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What could cause a PSU to blow?
Rednecksith
Member Posts: 1,238
Question is in the title, but let me sum up the situation:
I bought a brand new 6870 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948 and installed it. I had problems with it resetting all the time, even when not under load, and research told me that it was either a power problem, or just a bad card. RMA'd it and ordered a brand new PSU just to be safe (old one isn't even name brand, but rated at 700W) New PSU = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021.
Hooked them both up, working great, no problems. 3 days later I was browsing the web, when there was an incredibly loud POP! and my PC went dead. Luckily, only the PSU blew and didn't take anything with it, although I haven't been able to test the graphics card (old PSU can't handle it). One thing of note is that I didn't detect any 'burning electronics' smell.
Newegg is advancing me a new one, but it really bugs me that a name-brand PSU would just blow like that. I'd like to know if there is anything I should be checking on my end. I have a surge protector that's old, but still functional rated at 1410 joules. It didn't trip or fry, so I really doubt there was a power surge. Also, nothing else attached to it was damaged.
I'm also really beginning to think perhaps Newegg isn't a good place to buy from, seeing as how this is 2 defective items I've gotten in a row from them. They are being very accomodating with the RMA process, but still...
Comments
There was a term that used to be used called infant mortality. It's when a failure occurs within a short period of time after a product is shipped.
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Sounds like bad luck. Maybe some capacitor was defective, or something wasn't soldered right or some such. Maybe the power from the wall was wildly wrong for a brief moment (faulty wiring in your house, a transformer down the street got struck by lightning, etc.), and the power supply did pretty well to die without frying anything else. I'm not saying this or that was the real cause; I'm only saying there are a lot of reasons why a power supply could fry. Someone who knows a lot more than I do might be able to find the exact cause of failure if he took your power supply apart and inspected it, and after you RMA the power supply, someone at Corsair might well do exactly that.
A Corsair TX 750 V2 is usually pretty good, but no computer parts are 100% reliable. It doesn't sound like excessive power draw was a contributing factor, as 750 W is vastly more than a Radeon HD 6870 needs, and browsing the web usually means the video card and processor are essentially idle, so you're probably not even pulling 100 W from the power supply.
One advantage to getting a good power supply rather than a bad one is that maybe it has a 98% chance of working right rather than an 80% chance. Another advantage is that if something does go wrong, a good power supply will have protections in place that make it less likely that you fry other hardware.
Damn, I came into this thread ready to yell SEGAC, but apparently this has nothing to do with Phantasy Star Universe.
It sounds like just plain dumb bad luck.
I've used NewEgg and they are good to deal with, Same as others like Mwave and Amazon.
Ultimately they are just the distributor and really had nothing to do with your issue.
Just my epic bad luck then... a simple GPU upgrade has turned into quite the ordeal. Oh well. Once I get the cash I think I'll buy a UPS just to be safe.
Could be worse though. I'd be screwed if the mobo or CPU had been fried, since I can't afford new ones right now. I'd have had to pull my old Dell out of retirement...
Edit: And I will stress again that Newegg is being very cool with the RMA process. They're paying shipping both ways, and I should have the new PSU Monday or Tuesday. It's just weird that I've gotten 2 defective parts from them in a row, is all. Though to be fair the inital card may not have been defective, I just RMA'd it to rule out the possibility of a defective card, and because I know if it were a power issue, the card may have been damaged.
Get a mutimeter too and ceck your outlets. Make sure you got the right power going into the PSU
Edit 1:
Just make sure you know what you are doing 1st.
I will do that, thanks for the advice. It's probably fine but it never hurts to check.
Maybe I have bad luck, but PSU failures were pretty common for me. If I had to say overall, maybe one out of every ten have had issues or voltage irregularities. Even scortched an entire Mobo one time.
Whether that's good luck or bad luck depends on what power supplies you're using, what load you're pulling from them, and how stable your electricity supply is.