Replacement Power Supply Failed After a Few Days

[taydan04]

Hello all!

 

Just looking for some advice or to see if anybody else has experience with a similar issue. It has me properly scratching my head! haha. So, last Wednesday, while my PC was running completely at idle, sat at the desktop, my Corsair SF600 power supply failed with a bang and a flash of light from the rear of the PSU itself. Tripping the circuit breaker for the sockets on that ring. This appeared to kill the unit all together. Wasn't able to get any power to any of the components until I connected up an older power supply, an AX750, externally (as it doesn't fit in my SFX case).

 

I one-by-one reconnected each component and tried powering the device. To my surprise, everything was fine with all of the components hooked up. Ran a couple of hours of Prime95 and Unigine Valley simultaneously with no issues. So I shrugged and attributed this to the heatwave we are currently having in the UK that must have pushed a very heavily used 3 year old PSU over the edge. So I ordered a replacement. The next day I installed the replacement SF600 and i was off to the races.

 

However today, 5 days after installing it, the replacement unit appears to have failed. The PC, this time while streaming a video from 4oD, powered down suddenly. Followed by a 'clunk' from the power supply. Sounded like a safety shut off to me. Testing would seem to agree as cycling the power switch on the PSU would allow me to switch the PC on for a split second. Then it would power back down immediately. Seems to be a protection cutoff. I have tried powering up the PC with this 2nd SF600 with just the 24 pin (ATX) and 8 pin (CPU) connected. Still exactly the same results. Only powers on for a fraction of a second.

 

The PC is now running fine again using the AX750 as an external power supply sat next to the tower. No stability issues running stress tests or games.

 

Could anyone here suggest a line of investigation? I'm confused as to how I have managed to kill 2 Corsair SF600's in the space of a week... Amazon are already sending a free replacement for SF600 number 2 and I'm concerned this will just pop as well after just as short a life span.

 

Would you guys think the 2nd unit being faulty is more or less likely than one of my components being at fault?

 

The PC is on a surge protector. Maybe this could do with replacing? Maybe I'm experiencing unclean power... So many avenues to go down. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Guest]

What are your other components?

[taydan04]

Just now, Some Random Member said:

What are your other components?

Ah yes, should have posted this. My Spec list.
Intel i5 6600K @4.4Ghz 1.35v
Asus Maximus VIII Impact

MSI GTX 1070 Founders Edition (running stock)

16GB Corsair LPX DDR4 3000

2x Samsung 850 Evo 500GB SATA3 SSD's in RAID0

[Guest]

1 minute ago, taydan04 said:

Ah yes, should have posted this. My Spec list.
Intel i5 6600K @4.4Ghz 1.35v
Asus Maximus VIII Impact

MSI GTX 1070 Founders Edition (running stock)

16GB Corsair LPX DDR4 3000

2x Samsung 850 Evo 500GB SATA3 SSD's in RAID0

That definitely shouldnt consume anywhere 600 watts. 

If i had 2 corsair psus fail in a row i would try a BeQuiet 600 watt sf unit.

[taydan04]

Just now, Some Random Member said:

That definitely shouldnt consume anywhere 600 watts. 

If i had 2 corsair psus fail in a row i would try a BeQuiet 600 watt sf unit.

That may be my next step if the unit amazon is sending goes the same way. Do you think its possible I could have just had a bad unit? It just seems so unlikely to me to see 2 reputable PSU's die so quickly.

[Christophe Corazza]

1 minute ago, taydan04 said:

That may be my next step if the unit amazon is sending goes the same way. Do you think its possible I could have just had a bad unit? It just seems so unlikely to me to see 2 reputable PSU's die so quickly.

 

To me it seems like you've got extremely unlucky.

However, if the next one also dies, I might look at your other components as culprits as well.

[Ryujin2003]

1 minute ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

To me it seems like you've got extremely unlucky.

However, if the next one also dies, I might look at your other components as culprits as well.

Or the home circuitry.

[Christophe Corazza]

1 minute ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Or the home circuitry.

 

Yes but the PSU is on a surge protector.

[taydan04]

 

Just now, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Yes but the PSU is on a surge protector.

I think i will order a replacement surge protector just to be on the safe side. From what I understand of how they work, if a surge was the reason the first PSU died, the strip may not be protected any more depending on the size of the surge I guess.

[Christophe Corazza]

15 minutes ago, taydan04 said:

AX750

 

Corsair's AX series is basically top tier of what you can get from a PSU. Therefore I'm surprised that (after the original unit) your replacement unit failed as well shortly after installing it.

