AX-860i blew home fuse.

[DDO]

hi everyone,

Last night I was doing some 3d work in google sketchup, and all of the sudden my pc shut down, the house went dark and there was a loud popping sound coming from behind the pc (like a popping balloon). After some testing I discovered it was the PSU (Corsair Ax-860i) that was causing my fuse to blow out. I know this because when I unplugged all the cables that go from the PSU to the other components, plugged the PSU in the power outlet in the wall, and turned it on, the fuse blew again. I always have my PSU power cable plugged directly into a grounded power outlet in the wall. 

Does anyone have an explanation for what could have been the problem and how to go on when I get a new PSU?

Moreover, I haven't overclocked the system since 3 months ago, it's been running at stock cpu clock speeds and 2100 mhz on the ram. When I first bought the rig I had my 5820k running stable on 4700 with 1.31V Vcore and Maximum load temps of 72-76 Celcius per core. For my 24/7 overclock I turned it down to 4600 with 1.29Vcore and sub70 temps. It never gave a BSOD, and never got above 70 Celcius. The only problem was the ram memory, which is G.skill ddr4 rated at 2800mhz C16. I couldn't get it to run stable on 2800mhz, not even with CPU on stock speeds. But I didn't have time to spend more time overclocking because I had to work on the PC, so I settled with 2666 on the ram, which seemed to be stable at the time. Although it passed memtest 24H without errors I still had some weird things going on with the PC in the following months, Icons not loading, memory sticks not beeing detected, etc. So I turned the ram back to stock speeds, and the problems were gone for a little while. When the problems started to return, I set my CPU back to stock speeds too, because I didn't really have time to diagnose. Turning down the CPU overclock didn't help. So last week I decided to replace my RAM kit with a slightly bigger one: 32GB G.skill 3000C15, which is beeing shipped at this moment. And now the PSU breaks down.

Is this a coincidence, or are these 2 events connected in some way? E.g. was it the PSU that was making the RAM act weird all the time, or was it maybe the RAM that caused the PSU to short? Is that even possible? Or is it maybe the Mobo that is behind all of this?  

 

So my second question is: Does anyone happen to know what could have been the cause of the PSU short out? And how do I go on diagnosing what caused all this? 

I'm sorry for the long post, I don't think it's possible to come up with a sollution if I don't give you any background info. 

I hope someone can help me out with this. 

Thank you in advance for the effort! 

Best regards,

Dave

PS I'lll be out of town tomorrow, so I can't reply that whole day, so if my reply comes a little late, it's not because I'm not interested or I don't care. 

[Cajs]

Corsair's RMA service is very good. Have you tried getting a replacement?

[VerticalDiscussions]

4 minutes ago, DDO said:

-snip-

God, ive had that PSU with me for 3 years so far havent had any issues with it shutting down or stop working properly. And ye, Corsair support and replacement services, top notch

[Cajs]

You can find their RMA service here: https://corsair.secure.force.com/home/home.jsp

[Godlygamer23]

In order to fully inspect the power supply for damaged components, you would need to open it up. I think there was something in there that was causing the unit to trip(which is also a good thing that it just tripped. Good job Corsair).

[Cajs]

I had an issue with my Corsair keyboard (K95) lights. They responded within 4 hours, and said they didn't have any left in stock (in their UK facility) so they can either upgrade me to a K95 RGB at no extra cost or I can get a K95 shipped from America (2 weeks estimated shipment time). Obviously I took the free upgrade. I was also able to get my replacement shipped without shipping my old one first, meaning I was never without a keyboard. Top notch service.

 

This is going back years back but I had a corsair headset and the wireless dongle receiver snapped, and they straight up sent me the newer version (no charge) and with no need to send back my old one.

 

I have never heard anything bad from Corsair RMA and I've had 2 really good experiences there. 

