe brand to go with if you werent doing anything to extreme.  Since the system was almost never going to be at load I didnt put too much thought into it.

 

My main rig uses a Silverstone ET700-MG, and the reviews on that were pretty good but there was nothing on Jonnyguru.  Should I be shopping for 1 or 2 PSU replacements?  (Replace just the server PSU or replace both PSUs)

https://www.eteknix.com/silverstone-et700-mg-power-supply-review/6/

[Orange1]

The lights dimmed, means your psu shorted out which is not good.

[jaslion]

54 minutes ago, terminalinfinity said:

Darn, I thought EVGA was a safe brand to go with if you werent doing anything to extreme.  Since the system was almost never going to be at load I didnt put too much thought into it.

 

My main rig uses a Silverstone ET700-MG, and the reviews on that were pretty good but there was nothing on Jonnyguru.  Should I be shopping for 1 or 2 PSU replacements?  (Replace just the server PSU or replace both PSUs)

https://www.eteknix.com/silverstone-et700-mg-power-supply-review/6/

Never buy blindly because of a brand always look at the individual product. There is a very good tier list on this forum which makes it super easy to see what psu's are bad and which are good at a quick glance. Basically for any pc you care about shop b tier or up. The silverstone is pretty solid so no worries.

 

 

[terminalinfinity]

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Supernova-Modular-Warranty-123-GM-0550-Y1/dp/B07JFLGGQ6/ref=sr_1_27?dchild=1&keywords=power+supply&qid=1604102047&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin%3A6906984011|6906985011%2Cp_89%3AAntec|Corsair|EVGA|SilverStone+Technology&rnid=2528832011&s=pc&sr=1-27

 

"• EVGA | Supernova B3 post 2019 y. / G(1)+ / G5 / GD 2017 / GD 2019 -B* / GM / GS <=650W /..."

Im having a hard time reading the PSU tier list I just found.  Does this (" <=650W") mean this 550 watt Supernova GM is a "B" tier PSU?

 

Im considering as the replacement

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, terminalinfinity said:

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Supernova-Modular-Warranty-123-GM-0550-Y1/dp/B07JFLGGQ6/ref=sr_1_27?dchild=1&keywords=power+supply&qid=1604102047&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin%3A6906984011|6906985011%2Cp_89%3AAntec|Corsair|EVGA|SilverStone+Technology&rnid=2528832011&s=pc&sr=1-27

 

"• EVGA | Supernova B3 post 2019 y. / G(1)+ / G5 / GD 2017 / GD 2019 -B* / GM / GS <=650W /..."

Im having a hard time reading the PSU tier list I just found.  Does this (" <=650W") mean this 550 watt Supernova GM is a "B" tier PSU?

 

Im considering as the replacement

If it's between a /   in this case / GS <=650W / that means that for that specific model the psu's of 650w or higher are good the ones below it are different. The gm you linked is fine in all of it's forms.

 

Often psu manufacturers want all sorts of wattage ranges filled by their psu's, but the actual psu maker does not have them for the selected wattage range so they just mix some others up in there thus you get 2 totally different units in the same product line.

[terminalinfinity]

7 minutes ago, jaslion said:

If it's between a /   in this case / GS <=650W / that means that for that specific model the psu's of 650w or higher are good the ones below it are different. The gm you linked is fine in all of it's forms.

 

Often psu manufacturers want all sorts of wattage ranges filled by their psu's, but the actual psu maker does not have them for the selected wattage range so they just mix some others up in there thus you get 2 totally different units in the same product line.

Yeah I actually just learned that researching how I got my BQ purchase so wrong.  Turns out, the review I read on Jonnyguru was for the 750 watt model.  The 500 watt model uses a different manufacturer (andyson?) vs the 750 watt PSU.  The 500 watt has a 3 year warranty.

The 750 watt uses HEC and has a 5 year warranty.  Clearly 2 different PSU models within the same name.

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page2293.htm

 

Thanks for the help.  Got a new PSU on the way!

[terminalinfinity]

9 hours ago, jaslion said:

If it's between a /   in this case / GS <=650W / that means that for that specific model the psu's of 650w or higher are good the ones below it are different. The gm you linked is fine in all of it's forms.