[taydan04]

Just now, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Corsair's AX series is basically top tier of what you can get from a PSU. Therefore I'm surprised that (after the original unit) your replacement unit failed as well shortly after installing it.

In fairness the original and replacement PSU's were both Corsair SF600's (SFX form factor). The AX750 is being used externally at the moment due to its size but haven't had an AX fail.

[Christophe Corazza]

1 minute ago, taydan04 said:

I think i will order a replacement surge protector just to be on the safe side. From what I understand of how they work, if a surge was the reason the first PSU died, the strip may not be protected any more depending on the size of the surge I guess.

 

Have you experienced a surge before? Or any power outages? Or in your neighbourhood?

How is your home circuitry? Quite old/out dated or fairly recent?

 

Indeed, if the first PSU dies due to a surge, then the surge protector is no good anymore. However, having two *serious* surges fairly fast after each other...

[taydan04]

The power here is very stable generally. Goes off maybe once a year at the most. Never had issues with dimming or fluctuating ceiling lights. The house was re-wired just before we started renting to bring it up to code. (The old electrics were run under the carpets! XD) I am honestly baffled and can only think to blame rotten stinking luck! haha.

[Christophe Corazza]

4 minutes ago, taydan04 said:

In fairness the original and replacement PSU's were both Corsair SF600's (SFX form factor). The AX750 is being used externally at the moment due to its size but haven't had an AX fail.

 

Sorry, misread that part of your original post. However, the SF600 is still a n excellent power supply. I might be tempted to say that it is one of the best SFF PSUs that you can get.

[Christophe Corazza]

2 minutes ago, taydan04 said:

The power here is very stable generally. Goes off maybe once a year at the most. Never had issues with dimming or fluctuating ceiling lights. The house was re-wired just before we started renting to bring it up to code. (The old electrics were run under the carpets! XD) I am honestly baffled and can only think to blame rotten stinking luck! haha.

 

To be honest, then I really don't think that it is the PSU's fault...

[taydan04]

Just now, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Sorry, misread that part of your original post. However, the SF600 is still a n excellent power supply. I might be tempted to say that it is one of the best SFF PSUs that you can get.

This was the impression I initially got when I ordered the first one! I've never been able to cheap out on power delivery. Not after my very first build caught fire back int he day! haha.

[Christophe Corazza]

1 minute ago, taydan04 said:

I've never been able to cheap out on power delivery.

 

That's a very good mentality. 

People often think to save a bock on the power supply. However, that's the unit that often messes up their build.

[taydan04]

Just now, Christophe Corazza said:

 

To be honest, then I really don't think that it is the PSU's fault...

I'm glad it doesn't just stump me haha. It confuses me because I would expect, if a hardware fault had caused it, then another PSU wouldn't be working fine right now surely?

[KarathKasun]

Actually, with the heat-wave going on, the power factor/condition of the electricity coming into your home could be bad enough that efficiency could be going down significantly.

 

It could be that the 750w unit has a better power factor correction circuit that can handle the off-phase electricity on the grid (because its a higher capacity unit) and the SF600 is being pushed out of spec and failing.  A full AC-DC-AC UPS would probably fix the problem, or a higher capacity PSU.

[Christophe Corazza]

PSUs have a built-in switch-off mechanism if it detects a short circuit in your build.

Perhaps you should continue testing/running your PC with the current AX750 to see if it also switches off. If so, then you're definitely certain that there is a short circuit somewhere else in your build.

[Christophe Corazza]

A warmer climate can be an issue as well. However I don’t know how much this will affect the off phase voltage component that enters your main home circuitry. It obviously depends on where OP lives.

[Lester Chan]

Sorry for bumping up this thread. Chanced upon this from Google. I am in a similar situation with OP, just that mine is SF750. Original one died, could not power on. Replacement came, also died. The weird thing is I did not even switch on the PC when the power surge happens.

 

In Singapore, power is stable, it seldom go out.

[Christophe Corazza]

21 hours ago, Lester Chan said:

Sorry for bumping up this thread.

 

Trying to revive old corpses I see...

 

21 hours ago, Lester Chan said:

The weird thing is I did not even switch on the PC when the power surge happens.

 

A power surge destroys electrical devices, regardless of whether they are on or off. Having the power cord connected to a surge protector is the only true way to safeguard a computer from an electrical surge... apart from physically unplugging the device of course.