Setup pulling 900W from the wall?

[ShadowWolf810]

So for awhile now, I've been having some weird issues with my system, USB ports disconnecting randomly etc. Most notably is when my dog gets up from under my desk (and there are no cables for him to touch there) he'll static shock me and my screen will flicker momentarily. I've done some tests and it must be travelling through my keyboard because if I don't have my hands on it then nothing happens. Anyways, this lead me to think that maybe somewhere in my case I've got a grounding issue. 

 

I've had my system in two different cases, and is almost all new hardware at this point, but I used to have the same problem with the old case as well. 

 

Really the only component that's remained constant has been the power supply, which is a Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W 80+ Bronze Power Supply. 

The other relevant system specs of my current system are a 5960X, and H100i as the cooler, on an ASUS X99 USB 3.1 Deluxe and a 1080 Ti. 

 

I'm no electrical engineer but I'm not sure how there could be a short in the power supply without it instantly tripping a breaker. That got me thinking that maybe my power at my apartment fluctuates a lot and that's what's causing the problem. 

 

So I was considering investing in a UPS, since its a relatively high end system with a lot of other equipment as well (as a video editor) and I'd rather run a UPS than have all my equipment being slowly destroyed by bad power. 

 

This lead me to get one of those Wall Socket Watt meters to get an accurate number so I had a better idea of what size UPS to get. 

 

Below are the results of my stress test. It goes in descending order, meaning that I started and then left everything on as I added more devices into the mix. 

 

All devices "shutdown" but not unplugged : 24 W
PC w/ PSU flip turned on: 30 W
PC ON (3 monitors, external harddrive enclosure, Avid Box): 305 W
Speakers ON (no music): 330 W
Speakers ON (Loud music): 345 W 
Dac + Amp powered on: 350 W 
PC Render Davinci Project (100% CPU): 500W 
PC Render Davinci Project + Server ON: 600W, 700W Peak
PC Gaming and Davinci Project Render in background (To max out CPU cooler/use GPU): 825 W
PC CPU Overclocked to 4.2 Ghz (mild overclock) while Gaming and Davinci Project Render in background: 900 W 

 

So to be fair, there are 2 PC's running but the other only seemed to add about 100 W to the equation. And even if you look at it from the non-overclocked numbers (since overclocking adds insane power draw), and without the server running, you're still looking at over 700W for my setup during a render and 350W at idle. This number just seems to be too high, even considering its only an 80+ Bronze power supply when compared to reviewers posting power draw numbers in the high 200W range on systems under full synthetic load. 

 

But that's why I'm asking here! Thoughts would be appreciated. 

 

[Bananasplit_00]

PSU is hogging a lot of that being only Bronze and because you are probably not anywhere near the efficency peak either its drawing even more

[Sakkura]

Your hardware should probably be pulling about 450W at full load, and with PSU losses added in it could get close to 600W... but yeah, your numbers still seem high. Combined with the static stuff going on, maybe there's some problem with the PSU.

[ShadowWolf810]

1 minute ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

PSU is hogging a lot of that being only Bronze and because you are probably not anywhere near the efficency peak either its drawing even more

Yeah I'm not sure how much of a difference to expect between Bronze and say like Gold. Any ideas on the apparently shorts?

[Bananasplit_00]

2 minutes ago, ShadowWolf810 said:

Yeah I'm not sure how much of a difference to expect between Bronze and say like Gold. Any ideas on the apparently shorts?

you could probably bring it down 50W at least id say

[ShadowWolf810]

Just now, Sakkura said:

Your hardware should probably be pulling about 450W at full load, and with PSU losses added in it could get close to 600W... but yeah, your numbers still seem high. Combined with the static stuff going on, maybe there's some problem with the PSU.

When you say my "hardware" are you including just my PC and peripherals, or...? A friend has recently done a high end build, I believe he's got the 1000 W Gold (maybe Platinum) PSU from Corsair, so I might be able to have him bring that over and redo the tests. 

 

If power draw remains the same would you think a UPS is necessary? Problem is if my system is pulling 300W at idle even with another PSU then it would be a fairly expensive UPS to actually cover that amount of power draw. 

 

I'm not sure if you'd know but I'm a little confused on how the UPS would function in that situation. I get that they have a battery that constantly powers everything, but if you're pulling more than that battery can output the extra current must be coming from the wall. So in that case, is all that power still regulated and "clean" but you have 0:00 time of battery backup if the power goes out?