 

Often psu manufacturers want all sorts of wattage ranges filled by their psu's, but the actual psu maker does not have them for the selected wattage range so they just mix some others up in there thus you get 2 totally different units in the same product line.

So, I'm trying to figure out if the 500BQ is suitable for the original purpose I bought it for, which is a PC I'm building for my mother for Christmas to replace her old Pentium 4 dell (Still has IDE hard drives!).  That's the only reason I had it on hand to test with.

 

I finally found a (Proper) review for the 500BQ, on a German? (I think? .de) website.  The 500BQ isn't on the PSU tier list, only the 750 watt and up models, which I already verified is a different OEM (HEC vs Andyson).  It seems to be the same OEM design as a be quiet pure power L10, which is rated as a B tier PSU if Im reading the list correctly.  I used a translator since the site doesn't seem to have an english mode an got this:

https://www.computerbase.de/2017-02/be-quiet-pure-power-10-cm-evga-bq-test/

Conclusion on the 500BQ:

"With this template, the EVGA 500 BQ has a difficult time surpassing the results even further. Nevertheless, the power supply does surprisingly well. In practice, the efficiency is on average just one percent below the L10, and voltage regulation and residual ripple leave nothing to be desired. At the maximum ambient temperature of 40 ° C, the power supply unit can deliver its full power without showing any signs of instability. On the other hand, however, the lack of overheating protection and faulty overload protection can be criticized, which should have replaced the non-existent OCP on the 12-volt rail. The volume during low load is very good on the 500 BQ thanks to the low speed. However, this calming silence is already destroyed at half load, which makes the fan noticeable.

The equipment is identical to the partially modular cables for the Pure Power 10 500W CM, but EVGA has put the technology in a housing that is only 140 mm deep. Visually, the power supply with the well-made sleeve and the black cable cores are extremely pleasing."

Should that be good enough for a computer that will probably only be used lightly 4-6 hours a week?

[jaslion]

2 hours ago, terminalinfinity said:

So, I'm trying to figure out if the 500BQ is suitable for the original purpose I bought it for, which is a PC I'm building for my mother for Christmas to replace her old Pentium 4 dell (Still has IDE hard drives!).  That's the only reason I had it on hand to test with.

 

I finally found a (Proper) review for the 500BQ, on a German? (I think? .de) website.  The 500BQ isn't on the PSU tier list, only the 750 watt and up models, which I already verified is a different OEM (HEC vs Andyson).  It seems to be the same OEM design as a be quiet pure power L10, which is rated as a B tier PSU if Im reading the list correctly.  I used a translator since the site doesn't seem to have an english mode an got this:

https://www.computerbase.de/2017-02/be-quiet-pure-power-10-cm-evga-bq-test/

Conclusion on the 500BQ:

"With this template, the EVGA 500 BQ has a difficult time surpassing the results even further. Nevertheless, the power supply does surprisingly well. In practice, the efficiency is on average just one percent below the L10, and voltage regulation and residual ripple leave nothing to be desired. At the maximum ambient temperature of 40 ° C, the power supply unit can deliver its full power without showing any signs of instability. On the other hand, however, the lack of overheating protection and faulty overload protection can be criticized, which should have replaced the non-existent OCP on the 12-volt rail. The volume during low load is very good on the 500 BQ thanks to the low speed. However, this calming silence is already destroyed at half load, which makes the fan noticeable.

The equipment is identical to the partially modular cables for the Pure Power 10 500W CM, but EVGA has put the technology in a housing that is only 140 mm deep. Visually, the power supply with the well-made sleeve and the black cable cores are extremely pleasing."

Should that be good enough for a computer that will probably only be used lightly 4-6 hours a week?

Depends more on what the specs of the pc are rather than the usecase. The whole bq series is in c tier so it will work for lower power pcs just fine. For your pc it was in it was in it was a bad idea. This thing is fine for amd apu systems and such. I don't see a separation however in the list of lower and higher wattage models?

 

It could very well be that this psu is based on the design of others but the review is VERY clear about what makes it different and all those lacking protections and regulators massively impact a psu's reliability and safety for use.

[terminalinfinity]

7 hours ago, jaslion said:

Depends more on what the specs of the pc are rather than the usecase. The whole bq series is in c tier so it will work for lower power pcs just fine. For your pc it was in it was in it was a bad idea. This thing is fine for amd apu systems and such. I don't see a separation however in the list of lower and higher wattage models?

