Circuit Breaker Frequently Tripping After Upgrading Ryzen 3600 to 5600x

[CWasson]

Hey guys,

 

I upgraded from these specs:

 

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600

COOLER: Arctic 360mm AIO

MOBO: ASUS Tuf X570 non-Wifi

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4x8GB 3200MHz

GPU: EVGA RTX 2070 Super Ultra OC

M.2: Sabrent Rocket 4.0

PSU: Corsair RM850

 

To a Ryzen 5 5600X a few days ago. It has run great in terms of performance, temperatures rarely even get over 70°C on the GPU or CPU under full extended load.

 

The problem is, ever since I upgraded, it keeps tripping the circuit breaker. It had previously only done so maybe once a month. I replaced the PSU today with an EVGA 850GQ, reseated the GPU, played for about an hour and a half, and celebrated that I had solved the issue, when the circuit tripped again.

 

I've run it on an extension cord into the living room, on a separate circuit, and same result.

 

Considering the TDP of my new and old processors is 65W, and HWMonitor never reported the 5600X breaking 75W, I'm really reluctant to blame the CPU for tripping my circuit breaker, and would prefer not to downgrade and write it off.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your time!

 

[Mark Kaine]

Err, these two PSUs seem fairly similar to me,  did you actually check that the new EVGA has a good 'inrush current protection' for example?  Not that it makes it worse... iirc the RM has pretty average inrush current protection, not bad, just average...  

And yeah I know, I know that alone shouldn't make a huge difference,  I'm just wondering why that model,  seems more like a side grade. 

 

Otherwise this is definitely mysterious,  did you change anything else, bios update,  power plans...?

 

 

I mean that cpu *will* use more power than your previous one 

, so it might just be it takes it over the edge since apparently your circuit already had issues, that could definitely be the case.  Maybe an ups would help. 

 

13 minutes ago, CWasson said:

HWMonitor

Use hwinfo64,  hwmonitor might not be the most accurate. 

[CWasson]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Err, these two PSUs seem fairly similar to me,  did you actually check that the new EVGA has a good 'inrush current protection' for example?  Not that it makes it worse... iirc the RM has pretty average inrush current protection, not bad, just average...  

And yeah I know, I know that alone shouldn't make a huge difference,  I'm just wondering why that model,  seems more like a side grade. 

 

Otherwise this is definitely mysterious,  did you change anything else, bios update,  power plans...?

 

 

I mean that cpu *will* use more power than your previous one 

, so it might just be it takes it over the edge since apparently your circuit already had issues, that could definitely be the case.  Maybe an ups would help. 

 

Use hwinfo64,  hwmonitor might not be the most accurate. 

Thanks for your reply!

 

Yeah I've read about inrush current protection, but it's not something I had considered. Replacing the PSU was to eliminate it as a culprit for the issue, not to upgrade.

 

I did update the BIOS to accommodate the new CPU as my board wouldn't POST without it, and I reinstalled Windows so the power setting should be default. The only "overclocking" I did was to enable DOCP for my RAM after the update.

 

I'm probably wrong, but isn't the inrush current only applicable when starting the PSU? My issue is happening after about an hour+ of sustained gaming. Generally, I'll flip the circuit, turn it back on, and it'll break the circuit again pretty soon after if I load a game back up.

 

I guess the 5600X could be just that 1 little bit more than my circuit can handle, but previously I was running lights, speakers, my watch charger, and a music interface on that same surge protector, so I would think those all combined have to be more than the CPU draw difference.

 

What do you recommend I test?

[Bombastinator]

18 minutes ago, CWasson said:

Hey guys,

 

I upgraded from these specs:

 

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600

COOLER: Arctic 360mm AIO

MOBO: ASUS Tuf X570 non-Wifi

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 4x8GB 3200MHz

GPU: EVGA RTX 2070 Super Ultra OC

M.2: Sabrent Rocket 4.0

PSU: Corsair RM850

 

To a Ryzen 5 5600X a few days ago. It has run great in terms of performance, temperatures rarely even get over 70°C on the GPU or CPU under full extended load.