[FunkyFeatures]

9 minutes ago, DDO said:

hi everyone,

Last night I was doing some 3d work in google sketchup, and all of the sudden my pc shut down, the house went dark and there was a loud popping sound coming from behind the pc (like a popping balloon). After some testing I discovered it was the PSU (Corsair Ax-860i) that was causing my fuse to blow out. I know this because when I unplugged all the cables that go from the PSU to the other components, plugged the PSU in the power outlet in the wall, and turned it on, the fuse blew again. I always have my PSU power cable plugged directly into a grounded power outlet in the wall. 

Does anyone have an explanation for what could have been the problem and how to go on when I get a new PSU?

Moreover, I haven't overclocked the system since 3 months ago, it's been running at stock cpu clock speeds and 2100 mhz on the ram. When I first bought the rig I had my 5820k running stable on 4700 with 1.31V Vcore and Maximum load temps of 72-76 Celcius per core. For my 24/7 overclock I turned it down to 4600 with 1.29Vcore and sub70 temps. It never gave a BSOD, and never got above 70 Celcius. The only problem was the ram memory, which is G.skill ddr4 rated at 2800mhz C16. I couldn't get it to run stable on 2800mhz, not even with CPU on stock speeds. But I didn't have time to spend more time overclocking because I had to work on the PC, so I settled with 2666 on the ram, which seemed to be stable at the time. Although it passed memtest 24H without errors I still had some weird things going on with the PC in the following months, Icons not loading, memory sticks not beeing detected, etc. So I turned the ram back to stock speeds, and the problems were gone for a little while. When the problems started to return, I set my CPU back to stock speeds too, because I didn't really have time to diagnose. Turning down the CPU overclock didn't help. So last week I decided to replace my RAM kit with a slightly bigger one: 32GB G.skill 3000C15, which is beeing shipped at this moment. And now the PSU breaks down.

Is this a coincidence, or are these 2 events connected in some way? E.g. was it the PSU that was making the RAM act weird all the time, or was it maybe the RAM that caused the PSU to short? Is that even possible? Or is it maybe the Mobo that is behind all of this?  

 

So my second question is: Does anyone happen to know what could have been the cause of the PSU short out? And how do I go on diagnosing what caused all this? 

I'm sorry for the long post, I don't think it's possible to come up with a sollution if I don't give you any background info. 

I hope someone can help me out with this. 

Thank you in advance for the effort! 

Best regards,

Dave

PS I'lll be out of town tomorrow, so I can't reply that whole day, so if my reply comes a little late, it's not because I'm not interested or I don't care. 

@OPSJono might be able to say something about this with his previous powersupply

[Pesukarhu]

10 minutes ago, DDO said:

maybe the RAM that caused the PSU to short

Computer psus should just turn off in case of a short circuit on the low voltage side, and certainly not trip your breaker.

[DDO]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone!

 

@Cajs and @Verticaldiscussions Where I live the store where you bought the product is the first one responsible if you have any warranty issues so I contacted the store first. Reading all the good experiences with corsairs RMA service it was probably better to contact them straight away. Now I have to wait for the store to react first, it wouldn't be nice if I don't wait for their response, because then they did all the work for nothing. Thanks for the tip, It's good to know there's a good RMA service to contact if the store doesn't come up with a good sollution!

@godlygamer23 You're right and I'm really curious as to what's happened inside the PSU, sounded pretty much like a capacitor exploded somewhere inside. However, in order to open up the PSU I will have to break the warranty seal, which isn't the best idea i guess. Considering the fact that I might be capable of spotting the defect inside the PSU, but I'm in no way able to repair it myself. 

@Pesukarhu That rules out the mobo or ram causing the PSU to fail, am I right? Is it still a possibility that the PSU was bad from the beginning and that it caused the ram and/or motherboard to act funny?  

[OPSJono]

On 2/14/2016 at 0:10 PM, DDO said:

hi everyone,
<snip>

 

Hey guy!

 

A similar thing happened to me a few days before Christmas.

 

I had a brand new 450w SFX power supply from Fractal Design. (The one that comes with the Node202)

 

The PSU I had was no more than 10 hours of use old when, BANG.

 

Big flash, push of smoke and a small explosion came out from the back of the PSU (it was right next to me on top of my desk at the time).

 

It tripped the main fuseboard for the house, turning all electricity off.

