Corsair 550w gone pop?

muon · 15 Jul 2008 at 16:06

Well, my psu for the umpteenth time decided to shutdown automatically. Ive put it down to driver issues because it happens while playing GRID and in no other games (I did once create it by putting the PC under high load by overclocking the CPU and graphics card heavily creating a 400w draw at the mains). This time there was a loud pop.

Now the pc wont boot and if coldbooted after completely cutting the power supply to the psu and then starting the pc, the fans spin and leds turn on for a fraction of a second before returning to their dead state. To elimate the graphics card as a problem, I removed it and turned the pc. Instead of hearing lots of bios beep codes its still dead.

Is the problem definitely the PSU? Its a Corsair VX 550W. I believe its a rebadged Channel Wells PSU and is supposed to be very good.

Also, does all the protection features modern PSUs have protect the motherboard and other components from being damaged?

Thanks.

nic08 · 15 Jul 2008 at 16:16

I was troubleshooting my bro's PC and found out that I have the same problem with ghost101, any suggestions? please let us know.. thanks.

Scougar · 15 Jul 2008 at 16:23

You both have same PSU? PSU should be fine with your spec ghost101, esp given it's a single rail unit.

I believe they have a safety circuit in them to prevent problems? At least the HX series do, not sure on the VX

A pop however is not good. Consider contacting Corsair! (The US based ones are frankly exceptional, I hope UK service is just as good).

Matthew

muon · 15 Jul 2008 at 18:17

nic08 said:
I was troubleshooting my bro's PC and found out that I have the same problem with ghost101, any suggestions? please let us know.. thanks.

Hi,

My problem was definitely to do with the PSU. I replaced the PSU with a cheap generic 400w psu and my system came back to life. I put the vx550 in the other system and it mirrored the symptoms. It obviously wasnt good enough to handle higher loads (i.e. faulty), something which it hadnt been put under until recently.

C64 · 15 Jul 2008 at 18:27

They will replace the unit with a brand new one for you without fuss however the postage is hefty because th rma is in the netherlands but I found a cheap place interparcel.com.
UPS £18.80 and dhl £17.60

muon · 15 Jul 2008 at 18:32

C64 said:
They will replace the unit with a brand new one for you without fuss however the postage is hefty because th rma is in the netherlands but I found a cheap place interparcel.com.

Im getting it collected by the retailor since its within the 1 year warranty period where they are obliged to deal with it (at least thats what their return policy states).

Glaucus · 15 Jul 2008 at 18:36

Seen a few threads about Corsairs going pop, is it going to turn into the new hyper..

C64 · 15 Jul 2008 at 18:38

Seems to be linked to 4850 and 4870 too hmmm mine went soon as i got the 4850 interesting
you need to check the psu on another pc to be sure

muon · 15 Jul 2008 at 18:40

AcidHell2 said:
Seen a few threads about Corsairs going pop, is it going to turn into the new hyper..

Hiper had poor specs to begin with though. Corsair always have very strong 12v rails.

for example look at hiper's (in)famous 580w product

http://www.hipergroup.com/products.php?lv=4&cate=1&type=30&pid=10&action=Specification

30A combined output for the 12v rails for a 580w PSU. The corsair vx550 gives 41A and the vx450 gives 33A. Clear difference in quality.

C64 said:
Seems to be linked to 4850 and 4870 too hmmm mine went soon as i got the 4850 interesting

Like I said before. Had it been put under such loads before? I was pulling 400w from the mains at one point in my benchmarking. Something which I hadnt put the corsair through before, so I suspect it simply brought out a pre-existing problem.