 

The problem is, ever since I upgraded, it keeps tripping the circuit breaker. It had previously only done so maybe once a month. I replaced the PSU today with an EVGA 850GQ, reseated the GPU, played for about an hour and a half, and celebrated that I had solved the issue, when the circuit tripped again.

 

I've run it on an extension cord into the living room, on a separate circuit, and same result.

 

Considering the TDP of my new and old processors is 65W, and HWMonitor never reported the 5600X breaking 75W, I'm really reluctant to blame the CPU for tripping my circuit breaker, and would prefer not to downgrade and write it off.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your time!

 

“Only” once a month?!  This reminds me a bit of that scene in “a Christmas story”.

 

I’ve lived in a house for 20 years and tripped a circuit breaker maybe twice total. Generally by doing something extremely stupid.  Circuit breakers are an emergency safety feature meant as a last ditch thing to prevent a house from burning down. They’re not something you bang on till it trips. What you seem to be saying is that you’ve always been badly overloading your electrical system but when you added a little more the thing finally went.

That “vaffer thin mint” can get ya.  This 5600 may have saved the lives of everyone who lives in that building.  Upgrade your electrical

[Mark Kaine]

2 minutes ago, CWasson said:

I'm probably wrong, but isn't the inrush current only applicable when starting the PSU?

No, you're not wrong,  that's exactly what it's supposed to do,  I was just wondering because it's something I would want to watch out for when I already have a weak circuit (for whatever reason)

 

I was in a similar situation,  although my circuit (and breaker) should be able to handle 3000w...  

 

But what happened was I bought a seasonic "prime" psu and that repeatedly tripped my breaker,  and then blew up lol...

 

So I was very thorough checking *everything* when buying another psu. 

(the next one wasn't much better,  bequiet "pure power " it didn't blow up , but I had frequent BSODs, so third time was the charm rm650i... no issues other than being maybe a bit hot and loud lol, still seems rock solid)

 

 

As for ideas... get a lower powered psu (650w or so should be fine) and/ or an ups, to my understanding that would probably help.  But I don't really have a good explanation either,  maybe you should let your house check by an electrician though cause that certainly doesn't sound everything is working as it should.

[CWasson]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

“Only” once a month?!  This reminds me a bit of that scene in “a Christmas story”.

 

I’ve lived in a house for 20 years and tripped a circuit breaker maybe twice total. Generally by doing something extremely stupid.  Circuit breakers are an emergency safety feature meant as a last ditch thing to prevent a house from burning down. They’re not something you bang on till it trips. What you seem to be saying is that you’ve always been badly overloading your electrical system but when you added a little more the thing finally went.

That “vaffer thin mint” can get ya.  This 5600 may have saved the lives of everyone who lives in that building.  Upgrade your electrical

Thanks for the reply

 

I live in an apartment building that was built 2 years ago. I don't know much about electrical wiring, no need to condescend. I came here for help and I apologize that I have gaps in my knowledge, but I think 2 paragraphs of insulting me for 3 words of actual advice seems excessive.

 

That being said, if I submit a maintenance request about frequent circuit breaker trips, and they replace the breaker, would that be a solution? "Upgrade your electrical" could mean beefing up the circuits, which I doubt my property management company would do. Is there a way to see on the circuit breaker or for someone without access to the main wiring of the building to check which circuit is the most robust? I see certain circuits that use multiple breakers and have a 10kA 120/240V rating on them, where the circuit in my bedroom that I typically run the PC on doesn't. Those circuits are for things like AC and laundry units though, and I don't have access to those.

[Mark Kaine]

10 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

“Only” once a month?!  This reminds me a bit of that scene in “a Christmas story”.

 

I’ve lived in a house for 20 years and tripped a circuit breaker maybe twice total. Generally by doing something extremely stupid.  Circuit breakers are an emergency safety feature meant as a last ditch thing to prevent a house from burning down. They’re not something you bang on till it trips. What you seem to be saying is that you’ve always been badly overloading your electrical system but when you added a little more the thing finally went.