 

It could very well be that this psu is based on the design of others but the review is VERY clear about what makes it different and all those lacking protections and regulators massively impact a psu's reliability and safety for use.

So, trying to understand what these test results mean (Im good with understanding the analysis of power supplies, the technical stuff not so much), would it be fair to say the 500BQ is a good power supply under most conditions, but if something goes wrong with the current like a surge or a failure within the computer (IE a capacitor failure on the GPU), the lack of protections in the PSU could cause a bigger system failure?

 

You were also correct about the BQ on the tier list.  Its a trick my mind keeps playing on me because I thought I had a GQ PSU until I looked at it again before I made the first post.  But when I looked on the tier list, I looked for GQ.

I'm going to be dropping in components from my main rig, that I bought specifically with that idea in mind.  (Buy it for a new rig, use it for about 6-7 months as stopgap parts.  I got my graphics card during the tail end of the mining crash for $70 and the processor from a friend upgrading a prebuilt for $130.  Moving on to a Ryzen 5600X and a Radeon 6800XT)  So its a bit, actually a lot overkill for a basic productivity and web browsing machine.  But it actually made the most financial sense given my long term plans to build 2 PCs.  Because the 4000G series didnt exist, the 3100G was almost impossible to find when I bought and the 3400G was $150.

Here is the parts list for the build:

Thermaltake Core V1

MSI B450i Gaming Plus AC

Ryzen 5 3600

Dell reference blower-style RX480 8GB (See note below)

Silicon Power PCI3 M.2

 

Note: The dell RX480s are reference 480s (1-6 pin power connector) that are underclocked and undervolted w/ lower max power limit in BIOS from the dell factory, probably to reduce RMAs.  It has a max power draw of 110 watts.

 

I can also undervolt this 3600 pretty hard and still hit boosts of 4GHz and maintain good benchmark scores.  Like voltages in the neighborhood of 1.15-1.2 volts.  So I could probably get the entire machine sub-200 watts max power draw under load.

 

Should I still use it (500BQ) or should I sell it and get a better one?

[jaslion]

23 minutes ago, terminalinfinity said:

So, trying to understand what these test results mean (Im good with understanding the analysis of power supplies, the technical stuff not so much), would it be fair to say the 500BQ is a good power supply under most conditions, but if something goes wrong with the current like a surge or a failure within the computer (IE a capacitor failure on the GPU), the lack of protections in the PSU could cause a bigger system failure?

 

You were also correct about the BQ on the tier list.  Its a trick my mind keeps playing on me because I thought I had a GQ PSU until I looked at it again before I made the first post.  But when I looked on the tier list, I looked for GQ.

I'm going to be dropping in components from my main rig, that I bought specifically with that idea in mind.  (Buy it for a new rig, use it for about 6-7 months as stopgap parts.  I got my graphics card during the tail end of the mining crash for $70 and the processor from a friend upgrading a prebuilt for $130.  Moving on to a Ryzen 5600X and a Radeon 6800XT)  So its a bit, actually a lot overkill for a basic productivity and web browsing machine.  But it actually made the most financial sense given my long term plans to build 2 PCs.  Because the 4000G series didnt exist, the 3100G was almost impossible to find when I bought and the 3400G was $150.

Here is the parts list for the build:

Thermaltake Core V1

MSI B450i Gaming Plus AC

Ryzen 5 3600

Dell reference blower-style RX480 8GB (See note below)

Silicon Power PCI3 M.2

 

Note: The dell RX480s are reference 480s (1-6 pin power connector) that are underclocked and undervolted w/ lower max power limit in BIOS from the dell factory, probably to reduce RMAs.  It has a max power draw of 110 watts.

 

I can also undervolt this 3600 pretty hard and still hit boosts of 4GHz and maintain good benchmark scores.  Like voltages in the neighborhood of 1.15-1.2 volts.  So I could probably get the entire machine sub-200 watts max power draw under load.

 

Should I still use it (500BQ) or should I sell it and get a better one?

The bq should be fine. Basically what it lacks is some voltage stabilization for when you have dirty power and well protections so when it goes it goes and doesn't even try to limit itself to just the psu.