 

I never tried to plug the PSU back in after that, as it was brand new (like I said, less than 10 hours of use), I emailed Fractal Design, and 6 weeks later, they sent me a new PSU.

 

The new one that they sent me has been perfectly fine no issues at all.

 

-- In my case I don't think there was a particular cause of the fault, other than a faulty PSU from the factory.

 

I wasn't overclocking or anything when mine blew. (Node 202, I don't dare try and overclock in that case!)

 

After 5 weeks of Fractal examining my PSU, they still don't know what caused it, you may never know the cause, but I would certainly get in touch with Corsair and ask for an RMA and a replacement.

[Pesukarhu]

On 14.2.2016 at 3:25 PM, DDO said:

Is it still a possibility that the PSU was bad from the beginning and that it caused the ram and/or motherboard to act funny?  

Unstable power can cause pretty much anything weird with electronics.

[DDO]

@OPSJono  Thanks for sharing your experience! I hope mine was just a faulty PSU from the factory too, I'm in the process of getting an RMA from corsair at the moment. It's comforting to know your new PSU is working without any problems now, lets hope it will be the same in my case. But I guess we'll know once I connect  the new one. 

@Pesukarhu Okay, I hope this was the case. If so, my old memory might be just fine, and I can reuse it in some other build, that would be great! 

@Cajs The store advised me to contact corsair directly with my warranty issue. I know exactly where to start (your link). 

Thanks everyone, I'm going to send my broken PSU to corsair first thing in the morning. I'll let you know when the new PSU has been delivered, and whether thesystem is working again or not.  

[OPSJono]

54 minutes ago, DDO said:

@OPSJono  Thanks for sharing your experience! I hope mine was just a faulty PSU from the factory too, I'm in the process of getting an RMA from corsair at the moment. It's comforting to know your new PSU is working without any problems now, lets hope it will be the same in my case. But I guess we'll know once I connect  the new one. 

@Pesukarhu Okay, I hope this was the case. If so, my old memory might be just fine, and I can reuse it in some other build, that would be great! 

@Cajs The store advised me to contact corsair directly with my warranty issue. I know exactly where to start (your link). 

Thanks everyone, I'm going to send my broken PSU to corsair first thing in the morning. I'll let you know when the new PSU has been delivered, and whether thesystem is working again or not.  

Let me know how you get on with Corsair's RMA! When you get your replacement post in this topic if it's all good?

[DDO]

@OPSJono I'll let you know when I have the replacement PSU, if they approve the RMA request that is (I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't, but you never know).  Atm I'm still waiting for their response, they said they'd respond within 2 business days, so I guess I'll get an e-mail tomorrow. 

[DDO]

@OPSJono@Cajs@VerticalDiscussions You were right about the RMA service from Corsair. I Sent them my broken PSU ( just the PSU, no cables or anything) on friday the 19th. I forgot to request the express RMA service so I didn't expect them to send me a replacement within a week or 2. However, 3 business days later (today) a package from Corsair was delivered to my house. In it was a brand new AX860i sealed in retail box (including cables etc.)! Probably one of the, if not the best, RMA service out there.  

I don't have time to try it in the PC today, so I'm going to try it tomorrow. I'll let you know if it works.  
 

[OPSJono]

13 hours ago, DDO said:

@OPSJono@Cajs@VerticalDiscussions You were right about the RMA service from Corsair. I Sent them my broken PSU ( just the PSU, no cables or anything) on friday the 19th. I forgot to request the express RMA service so I didn't expect them to send me a replacement within a week or 2. However, 3 business days later (today) a package from Corsair was delivered to my house. In it was a brand new AX860i sealed in retail box (including cables etc.)! Probably one of the, if not the best, RMA service out there.  

I don't have time to try it in the PC today, so I'm going to try it tomorrow. I'll let you know if it works.  
 

Oh that's awesome!

 

Glad they sent you a new retail unit within a week!

 

I wish Fractal Design were that quick with me.. It took them 6 weeks to dispatch a new PSU for me. - They finally did though, at least!