[ShadowWolf810]

3 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

you could probably bring it down 50W at least id say

Doesn't 650 W with a top of the line PSU still sound way too high with stock CPU speeds to you though?

[paddy-stone]

I'd sya it's more likely the dog has been statically charged from the carpet, and when he goes by you that travels through you (clothing perhaps) and to the keyboard... I'd look at getting a floormat pr some kind so it helps both you and the dog from getting static electric shocks.

[Sakkura]

Just now, ShadowWolf810 said:

When you say my "hardware" are you including just my PC and peripherals, or...? A friend has recently done a high end build, I believe he's got the 1000 W Gold (maybe Platinum) PSU from Corsair, so I might be able to have him bring that over and redo the tests. 

 

If power draw remains the same would you think a UPS is necessary? Problem is if my system is pulling 300W at idle even with another PSU then it would be a fairly expensive UPS to actually cover that amount of power draw. 

 

I'm not sure if you'd know but I'm a little confused on how the UPS would function in that situation. I get that they have a battery that constantly powers everything, but if you're pulling more than that battery can output the extra current must be coming from the wall. So in that case, is all that power still regulated and "clean" but you have 0:00 time of battery backup if the power goes out?

I mean the internal components of your system, except the PSU (plus a tiny amount for what's delivered through the USB ports). If they pull eg. 450W DC from the power supply, the PSU will pull eg. 560W AC from the wall. I mean it could be a tad more because of the OC, but I can't see it going higher than 600W at the wall, unless something is malfunctioning.

 

Upon further review, your power supply appears to be part of the TR2 series, which has a history of having VERY mixed quality. Right from decent midrange units to outright firecrackers.

 

I can't guarantee the PSU is at fault here, but I wouldn't feel good about having that unit powering my hardware.

 

I don't think a UPS would be the answer here. Maybe a surge protector if your wall sockets are delivering some troublesome spikes.

[ShadowWolf810]

Just now, paddy-stone said:

I'd sya it's more likely the dog has been statically charged from the carpet, and when he goes by you that travels through you (clothing perhaps) and to the keyboard... I'd look at getting a floormat pr some kind so it helps both you and the dog from getting static electric shocks.

Yeah I definitely agree the dog is the one generating the static shock, but isn't it strange for a shock to travel through a keyboard (where I'm only touching plastic), on the outside of a USB cable, into the motherboard and cause all my monitors to flicker? 

 

I could see it if there was a bare USB cable with nothing plugged into it but still attached to my computer and he shocked that, or even if I was touching my case and there was some short somewhere. My friend said they had a case grounding issue where some of the front panel connections weren't wired correctly from the factory and it caused that problem. 

 

I can see all that, but it seems strange to me to think that such a tiny shock could behave like that. 

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, ShadowWolf810 said:

Doesn't 650 W with a top of the line PSU still sound way too high with stock CPU speeds to you though?

650W dosent sound too high really, that sounds resonable. also im not sure how Thermaltake says top of the line to you in any sort of way

10 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Your hardware should probably be pulling about 450W 

that seems a bit low if you ask me, like 100W low at least

[Tabs]

Although this won't answer your question, it's worth checking the estimated in-use power consumption for your monitors. They could be contributing anything from 120-200W of your idle "wall" power depending on size and specifications, since you have 3 of them. My 4k 27" panel from LG uses up to 68W from the wall.

 

Remember that "at wall" current - especially if you're measuring multiple devices simultaneously - will give you a figure for all your efficiency losses as well. It'll be worth testing just your tower to get an estimate of your computers actual power draw, since monitors are rarely included when reviewers test it.

 

Also, it's worth noting that (in the UK), RCD (main breakers) won't just break as soon as *any* current leaks to ground. Certified UK home circuits are generally built to be able to leak 30mA peak or up to ~15mA sustained current to ground without tripping, since a lot of badly shielded devices will leak a small amount of current to ground. It's designed to prevent nuisance tripping. On our 220-240V supply, that could be up to ~35w sustained leakage to ground over a circuit. I have no idea how high it can get on non-uk circuits, so might be worth investigating.

