Power supply woes

[Gnobulix]

As I was browsing the internet yesterday, my computer suddenly stopped and refused to start again. No fans turning, no HD spin, no signs whatsoever.

I immediately thought that my PS had died, which was surprising since it was a Corsair HX620 that I bought in august 2008.

I then proceded to connect an older 500 W PS (Antec SP-500) that a friend had. I first connected the two motherboard connectors (4 and 24 pin) with the PS outside the case to see if it worked. The fans spun and MB LED lit and the computer was seemingly booting.

Satisfied that I had found the problem, I installed the SP-500 in the case and connected everyting. When I tried to power the system, it refused again to start, displaying the same symptoms! I also noticed a very weak "psssht" noise coming from the PS whenever I tried to power the system.

What is happening to my computer? Is there a short circuit somewhere that fries the Power supplies? It would be strange since the system has been working flawlessly since last september.

Have I fried my motherboard? if anyone has any idea, please tell me, I'm stuck on this one.

here are the specs of my rig:

EVGA E-GEFORCE GTX 260
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
Mushkin Ascent PC2-8500 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1066
Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB Hard DriveCorsair CMPSU-620HX 620W ATX Triple 12V 50A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply
OCZ Vendetta 2 Triple Heatpipe CPU Heatsink with Noctua NF-P12-1300

[dataxpert]

You said you plug the 4 and 24 pins, what about the GTX card ? First unplug all the drives and card you don't need, keep only ram and video , the problem is may be not with the Motherboard, if the system post on, you can add 1 by 1 the drives, if the system don't post on, you still have a chance than the PSU is burn, so you will need a new one. but you have also the chance than it's the MTB , or the GTX . You should have really unplug the drive before plug the 500W , at least you will know if it's the drive or the board. In my business I install on low cost PC, a lot of Nspire PWR comming from my supplier, they are cheap, and I have far less RMA than with expensive one, so the Brand is not waranty of durability.

[Soultribunal]

Originally Posted by dataxpert

You said you plug the 4 and 24 pins, what about the GTX card ? First unplug all the drives and card you don't need, keep only ram and video , the problem is may be not with the Motherboard, if the system post on, you can add 1 by 1 the drives, if the system don't post on, you still have a chance than the PSU is burn, so you will need a new one. but you have also the chance than it's the MTB , or the GTX . You should have really unplug the drive before plug the 500W , at least you will know if it's the drive or the board. In my business I install on low cost PC, a lot of Nspire PWR comming from my supplier, they are cheap, and I have far less RMA than with expensive one, so the Brand is not waranty of durability.

The only thing I have to disagree on is with your statement that Brand doesn't = duribility.
In all reality it does, the OEM of the Brands is what matters, and Corsair/Ultra/BFG all use the best OEM's out there for PSU platforms.
The Cheap PSU's don't give clean power, have un-acceptable ripple, and are inefficent.

That being said, I do agree with how you would trouble shoot that system.
Start it with the bare minumum of components and slowly start to plug them all in to test.

Regards,
ST

[dataxpert]

100 % with you , the cheap one in cheap case are also very dangerous, they offers no protection at the output,


Funny it's one of my marketing than I sold computer with better PWR than other competitor.

But still the Inspire I install on low to medium prices computer are very durable, have some protection and not too bad on the riffle. The only time I change one is because the fan is stuck in 1 foot of dust. ( I can't install an $ 100 - 200 PWR in office computer, they will kill me, so I choose a fair one with a good durability, until now I have no dead equipment cause by them, and we talk about 50 to 100 install a year ) . What I means it’s not the price you paid who make the durability . I receive an OCZ memory last week , DOA, it was a kit one work the other not.

Originally Posted by Soultribunal

.........The Cheap PSU's don't give clean power, have un-acceptable ripple, and are inefficent.

[Gnobulix]

Thanks for your replies. I will try that systematic troubleshooting tonight.

I still think that something strange is going on. If the video card was bad, the power supply fan would at least start to turn than stop immediately when the system doesn't find a video card.

Also, on the corsair website, I saw that you can test a PS by shorting the green wire to the ground with a paper clip. With this connection, if the PS is all right, the fan should start. I tried that with the Hx-620 and got no results. I also tried that with the Antec SP-500 after I had installed it in the case and it didn't work either. I will try to go to Canadian Tire to buy a multimeter to further test the PS tonight.

[dataxpert]

Spare your money , if you use the ps_on test ( the green wire touching the case of the PSU) it's dead. I saw many time your problem, it was a surge who short the output regulator of the PSU, my best bet is the Hard drive who make the short, it was always them or few time a CDROm who create the short, after all the MTb have voltage regulator , the HD not, so the MTB is more protected than them , now with the new GPU with direct 12 volts supply , they may be short too. ( We gone have to install fuse to the power line now ) I see also a case where the MTB was touching the MTB plate of an Thermaltake Case. I'm very surprise it's happen with a corsair I will guess they have some kind of protection for surge, very cheap PSU in cheap case do that often. I suspect than with the new multi rail of the PWR, some rail are not well protected. Buy a new PSU, in a local computer store, and make the test one by one, if it blow again you will know witch part change and you can RMA the PWR

[Gnobulix]

Thank you again Dataxpert. I was suspecting a story similar to what you are describing. These surges can happen at any moment in a stable system? Scary ...

[stoanee]

Check with this.....

[dataxpert]

It's the electrical company who are resposible for the surge, sometime it's them, sometime it's mother nature. Here In Rawdon QC, Hydro switch circuit everyday in Summer, to try to save electricity to sell to NY for their AC ( it's easy now the junction are plug on phone line, so their computer just dial the junction and switch ) You need a UPS and a Good surge bar, tips : when the light is flashing on the surge bar it's because it's not good anymore and need to be replace .

Originally Posted by Gnobulix

Thank you again Dataxpert. I was suspecting a story similar to what you are describing. These surges can happen at any moment in a stable system? Scary ...