My PSU popped.

OLDPHART · 30 Jan 2010 at 21:36

Yes the 12v rails do supply 18A, when comparing the 6pin pci-e connector for the 5770 to the twim molex 5pin, the 5770 has 3 yellow in a row/ 3 black in a row-retaining clip side. The 5 pin only 2 yellow to the out side pins in a row middle pin blank / 2 black to the out side pins-retaining clip side, cant realy make out where the red/brown? is going, but by the 1st picture of it looks like its going between the black? .

So quite possibly not feeding power to the card correctly and overloading the two yellow pins on the twim molex 5pin pci-e connector hence burning smell? and overloading the psu.

But the way two look at it why have given you 2 6 pin pci-e connectors for a reason, to supply the GFX CARD with the right power when needed. Plus why do they tell you the top 5 connectors are for only sata/ ata drives only they must have agood reason.

weird_dave · 31 Jan 2010 at 10:19

If the cables were overloaded they would melt and you'd see it easily. This wouldn't cause the PSU to be overloaded either.
I don't think the PC got as far as running games as far as I can tell, so the gfx card wouldn't be taking much power at all anyway.
The PSU hasn't been overloaded at all by using the molex adaptor.

Is the PC overclocked at all?

lcg · 31 Jan 2010 at 11:26

weird_dave said:
If the cables were overloaded they would melt and you'd see it easily. This wouldn't cause the PSU to be overloaded either.
I don't think the PC got as far as running games as far as I can tell, so the gfx card wouldn't be taking much power at all anyway.
The PSU hasn't been overloaded at all by using the molex adaptor.

Is the PC overclocked at all?

No, the PC isn't overclocked at all. All I've done recently is changed the processor from an E4500 to a Q6600, installed RAM, and changed the graphics card. The PC didn't get as far as playing games, as my computer froze after about a minute of logging on. I remember it made a hardware recognition sound just before it froze, which would suggest it recognized the graphics card, then decided to freeze. By freeze, I mean the mouse wouldn't move, and the keyboard was unresponsive. The screen was of course at a very low resolution, and before installing the card I had removed the NVIDIA drivers. The popping noise only came after I removed the RAM, and then turned the machine back on.

Unless you advise me differently, I think what I'll do is test the PSU with the paperclip method, connect it back if it seems okay, and then rewire my old graphics card, and then test the machine.

lcg · 31 Jan 2010 at 16:23

I've just tested the PSU, and the PSU's fan is spinning, and well as the case fan I've connected it to. Could someone please confirm if this looks okay? I also can't smell any smoke from inside the power supply.

OLDPHART · 31 Jan 2010 at 18:10

Hi m8, if its working as you say the only thing to do is try it but remember to use the right 6 pin pci-e that came with the psu. Test your 7900 1st if thats ok, then your 5770.

lcg · 31 Jan 2010 at 19:04

OLDPHART said:
Hi m8, if its working as you say the only thing to do is try it but remember to use the right 6 pin pci-e that came with the psu. Test your 7900 1st if thats ok, then your 5770.

Thanks. I'll do that. I'll have to do it on Tuesday or so, because I don't have the correct cable with me as my remaining PSU cables are at home. The cables are going to be sent to me tomorrow

weird_dave · 1 Feb 2010 at 09:25

Can you get hold of a multimeter (digital)? It's worth checking that the 12V line isn't dropping too much.

Have you managed to spot any burnt bits? does your mobo have heatsinks on the FETs? If not I would look at those as a possible cause of the burning smell. Since you still had a picture, I suspect the 5770 is fine.

You can test with the 7900 with the dual molex connector fine, since that was what you were using before.

lcg · 1 Feb 2010 at 21:31

weird_dave said:
Can you get hold of a multimeter (digital)? It's worth checking that the 12V line isn't dropping too much.

Have you managed to spot any burnt bits? does your mobo have heatsinks on the FETs? If not I would look at those as a possible cause of the burning smell. Since you still had a picture, I suspect the 5770 is fine.

You can test with the 7900 with the dual molex connector fine, since that was what you were using before.

I've gotten hold of a digital multimeter. What would be the best way of using it to test the voltage, with my current setup? The power supply is connected up using the paper clip. Is it just a matter of putting the ground probe into one of the ground pins on the 24-pin connector, and then putting the red probe into the red and yellow pins on the 24-pin connector? Thank you again in advance.

RJC · 1 Feb 2010 at 21:39

lcg said:
I've gotten hold of a digital multimeter. What would be the best way of using it to test the voltage, with my current setup? The power supply is connected up using the paper clip. Is it just a matter of putting the ground probe into one of the ground pins on the 24-pin connector, and then putting the red probe into the red and yellow pins on the 24-pin connector? Thank you again in advance.

Yes, what you have written above you will be able to test the 12v lines.

lcg · 1 Feb 2010 at 22:39

RJC said:
Yes, what you have written above you will be able to test the 12v lines.

Thanks. I will try to do that - it's going to be hard as I can't stick the probes in. They're a little too big for the connector pins, but they can make contact.