 

tl;dr: Test your components as individually as you can. Remember that your PSU will have highest efficiency at 50% load - 85% is all that's guaranteed at that level for 80+ bronze. At 80% load this only has to be above 82, and it can sharply decline after that. If you really are pushing your PSU past ~ 700W your efficiency might be tanking and it might be worth buying a higher wattage psu with a better efficiency rating.

[Sakkura]

Just now, Bananasplit_00 said:

650W dosent sound too high really, that sounds resonable. also im not sure how Thermaltake says top of the line to you in any sort of way

that seems a bit low if you ask me, like 100W low at least

150W for the mildly OCed CPU, 250W for the GPU, 50W for the rest.

[done12many2]

28 minutes ago, ShadowWolf810 said:

So for awhile now, I've been having some weird issues with my system, USB ports disconnecting randomly etc. Most notably is when my dog gets up from under my desk (and there are no cables for him to touch there) he'll static shock me and my screen will flicker momentarily. I've done some tests and it must be travelling through my keyboard because if I don't have my hands on it then nothing happens. Anyways, this lead me to think that maybe somewhere in my case I've got a grounding issue. 

 

I've had my system in two different cases, and is almost all new hardware at this point, but I used to have the same problem with the old case as well. 

 

Really the only component that's remained constant has been the power supply, which is a Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W 80+ Bronze Power Supply. 

The other relevant system specs of my current system are a 5960X, and H100i as the cooler, on an ASUS X99 USB 3.1 Deluxe and a 1080 Ti. 

 

I'm no electrical engineer but I'm not sure how there could be a short in the power supply without it instantly tripping a breaker. That got me thinking that maybe my power at my apartment fluctuates a lot and that's what's causing the problem. 

 

So I was considering investing in a UPS, since its a relatively high end system with a lot of other equipment as well (as a video editor) and I'd rather run a UPS than have all my equipment being slowly destroyed by bad power. 

 

This lead me to get one of those Wall Socket Watt meters to get an accurate number so I had a better idea of what size UPS to get. 

 

Below are the results of my stress test. It goes in descending order, meaning that I started and then left everything on as I added more devices into the mix. 

 

All devices "shutdown" but not unplugged : 24 W
PC w/ PSU flip turned on: 30 W
PC ON (3 monitors, external harddrive enclosure, Avid Box): 305 W
Speakers ON (no music): 330 W
Speakers ON (Loud music): 345 W 
Dac + Amp powered on: 350 W 
PC Render Davinci Project (100% CPU): 500W 
PC Render Davinci Project + Server ON: 600W, 700W Peak
PC Gaming and Davinci Project Render in background (To max out CPU cooler/use GPU): 825 W
PC CPU Overclocked to 4.2 Ghz (mild overclock) while Gaming and Davinci Project Render in background: 900 W 

 

So to be fair, there are 2 PC's running but the other only seemed to add about 100 W to the equation. And even if you look at it from the non-overclocked numbers (since overclocking adds insane power draw), and without the server running, you're still looking at over 700W for my setup during a render and 350W at idle. This number just seems to be too high, even considering its only an 80+ Bronze power supply when compared to reviewers posting power draw numbers in the high 200W range on systems under full synthetic load. 

 

But that's why I'm asking here! Thoughts would be appreciated. 

 

 

Why don't you unplug everything from the power meter with the exception of the PC in question?  Guessing what another PC or peripherals add to the total is just guessing at best.  Leave the PC in question and one monitor plugged in and retest.  

[ShadowWolf810]

Just now, Bananasplit_00 said:

650W dosent sound too high really, that sounds resonable. also im not sure how Thermaltake says top of the line to you in any sort of way

Sorry that's not what I meant, just realized I said what I said in another comment so you probably didn't see it. I was saying that my friend just built a high end system too, and I think he got the 1000W Gold or Platinum Corsair power supply and that he'd be willing to bring it over here and let me test my system with it. And so in my comment meant if my system was still drawing that amount of power. 

[paddy-stone]

6 minutes ago, ShadowWolf810 said:

Yeah I definitely agree the dog is the one generating the static shock, but isn't it strange for a shock to travel through a keyboard (where I'm only touching plastic), on the outside of a USB cable, into the motherboard and cause all my monitors to flicker? 

 

I could see it if there was a bare USB cable with nothing plugged into it but still attached to my computer and he shocked that, or even if I was touching my case and there was some short somewhere. My friend said they had a case grounding issue where some of the front panel connections weren't wired correctly from the factory and it caused that problem. 

