Unusual PSU issue - ideas?

sammyboi

sammyboi

sammyboi

Associate
Joined
30 Mar 2003
Posts
43
Hi everyone,

I have a Zalman600-HP powering my current system, which bought from OC in May 09. About 6 months ago my system began behaving strangely - every now and then it wouldn't boot up. The case fans etc would spin up, the motherboard lights would come on, but nothing came through my display and as far as I could tell the system didn't reach BIOS. On listening closer, I also noticed that the fans on my GTX260 didn't spin up either.

I'd have to power off then on again a few times before I'd get a 'good one' and my system powered up and ran as normal. No error messages, no difference in performance or anything.

This behaviour got more and more common, until now it's maybe 80% of the time when the system wont boot. I swapped in a cheap wee PSU to test it, and sure enough the system ran smoothly 100% of the time. I RMA'd the Zalman to Overclockers under warranty who tested it, said it was fine, and sent it back with the bill for testing. That was in January this year. I've been running on a back-up PSU since, but it's just not cutting it. So this week I swapped the Zalman back in, and sure enough the same behaviour has started. Took me 20 goes to get the system to boot today.

Can anyone think of why this might be happening? I don't want to RMA the Zalman again just to be charged the technicians fee and have it sent right back. Could there be some reason, some BIOS setting or something, that's causing this? My own theory is that a surge of power is needed at post to power up the GTX260, and maybe the Zalman isn't delivering it, but afterwards the rails are all fine. But then why does the cheap-ass 500w non-brand PSU I swapped in have no difficulties with this? Is it possible then when testing my Zalman the technician only tested the stability of the rails (which would be fine) and missed something that happens right at boot?

Many thanks in advance for any theories, no matter how wild!

My spec:

Intel Core 2 6600
Asus P5B Deluxe
Corsair 2GB 6400 dual channel DDR2
Sparkle Geforce GTX260
Soundblaster Audigy LS
Zalman600-HP
Stock coolers, nothing fancy or unusual
No overclock
Windows XP sp3
 
There have been some cases of motherboard/PSU incompatibility, but these are quite rare, especially on a fairly decent PSU and motherboard. I'd search the net for any similar issues with your PSU (if you haven't already) and see what you can find.

Failing that, it sounds like the testing method that OcUK used to find your fault may have been flawed. I would be frustrated somewhat if they had charged me when I know there was a fault, but it is the reason for the fault that is in question now I suppose. Is the PSU still under warranty? You may be able to contact Zalman and ask if there is a compatibility issue or similar, and if they state no, they may ask you to RMA the PSU with them for a replacement. That would be a sensible course of action at this point I feel, providing there's warranty remaining.
 
alexhull24 said:
There have been some cases of motherboard/PSU incompatibility, but these are quite rare, especially on a fairly decent PSU and motherboard. I'd search the net for any similar issues with your PSU (if you haven't already) and see what you can find.

Failing that, it sounds like the testing method that OcUK used to find your fault may have been flawed. I would be frustrated somewhat if they had charged me when I know there was a fault, but it is the reason for the fault that is in question now I suppose. Is the PSU still under warranty? You may be able to contact Zalman and ask if there is a compatibility issue or similar, and if they state no, they may ask you to RMA the PSU with them for a replacement. That would be a sensible course of action at this point I feel, providing there's warranty remaining.
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Thanks for the reply- yes it should still be under warranty, I think it's a 3 year one.

I have briefly googled the PSU and found largely horror stories of trying to get an RMA out of Zalman, which doesn't fill me with confidence. Nothing about my particular problem, at least not yet...
 
Best bet would be to get in touch with their support and give them the information you've put in the first post here. Based on that, they may approve an RMA immediately.

Out of curiosity, and to perhaps help narrow down the issue, do you have another PC you could attempt to power with the PSU, or perhaps a mate with one who doesn't mind you testing it out?
 
alexhull24 said:
Best bet would be to get in touch with their support and give them the information you've put in the first post here. Based on that, they may approve an RMA immediately.

