Lazy fire hazard

[Imax]

Hello,

 

So I have asked the other day on the 2x 2080ti PSU requirement issue and it turned out to be just a bad PSU. So as soon as they generously replaced the 1000W with a massive Corsair 1600i (due to stock shrortage) I experienced a little fire.

 

The basics one should do when getting a new PSU, is to replace all the cables with new ones... but being lazy got me a new idea. Why would I replace a SATA power cable, when the rail fits?

 

The AX1600i comes with a nifty self-test which I didnt run after mounting full fit (first mistake), and ignored it after it didnt run.

 

The led did blink red, tested all the cables 1 at a time, and powered full PC with (workaround) performing self test on only a a few of all cables connected. All good.

 

The second I pushed the power on, the area higlighted burst into a burn sound, then burst into flames (actual fire) and all the rubber black smoke (dyson air purifier went crazy).

 

It took me 3 seconds of reaction time to remove the power cable and go get the mask.

 

After testing everything proper, with proper electrical equipement, the damage was AMAZINGLY reduced to the Optane m2 chip(not the slot), its allocated HDD, and the othe SSD on the same power line. Hence, only that particular sata power line.

 

Everything worked fine after replacing all SATA power lines with Corsair's and having everything tested from the eelectrical standpoint (the damaged storage units were dead dead and were removed).

 

So... why did this happen with the Corsair 1600 and not the previous Seasonic 850 Prime before? Is it just the cable quality/ design? Faulty storage?

 

It shouldnt use that much power to short, and I have surge protected power outlet ...

 

Kindly looking for ideas as to the root cause of what happened...

[CommanderAlex]

20 minutes ago, Imax said:

The basics one should do when getting a new PSU, is to replace all the cables with new ones... but being lazy got me a new idea. Why would I replace a SATA power cable, when the rail fits?

If I'm understanding this correctly (most likely am), you used the SATA power cable from your Seasonic Prime 850 and used it with your Corsair AX1600i?

 

You should never use PSU cables from another PSU, just because you are lazy and they fit. The pinout on the PSU side can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, so one could be a 12V rail on pin 1 for a Corsair and be a ground on pin 1 for a Seasonic Prime as an example (<- note this is just an example and may not be a completely accurate depiction of what happened here, as I do not know what the pinouts are for these power supplies). On the other end where you plug your power cables in to your motherboard/SATA/graphics cards etc, are all standardized and follow the ATX standards. 

[Imax]

5 minutes ago, SpiderMan said:

If I'm understanding this correctly (most likely am), you used the SATA power cable from your Seasonic Prime 850 and used it with your Corsair AX1600i?

 

You should never use PSU cables from another PSU, just because you are lazy and they fit. The pinout on the PSU side can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, so one could be a 12V rail on pin 1 for a Corsair and be a ground on pin 1 for a Seasonic Prime as an example (<- note this is just an example and may not be a completely accurate depiction of what happened here, as I do not know what the pinouts are for these power supplies). On the other end where you plug your power cables in to your motherboard/SATA/graphics cards etc, are all standardized and follow the ATX standards. 

Nothing changed in relation to MB connectors, for all MB/CPU / GPU I used the new Corsairs cables... only dif was the SATA. The SATA power cables have no MB connectors didnt think those would differ

 

I didnt think there would be any 12v rail pinout differences

 

IF this was true...why did the Octane NVME burn?

[CommanderAlex]

8 minutes ago, Imax said:

Nothing changed in relation to MB connectors, for all MB/CPU / GPU I used the new Corsairs cables... only dif was the SATA. The SATA power cables have no MB connectors didnt think those would differ

 

I didnt think there would be any 12v rail pinout differences

 

IF this was true...why did the Octane NVME burn?

I'm not saying that there was anything changed there. I am just using other power cables as examples. 

 

I just used 12V as an example (which I placed in parenthesis, just to point out that I may or may not be correct, but the pinouts here can differ). 

 

Most likely, power was sent along the wrong wire, putting more voltage through a SMD (surface-mount device) and killed it instantly, while also putting on a show doing so. 

[Guest]

49 minutes ago, Imax said:

Nothing changed in relation to MB connectors, for all MB/CPU / GPU I used the new Corsairs cables... only dif was the SATA. The SATA power cables have no MB connectors didnt think those would differ

 

Are you freaking kidding me!?!?!?!  You used the Seasonic SATA cables with the Corsair PSU!??!!?

 

You're lucky you didn't burn your house down.

 

[Imax]

1 hour ago, jonnyGURU said:

Are you freaking kidding me!?!?!?!  You used the Seasonic SATA cables with the Corsair PSU!??!!?

 

You're lucky you didn't burn your 

ummm ... oops

 

Care to detail that techincally?

[Spotty]

3 hours ago, Imax said:

The basics one should do when getting a new PSU, is to replace all the cables with new ones... but being lazy got me a new idea. Why would I replace a SATA power cable, when the rail fits?

...

3 hours ago, Imax said:

So... why did this happen with the Corsair 1600 and not the previous Seasonic 850 Prime before? Is it just the cable quality/ design? Faulty storage?

...

 

It's because you used the wrong cables. The SATA power cable is made up of 12V, 5V, 3.3V, and two ground wires for a total of five pins and one blank in the six pin connector. On the power supply those can be arranged in any order, and different models of power supplies will use different orders. The pinout is different and the cables are not compatible.

 

https://pc-mods.com/blogs/psu-pinout-repository/seasonic-focus-sgx-cables-pinout

https://pc-mods.com/blogs/psu-pinout-repository/corsair-psu-type-4-cables-pinout

 

Placing the SATA connections side by side for easier comparison

(Yellow = 12V, Red = 5V, Orange = 3.3V, Black = Ground, White = Not used)

 

The PSU was outputting 12V where the Seasonic cable was delivering 12V

The PSU had a blank where the Seasonic cable had a ground (blanks might be a ground pin on the PSU anyway with just the connector on the cable empty for that pin)

The PSU was outputting 3.3V where the Seasonic cable had a blank

The PSU had a ground where the Seasonic cable needed 3.3V

The PSU had a 5V where the Seasonic cable needed a ground

The PSU had a ground where the Seasonic cable needed 5V

 

 

Never mix cables from different power supplies. This is basically what you did to your computer.

[Imax]

36 minutes ago, Spotty said:

...

...

 

It's because you used the wrong cables. The SATA power cable is made up of 12V, 5V, 3.3V, and two ground wires for a total of five pins and one blank in the six pin connector. On the power supply those can be arranged in any order, and different models of power supplies will use different orders. The pinout is different and the cables are not compatible.

 

https://pc-mods.com/blogs/psu-pinout-repository/seasonic-focus-sgx-cables-pinout

https://pc-mods.com/blogs/psu-pinout-repository/corsair-psu-type-4-cables-pinout

 

Placing the SATA connections side by side for easier comparison

(Yellow = 12V, Red = 5V, Orange = 3.3V, Black = Ground, White = Not used)

 

The PSU was outputting 12V where the Seasonic cable was delivering 12V

The PSU had a blank where the Seasonic cable had a ground (blanks might be a ground pin on the PSU anyway with just the connector on the cable empty for that pin)

The PSU was outputting 3.3V where the Seasonic cable had a blank

The PSU had a ground where the Seasonic cable needed 3.3V

The PSU had a 5V where the Seasonic cable needed a ground

The PSU had a ground where the Seasonic cable needed 5V

 

 

Never mix cables from different power supplies. This is basically what you did to your computer.

Thank you!

Can be closed.... I'll see myself out