 

I can see all that, but it seems strange to me to think that such a tiny shock could behave like that. 

Do you have any pics of your setup?  I'm more concerned for the dog TBH, they can;t tell you when they get shocked.

I would check that the i/o shield is correctly installed. And try a differnt USB port, preferably one in the back I/O to see if it still does it. Also make sure you use a surge protector strip if plugging directly into wall socket. I had a PSU blow a cap on me earlier this year, luckily it didn't take any components with it.

[Tabs]

2 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

150W for the mildly OCed CPU, 250W for the GPU, 50W for the rest.

I would estimate far, far higher than that for every component. The 5960X is a 140W cpu at stock (3.5 turbo, 3.0 base). Even without increasing voltage, that cpu would be pushing close to 220 with an all-core 4.2ghz overclock, assuming enough cooling. With minor voltage adjustments, easily 250 on its own.

 

1080Ti is a 250w TDP GPU, but in actual use can pull up to ~285 under non-synthetic conditions, even without adjusting the power target or counting an overclock.

 

And finally, without knowing everything else in the OP's system, 50W for the motherboard, all IC, internal drives is a good ballpark. 

 

So, without knowing really anything else than what was in the original post, I'd expect a good ~580W before PSU losses from the computer alone when overclocked. 

[Sakkura]

Just now, Tabs said:

I would estimate far, far higher than that for every component. The 5960X is a 140W cpu at stock (3.5 turbo, 3.0 base). Even without increasing voltage, that cpu would be pushing close to 220 with an all-core 4.2ghz overclock, assuming enough cooling. With minor voltage adjustments, easily 250 on its own.

 

1080Ti is a 250w TDP GPU, but in actual use can pull up to ~285 under non-synthetic conditions, even without adjusting the power target or counting an overclock.

 

And finally, without knowing everything else in the OP's system, 50W for the motherboard, all IC, internal drives is a good ballpark. 

 

So, without knowing really anything else than what was in the original post, I'd expect a good ~580W before PSU losses from the computer alone when overclocked. 

Yeah you're overestimating power draw on every component there. Remember, we're only dealing with a small CPU OC and no GPU OC. And the 5960X TDP is a bit of an overestimate - in practice, its power draw is lower.

[Bananasplit_00]

6 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

150W for the mildly OCed CPU, 250W for the GPU, 50W for the rest.

50W for the rest seems quite low, its an X99 board, 240mm AIO, at least one harddrive and probably one SSD. a harddrive is at least 10W, SSDs more and then there is RAM too to add on which id say is at least 30W more. id say 100W for the rest of the components and then he has a load of other shit connected to his system as well. if we look at the powerdraw gain in the overclock of the CPU we can see that that added 75W to the system, and from what i could find that chip draws around 140W stock so thats 215 ish watts for the CPU. 

 

CPU: 215W

GPU: 250W

rest of the system: 10W fans, 5W pump, 20W storage, 30W memory and the motherboard probably at least 50W so thats 115W for the rest if im being generous with the motherboard

total: 580W

 

the RAM might be overestimating quite a bit, but the motherboard is probably a bit low. thats a really high end board and its on X99 so it has a shitload of features and stuff. the powerdelivery itself probably looses 50W in the MOSFETS by itself if i had to guess.

 

16 minutes ago, ShadowWolf810 said:

Sorry that's not what I meant, just realized I said what I said in another comment so you probably didn't see it. I was saying that my friend just built a high end system too, and I think he got the 1000W Gold or Platinum Corsair power supply and that he'd be willing to bring it over here and let me test my system with it. And so in my comment meant if my system was still drawing that amount of power. 

650W from the wall id say is pretty much spot on my estimate if you are right at the 80+ gold efficency peak

[Tabs]

3 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Yeah you're overestimating power draw on every component there. Remember, we're only dealing with a small CPU OC and no GPU OC. And the 5960X TDP is a bit of an overestimate - in practice, its power draw is lower.

That could certainly be the case. I've never worked with x99 myself, but I guess I didn't consider going from 3ghz to 4.2 all-core to be a mild overclock. Power draw tends to be linear with frequency, and exponential with voltage, so without knowing both of these exactly I preferred to err on the side of a higher figure.

 

I still think OP should test his machine by itself since all anyone can do right now is guess, and that ends up not being helpful.