Also, I switched on my power supply twice just now (jumped with the paper clip), and on both occasions it sparked as it switched on. Should that be expected? Apologies again for all the questions.

weird_dave · 2 Feb 2010 at 08:15

Where's it sparking from, and did it startup correctly?
I find it easier to probe the 12V from the back of the connector where the wire goes in, you can usually get the probe to stay in there quite happily.
I would check the 12V when you connect back up to the mobo as well, on the 4 or 8 pin connector preferably.
Any signs of burnt bits yet?

lcg · 2 Feb 2010 at 10:14

weird_dave said:
Where's it sparking from, and did it startup correctly?
I find it easier to probe the 12V from the back of the connector where the wire goes in, you can usually get the probe to stay in there quite happily.
I would check the 12V when you connect back up to the mobo as well, on the 4 or 8 pin connector preferably.
Any signs of burnt bits yet?

It sparked from quite far inside, near the middle of the fan, as soon as it's switched on. It only does it sometimes. It doesn't seem to be much of an issue, as everything starts as normal.

I couldn't quite test the voltages from the 24-pin connector, but what I did instead was test a connected molex connector. I was getting 12.09V from yellow, and exactly 5V from red. So it seems to be okay.

I have looked over the motherboard and all seems okay. I haven't been able to smell or see anything that looks damaged. Although, seeing as the computer was still booting up after the pop sound, I guess the motherboard is okay. I only switched it off (whilst the BIOS screen was still showing) when I smelt a little smoke.

Later on my cables should arrive in the post, so I'm going to do what OLDPHART has said, and put the system back together again, connect the 7900 GS the correct way with the right cable. And see what happens when I boot it up. I'll also do as you've said, and test the 12V when the power supply is connected to the motherboard.

weird_dave · 2 Feb 2010 at 13:42

Without taking it apart and looking at it, hard to say if the sparking is normal or not. Usually I'd say not. Just re-read post 7 by Alexhull24, could be what's going on.

You've changed 2 parts which now draw more power (the CPU and GFX), perhaps the PSU is stuggling a little more, I'd check the 12V at the PCIe power connector and the 4/8 pin motherboard connector (I assume yours has one?).

lcg · 2 Feb 2010 at 21:47

weird_dave said:
Without taking it apart and looking at it, hard to say if the sparking is normal or not. Usually I'd say not. Just re-read post 7 by Alexhull24, could be what's going on.

You've changed 2 parts which now draw more power (the CPU and GFX), perhaps the PSU is stuggling a little more, I'd check the 12V at the PCIe power connector and the 4/8 pin motherboard connector (I assume yours has one?).

Thank you. I've done the necessary tests which were successful and have just put the system back together again, with the 7900 GS. It seems to be working well. When I first booted up, I got an 'Overclocking Failed' message and had to go into the BIOS. I've never overclocked before. I think this was because I switched the computer off whilst it posting last time, so I don't think it should be of much concern, and isn't a power supply related problem. All I did was leave the BIOS settings unchanged and saved the settings - it then successfully booted to Windows 7.

I'm going to add the new RAM, and change the graphics card now. I'll post an update when I've done that and tested the machine.

Vesta_Man · 2 Feb 2010 at 22:27

OLDPHART said:
Hi m8, if its working as you say the only thing to do is try it but remember to use the right 6 pin pci-e that came with the psu. Test your 7900 1st if thats ok, then your 5770.

Or maybe use the power connector/adapter supplied by the PSU manufacture, which according to you doesn't work :rolleyes:

(You had better drop ATi an email and let them know this!)

You used a power lead/adapter designed for an Nvidia Gfx card on a ATi Gfx card, had you used the one supplied with the ATi card you wouldn't of had a problem.

weird_dave · 3 Feb 2010 at 08:02

Vesta_Man said:
You used a power lead/adapter designed for an Nvidia Gfx card on a ATi Gfx card, had you used the one supplied with the ATi card you wouldn't of had a problem.

Where do people get these crazy ideas from? The cable design comes from the PCIe power specification, not ATI or NVIDIA, they use the same design!

lcg · 3 Feb 2010 at 13:56

I installed the 5770 last night, and the new 4GB RAM. Earlier on I installed Catalyst, and the graphics card is working perfectly. Thank you very much everyone for your help

HazardO · 3 Feb 2010 at 14:15

weird_dave said:
Looking at the specs of the corsair, each 12V power rail can supply 18A, so it wouldn't matter that the gfx was powered from the 'wrong' rail.
If any of the cables had been wired wrong, the 12V would've been shorted to 0V causing the PSU to shutdown right away (you'd never get it to boot).

IIRC this is missleading, the HX520 is actually a single 12V rail design.

OLDPHART · 4 Feb 2010 at 11:12

Thats good news m8

.

weird_dave · 4 Feb 2010 at 12:18

HazardO said:
IIRC this is missleading, the HX520 is actually a single 12V rail design.

I couldn't find that piece of info, but it doesn't make the situation any more misleading. My point was that it doesn't matter where the GFX was getting 12V from since the rated outputs on each 'rail' were the same. The fact that there may be just one rail doesn't matter, you can't pull all the current down one set of wires hence the separate rating for each output.

Glad it's all up and running again