Out of curiosity, and to perhaps help narrow down the issue, do you have another PC you could attempt to power with the PSU, or perhaps a mate with one who doesn't mind you testing it out?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately no - I have a spare PSU I can swap in to my system, but I don't have access to another system to test the Zalman.

I'll get the ball rolling with Zalman, see what they see. Thanks!
 
Keep us updated, there's always people here or on the net who'll find this thread if they have to apply for a Zalman RMA, it's nice to see how other people have fared first. Best of luck.
 
A similar problem recently started occuring on one of my builds when it was fine before... It only boots on the second attempt (never the first).

In my case I believe it's because I've added so many hard drives that they don't all get a chance to spin up before the BIOS is looking for them... but if i hit reset they're already pre-powered... hence the working second time.

Although I consider this to be a bit crazy because the system has a 650W PSU, and all the components (apart from the four 2TB HDDs) are low power ones, so there should be plenty of juice to spare... but never mind. I'll just wait until they release 3TB+ individual drives, and see what happens then. :)
 
@ Stickman - This issue seems to have appeared more and more recently. A lot of hard drives can be fairly slow to spin up from cold for one reason or another. A good BIOS should have an option similar to 'HDD boot delay' to allow you to specify the number of seconds to wait before assuming that hard drives are not connected. That could solve your problem.
 
I've sent a message to OC tech support to ask their opinion.

I know that if the unit is indeed faulty then I'm entitled to a refund (I'm a commercial lawyer by trade) which I think at this point I'd spend on a Corsair, but I have no idea if they'll be able to get a straight answer from Zalman on which serial numbers are faulty. We shall see!
 
I'd expect the OcUK support people to refer you to Zalman at this point in time.

Your money is safe with a Corsair, they've built some brilliant PSUs in the last few years, and the support is good. The only downside to Corsair is if you need to RMA. They don't have a UK base, so it has to go to the Netherlands, which costs a good £20 postage. Something to bear in mind. No disrespect to OcUK, but there are online retailers who'll offer to replace Corsair PSUs for their full warranty duration, may be worth checking that out if the postage charge is offputting to you.
 
alexhull24 said:
I'd expect the OcUK support people to refer you to Zalman at this point in time.

Your money is safe with a Corsair, they've built some brilliant PSUs in the last few years, and the support is good. The only downside to Corsair is if you need to RMA. They don't have a UK base, so it has to go to the Netherlands, which costs a good £20 postage. Something to bear in mind. No disrespect to OcUK, but there are online retailers who'll offer to replace Corsair PSUs for their full warranty duration, may be worth checking that out if the postage charge is offputting to you.
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Zalman's RMA base is in Korea, which would be even worse. However, if the unit is faulty from the outset (i.e. 'not fit for purpose', as I now believe it was), then by law I don't have to deal with the manufacturer at all. The vendor is liable under the Sale of Goods Act.

I'll wait and see what happens. I did use a Corsair prior to the Zalman, and I think I'll be switching back after this experience.

I've disabled some of the on-board power saving features of the motherboard for now, as I've read on the Zalman boards that some people have found this helps a bit. The system did start first time after that, but I'll have to wait and see if it was a fluke. It's a stop-gap measure at best though, even if it works...
 
Going by the info in that link it's a known problem on certain P55 and X58 boards and not previous chipsets. Gigabyte would seem to have fixed it with a bios update so it would seem that Asus need to get their act together and do one for their boards.

I have to say that i have not had a single problem with mine and it's powered Gigabyte P35 and P43 boards, Asus X38 and P45 boards as well as a DFI X48 board.
 
alexhull24 said:
@ Stickman - This issue seems to have appeared more and more recently. A lot of hard drives can be fairly slow to spin up from cold for one reason or another. A good BIOS should have an option similar to 'HDD boot delay' to allow you to specify the number of seconds to wait before assuming that hard drives are not connected. That could solve your problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks man, I'll have a look in the BIOS. ;)
 
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