[ShadowWolf810]

Ok everyone I have some updates: 

 

@Tabs @done12many2 @Bananasplit_00 @Sakkura @paddy-stone

 

Specs of the entire internal part of my system. 5960X stock 2.80 GHz, 1.2 Volts I think. Overclocked I had it at 4.2 on all cores, and 1.3 V. It is a relatively big jump in processor speed, but called it a mild overclock because I've gotten it to 4.6 GHz before, but that was before I had more cooling and I haven't messed with it to get max yet. 

 

Anyways, GTX 1080 ti, 64 GB of Ram (4x16 DIMMS) X99 USB 3.1 Deluxe motherboard. H100i cpu cooler, 960 Pro Samsung 512 GB SSD, 1 WD 4 TB HD. 2 140 mm fans, 3 (including cooler) 120 mm fans. USB 3.1 PCIe card, Thunderbolt 2 PCIe card. 5.25 in. SD card reader with 6 USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports. That should be everything. 

 

 

 

So now there's something curious. based on what @done12many2 had suggested, I unplugged everything besides my computer and a single monitor, at stock and I'm pulling 260 Watts at idle. 

While gaming and rendering the same Davinci project, it was 660 W. 

Sorry for the delay, I'm a dumbass and the Watt meter resets to showing Volts if its unplugged so I did these tests both stock and overclock and was getting 120 for all of them and was like wtf......

But again this is a barebones config of my setup and definitely not how I'll be running it. Don't have time to test every single component individually right now, so I'm not sure what the next steps would be. 

I have sort of a weird set up though, There's a powerline ethernet adapter covering one of my wall sockets, so I only have access to one behind my desk. Because of this, I have the highest draw stuff all plugged into a power strip, as well as a second power strip, then all the lower power draw stuff/stuff thats not always on into the second one. Those powerline adapters don't work correctly if they aren't directly into the wall, so even though its one of the ones that has the passthrough outlet, its so big that it covers the one above it and I only have access to one. 

 

[done12many2]

9 minutes ago, ShadowWolf810 said:

So now there's something curious. based on what @done12many2 had suggested, I unplugged everything besides my computer and a single monitor, at stock and I'm pulling 260 Watts at idle. 

While gaming and rendering the same Davinci project, it was 660 W. 

 

Considering your setup, it's pulling what it should pull from the wall. 

 

Using a Titanium PSU, but with more cooling and accessory related draw, my 5960x at 4.7 GHz with 1.28v and one 1080Ti running would pull roughly 650 to 700w from the wall while running a RealBench stress test (CPU + GPU) and ~900w when running 2 x 1080 Ti GPUs in the same load. 

 

 

[Tabs]

2 minutes ago, ShadowWolf810 said:

Ok everyone I have some updates: 

 

@Tabs @done12many2 @Bananasplit_00 @Sakkura @paddy-stone

 

Specs of the entire internal part of my system. 5960X stock 2.80 GHz, 1.2 Volts I think. Overclocked I had it at 4.2 on all cores, and 1.3 V. It is a relatively big jump in processor speed, but called it a mild overclock because I've gotten it to 4.6 GHz before, but that was before I had more cooling and I haven't messed with it to get max yet. 

 

Anyways, GTX 1080 ti, 64 GB of Ram (4x16 DIMMS) X99 USB 3.1 Deluxe motherboard. H100i cpu cooler, 960 Pro Samsung 512 GB SSD, 1 WD 4 TB HD. 2 140 mm fans, 3 (including cooler) 120 mm fans. USB 3.1 PCIe card, Thunderbolt 2 PCIe card. 5.25 in. SD card reader with 6 USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports. That should be everything. 

 

 

 

So now there's something curious. based on what @done12many2 had suggested, I unplugged everything besides my computer and a single monitor, at stock and I'm pulling 260 Watts at idle. 

While gaming and rendering the same Davinci project, it was 660 W. 

Sorry for the delay, I'm a dumbass and the Watt meter resets to showing Volts if its unplugged so I did these tests both stock and overclock and was getting 120 for all of them and was like wtf......

But again this is a barebones config of my setup and definitely not how I'll be running it. Don't have every single component individually right now, so I'm not sure what the next steps would be. 