That “vaffer thin mint” can get ya.  This 5600 may have saved the lives of everyone who lives in that building.  Upgrade your electrical

so an ups wouldn't help?  Tbh I'm unfamiliar with those as I live in Germany and those ups are extremely unusual here. 

 

We generally rely on the city that they don't f up, which they rarely do lol.

[CWasson]

3 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

No, you're not wrong,  that's exactly what it's supposed to do,  I was just wondering because it's something I would want to watch out for when I already have a weak circuit (for whatever reason)

 

I was in a similar situation,  although my circuit (and breaker) should be able to handle 3000w...  

 

But what happened was I bought a seasonic "prime" psu and that repeatedly tripped my breaker,  and then blew up lol...

 

So I was very thorough checking *everything* when buying another psu. 

(the next one wasn't much better,  bequiet "pure power " it didn't blow up , but I had frequent BSODs, so third time was the charm rm650i... no issues other than being maybe a bit hot and loud lol, still seems rock solid)

 

 

As for ideas... get a lower powered psu (650w or so should be fine) and/ or an ups, to my understanding that would probably help.  But I don't really have a good explanation either,  maybe you should let your house check by an electrician though cause that certainly doesn't sound everything is working as it should.

I was thinking a lower powered PSU could help, and I've read a UPS could as well, but I wasn't sure if that was just to avoid my computer crashing when the circuit breaks, or to avoid breaking the circuit in the first place.

[Mark Kaine]

2 minutes ago, CWasson said:

That being said, if I submit a maintenance request about frequent circuit breaker trips, and they replace the breaker, would that be a solution

yeah, let an electrician look at it, maybe they can put a stronger circuit breaker or something,  pretty sure they exist... i mean something must be wrong with that circuit and it's certainly in the best interest of everyone it'll get fixed. 

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

Just now, Mark Kaine said:

yeah, let an electrician look at it, maybe they can put a stronger circuit breaker or something,  pretty sure they exist... i mean something must be wrong with that circuit and it's certainly in the best interest of everyone it'll get fixed. 

 

 

Right I think those could help but I'm not entirely sure either. 

[Bombastinator]

12 minutes ago, CWasson said:

Thanks for the reply

 

I live in an apartment building that was built 2 years ago. I don't know much about electrical wiring, no need to condescend. I came here for help and I apologize that I have gaps in my knowledge, but I think 2 paragraphs of insulting me for 3 words of actual advice seems excessive.

 

That being said, if I submit a maintenance request about frequent circuit breaker trips, and they replace the breaker, would that be a solution? "Upgrade your electrical" could mean beefing up the circuits, which I doubt my property management company would do. Is there a way to see on the circuit breaker or for someone without access to the main wiring of the building to check which circuit is the most robust? I see certain circuits that use multiple breakers and have a 10kA 120/240V rating on them, where the circuit in my bedroom that I typically run the PC on doesn't. Those circuits are for things like AC and laundry units though, and I don't have access to those.

Sorry, I didn’t intend to sound pissy.  Scared me a lot though.  It’s a bit like a sentance that starts “so I was welding next to my gas tank when..”

 

It would not.  An apartment makes sense.  Built to absolute minimum legal specification. This kind of thing is why the code in my state specs 20amp lines in bathrooms and kitchens.  Hair dryers and microwaves can pull more than 10amps. A breaker is sized to a circuit.  It’s probably 14ga copper which means a 15 amp circuit or even 16ga for 10amps. There may be other limitations as well depending on area.  You either need to move some of the load on that circuit to a different circuit or put in thicker wire that won’t heat up as much when a given amount of electricity is put through it.  This would mean at a minimum fishing new wire.  Depending on the layout of the wiring possibly much more. 

Edited April 5, 2021 by Bombastinator

[CWasson]

Just now, Mark Kaine said:

yeah, let an electrician look at it, maybe they can put a stronger circuit breaker or something,  pretty sure they exist... i mean something must be wrong with that circuit and it's certainly in the best interest of everyone it'll get fixed. 