I have sort of a weird set up though, There's a powerline ethernet adapter covering one of my wall sockets, so I only have access to one behind my desk. Because of this, I have the highest draw stuff all plugged into a power strip, as well as a second power strip, then all the lower power draw stuff/stuff thats not always on into the second one. Those powerline adapters don't work correctly if they aren't directly into the wall, so even though its one of the ones that has the passthrough outlet, its so big that it covers the one above it and I only have access to one. 

 

 

Based on what you just said, this figure sounds completely reasonable. Let's assume a 40w draw for the monitor - which could be higher or lower, but isn't overly important. It's *something*, which means that in your own worst-case scenario, your machine is drawing <660W from the wall. Assuming the 850W psu you have has a fairly standard efficiency curve, 620-640W at the wall would be ~530W draw for all your internal components. 

 

I don't think you have any specific problems there you should be concerned about. It's a beefy system.

 

With regards to your original problem then - is it possible that your desk or other equipment near your keyboard is grounded through the same source as one or more of your monitors? I don't see a static discharge from your keyboard through USB impacting your monitors before it affected the USB ports on your machine themselves.

[ShadowWolf810]

10 minutes ago, done12many2 said:

 

Considering your setup, it's pulling what it should pull from the wall. 

 

Using a Titanium PSU, but with more cooling and accessory related draw, my 5960x at 4.7 GHz with 1.28v and one 1080Ti running would pull roughly 650 to 700w from the wall while running a RealBench stress test (CPU + GPU) and ~900w when running 2 x 1080 Ti GPUs in the same load. 

 

 

So I mean there's a considerable overclock in there, but would the overclock and accessories account for a 400 W difference between your result and what reviews post as the system under load?

[ShadowWolf810]

10 minutes ago, Tabs said:

 

Based on what you just said, this figure sounds completely reasonable. Let's assume a 40w draw for the monitor - which could be higher or lower, but isn't overly important. It's *something*, which means that in your own worst-case scenario, your machine is drawing <660W from the wall. Assuming the 850W psu you have has a fairly standard efficiency curve, 620-640W at the wall would be ~530W draw for all your internal components. 

 

I don't think you have any specific problems there you should be concerned about. It's a beefy system.

 

With regards to your original problem then - is it possible that your desk or other equipment near your keyboard is grounded through the same source as one or more of your monitors? I don't see a static discharge from your keyboard through USB impacting your monitors before it affected the USB ports on your machine themselves.

Hmm I guess that's all true. I guess I just didn't assume that the accessories would cause such a spike and from the initial way I tested it seemed like the problem was worse. I guess once I add in all the accessories, an overclock, and a stress test to try to get a maximum wattage number it would make sense that the power supply would be less efficient, and pull even more. 

 

For the static issues, I can't see anyway that the keyboard could be grounding to something else. Its in a keyboard tray, and my desk has a backwall than an inch think hardwood between my feet and all my cables. The usb cable is secured the to underside of my desk, and runs up to a whole and then goes directly into my computer. 

 

I've had other weird issues with USB stuff though. Some adapters, my Xbox controller wireless adapter most notably doesn't pair to my controller automatically and I have to unplug it and plug it back in then re pair the two to get it working. I've also had it where my whole setup was plugging in like normal, and someone came over with their external usb hard drive to work on some edits. When I just touched the USB cable end to the port, not plugging it in just touching it, all 3 of my screens went black, and the PC acted like explorer.exe had crashed.

 

Another time, I had another hard drive plugged in and when I unmounted it my speakers popped. Now they're powered on their own, but at the time they were interfacing to my PC through an Avid M Box mini, which is powered only by USB and sends the signal out, so its very weird for them to pop when I clicked to eject the drive. 

 

I've had issues with my SD Card reader since its plugged into a USB 3 and a USB 2 header on my motherboard. After using it a ton, I didn't use it at all for maybe a month, then when I needed it I plugged in an SD card and the light wouldn't come on. I opened my case and reseated the headers and it worked fine. But with my PC just sitting there for as long as it had without me being inside it for anything else, its strange for it to just stop working like that. 

 

I'm sure I've had other issues with USB related stuff as well. Granted I have a lot of things plugged in, the board itself has 12 USB ports, plus 4 front panel, plus 6 on my SD card reader, plus 2 on the PCIe card. I'm only ever using like 14 of those at a time. Which is still quite a lot but a decent number of those are low power draw things like mouse and keyboard, and chargers for phone and headset that aren't even used half the time etc. Point is maybe I'm having USB resource issues? I'm not sure.