 

 

Alright that's good to know. I was thinking my apartment maintenance guy would just say "well, I guess you can't run that much power through that circuit" and leave it like that, but hopefully it's in his best interest as well.

[Mark Kaine]

7 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

It would not.  An apartment makes sense.  Built to absolute minimum legal specification. This kind of thing is why the code in my state specs 20amp lines in bathrooms and kitchens.  Hair dryers and microwaves can pull more than 10amps. A breaker is sized to a circuit.  It’s probably 14ga copper which means a 10 amp circuit. There may be other limitations as well depending on area.  You either need to move some of the load on that circuit to a different circuit or put in thicker wire that won’t heat up as much when a given amount of electricity is put through it.  This would mean at a minimum fishing new wire.  Depending on the layout of the wiring possibly much more. 

right,  i see. I think it wasn't 3000w in my case rather 30 amps maybe, i gotta look it up but this is standardized here and it's the average/ minimum iirc. 

 

But yeah,  i think they need to fix this... it's certainly possible  - had this issue here too (old house) and the electrician just put me on a separate circuit breaker and new really thick wires and nothing happened since then,  except when i had the glorious idea to buy a seasonic psu... not gonna happen again lmao. 

[CWasson]

19 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Sorry, I didn’t intend to sound pissy.  Scared me a lot though.  It’s a bit like a sentance that starts “so I was welding next to my gas tank when..”

 

It would not.  An apartment makes sense.  Built to absolute minimum legal specification. This kind of thing is why the code in my state specs 20amp lines in bathrooms and kitchens.  Hair dryers and microwaves can pull more than 10amps. A breaker is sized to a circuit.  It’s probably 14ga copper which means a 15 amp circuit or even 16ga for 10amps. There may be other limitations as well depending on area.  You either need to move some of the load on that circuit to a different circuit or put in thicker wire that won’t heat up as much when a given amount of electricity is put through it.  This would mean at a minimum fishing new wire.  Depending on the layout of the wiring possibly much more. 

Sigh. I don't see them upgrading the wiring just based on my request. Is there something I can do with my PC to help other than nerf the hell out of it?

[Mark Kaine]

3 minutes ago, CWasson said:

Sigh. I don't see them upgrading the wiring just based on my request. Is there something I can do with my PC to help other than nerf the hell out of it?

I wouldn't be so sure,  this is a security risk, and it's on them,  or did they tell you you can't have a computer,  like some apparments don't allow dogs...

 

If they're trying to be funny I'd say you were actually planning to upgrade your pc with some threadrippers and 3090s... just kidding but I think it's rather obvious they have to do something about it, I mean your pc will  roughly draw 500w... that's nothing !

 

But after all, maybe something wrong with the pc, who knows, I'd definitely let them check the wires and try to get the info what you're actually supposed to be able to run on that circuit...

 

 

[CWasson]

5 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

I wouldn't be so sure,  this is a security risk, and it's on them,  or did they tell you you can't have a computer,  like some apparments don't allow dogs...

 

If they're trying to be funny I'd say you were actually planning to upgrade your pc with some threadrippers and 3090s... just kidding but I think it's rather obvious they have to do something about it, I mean your pc will  roughly draw 500w... that's nothing !

 

But after all, maybe something wrong with the pc, who knows, I'd definitely let them check the wires and try to get the info what you're actually supposed to be able to run on that circuit...

 

 

Alright, that would be useful information. Thanks again for your help. Let me know if you have any other ideas!

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, CWasson said:

Sigh. I don't see them upgrading the wiring just based on my request. Is there something I can do with my PC to help other than nerf the hell out of it?

The problem isn’t the PC it’s the wall power and how it’s laid out.  The two options are get some of the electricity from a different circuit or reduce the amount of electricity used.  There is undervolt/overclock which can reduce the amount of electricity used by the computer possibly without too much nerf.  Finding out what else is on the circuit though and putting in lower power things could help. If for example the ceiling light is on the same circuit but has an incandescent bulb putting in a LED bulb could reduce total use.  It depends what else is on the circuit.  The statement about something being wrong is also not impossible.  Anything that uses electricity inefficiently or without doing “work” like an electric motor will make heat.  Computers are basically electric heaters that do computing as a side benefit.  There’s a a argument that all electric heaters should be computers.  Incandescent bulbs make so much of it they’re used as heating elements in toy ovens. 

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

right,  i see. I think it wasn't 3000w in my case rather 30 amps maybe, i gotta look it up but this is standardized here and it's the average/ minimum iirc. 

 

But yeah,  i think they need to fix this... it's certainly possible  - had this issue here too (old house) and the electrician just put me on a separate circuit breaker and new really thick wires and nothing happened since then,  except when i had the glorious idea to buy a seasonic psu... not gonna happen again lmao. 

30amps is a lot.  There are full sized electric ovens that use 30amp breakers.  The wire for them is as thick as a wood pencil. 
 

The electrician built a different circuit.  This is the preferred solution.  Power will be cleaner to boot most likely. 

[Bitter]

What size breaker is popping? What else is on the same circuit?

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, Bitter said:

What size breaker is popping? What else is on the same circuit?

An excellent question.  What else it’s connected to is also useful.  Two ways to find that one out I know of.  One is a radio based tool where you attach one part at the outlet and then use the other part to detect the breaker.  They’re not Uber reliable or particularly cheap.  The other is to flip the breaker AMD see what goes dark. 

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, CWasson said:

I was thinking a lower powered PSU could help, and I've read a UPS could as well, but I wasn't sure if that was just to avoid my computer crashing when the circuit breaks, or to avoid breaking the circuit in the first place.

Wouldn’t help much though.  PSUs are pretty efficient.  If the computer doesn’t use much power neither will the PSU.  Going with a better color PSU (say gold) will help some but it won’t help a whole lot.  Cutting the amount of power the computer uses will help more.  Possibly even just dim your monitor a bit.  Kill-a-watts can be checked out of some public libraries like books and can be used to measure electrical use.

[Bitter]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Wouldn’t help much though.  PSUs are pretty efficient.  If the computer doesn’t use much power neither will the PSU.  Going with a better color PSU (say gold) will help some but it won’t help a whole lot.  Cutting the amount of power the computer uses will help more.  Possibly even just dim your monitor a bit.  Kill-a-watts can be checked out of some public libraries like books and can be used to measure electrical use.

Those are trivial amounts of power though. My mining rig can pull over 300W's in the same room and same circuit as my other PC which can pull also over 300W (no killawatt type device on the desktop) and not trip a breaker. There's also a monitor, old school analog stereo, and a plate amp powered sub. Probably upto 900-1000W in the one room on a breaker, no problems.

 

Either there's something that's a heavy user on the same circuit and it's kicking on/off and the right times to pop with the additional CPU load (laser printers for example consume HUGE power when they start up to print, mine dims the LED lights) or the breaker is faulty or worst case something is wired wrong and causing short circuits intermittently causing the breaker to trip from excess current.

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Those are trivial amounts of power though. My mining rig can pull over 300W's in the same room and same circuit as my other PC which can pull also over 300W (no killawatt type device on the desktop) and not trip a breaker. There's also a monitor, old school analog stereo, and a plate amp powered sub. Probably upto 900-1000W in the one room on a breaker, no problems.

 

Either there's something that's a heavy user on the same circuit and it's kicking on/off and the right times to pop with the additional CPU load (laser printers for example consume HUGE power when they start up to print, mine dims the LED lights) or the breaker is faulty or worst case something is wired wrong and causing short circuits intermittently causing the breaker to trip from excess current.

Yep.  1500w is Max standard for space heaters for a specific reason.  There’s a lot of juice being pulled through that circuit.  

[Heliian]

In north America, most circuits are 15amp or 1800w at max.  They should be able to run 1500w all day.  There is too much on that circuit or there is a fault in the circuit, it's not your psu. 

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, Heliian said:

In north America, most circuits are 15amp or 1800w at max.  They should be able to run 1500w all day.  There is too much on that circuit or there is a fault in the circuit, it's not your psu. 

Most.  Some apartments can have 10amp stuff though depending on local code