Do I need a new power supply?

toon_mad

toon_mad

toon_mad

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It's actually my brothers PC, for the last couple of weeks he told me when turning on the PC from the wall the socket would spark occasionally. He has a surge protector extension but turns it off by the mains at the wall after use and turns it back on by the mains when he wants it on again.

Today however it made a loudish pop sound so I told him to replace his surge protector for a new one just in case it was that. At first this seemed to work, however when turning the power on it sometimes makes a spark from the back near the PSU, other times sparks at the wall, at one point it actually tripped the upstairs of the electrics.

I am leaning towards a problem with the PSU, it is a EVGA Supernova 1000W Gold which was bought new from Overclockers around June last year.

Hopefully the surge protector has served its purpose and saved the hardware from damage.

I dont have a spare to test and not sure if this would still be covered by warranty.

Does anyone have any ideas, do you think this is likely a PSU problem?

Cheers
 
Its normally arcing from a loose fitting power cable making that noise, if ya have a spare kettle lead try it other wise i would send it back if its still doing it.
 
stulid said:
What sort of system is it running?

10yr warranty on those PSUs.
Click to expand...

Mostly the system consists of:

i7-4790K
GTX 1080
MSI Gaming Z97
16GB Avexir DDR3
256GB SSD
3TB Western Digital

BluD said:
Its normally arcing from a loose fitting power cable making that noise, if ya have a spare kettle lead try it other wise i would send it back if its still doing it.
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Have also tried a new kettle plug with no joy.

Have just ordered a new PSU from Overclockers, gonna take mine out and let him try/have mine see if that works. Wont get round to doing that later tonight but I will let you guys know how I get on with it cheers.
 
I guess if ya didnt want to be without either of your PCs for a while thats the only way to do it, still you can always sell on the replacement/fixed PSU if it is faulty and you have to send it back.
 
I ordered a PSU anyway because my Corsair 850W Gold is likely running my system but only just, so I ordered one with more headroom - I just wanted to hold on longer before I got a new one but today was kind of a impulse decision.

Anyway so far it doesn't seem to be the EVGA power supply, it is either the socket on the wall which was causing the sparks or it came down to a faulty surge protector. Today we bought a new surge protector which worked at first but then stopped working at all. So I brought my surge protector over and so far mine seems to be working fine, computer booted up no problems so far, no sparks or anything.

My thoughts are either the wall mains socket is faulty and possibly fried two surge protectors, or the original surge protector just failed and the new one could possibly be faulty. Both his hold and new surge protector don't power any electrical device anymore, however when he tried my surge protector so far so good there doesn't seem to be any issue.

At this point it is likely not a power supply issue after all, but either a faulty mains socket / surge protectors.

If all is good, his PSU is alive and kicking and I get a new one :D
 
cool, might be worth hooking the PC up to a different socket until you can get that one looked at. Have ya got any family or friends who are electritians? It might just be something simple like a loose terminal screw inside the socket front.
 
BluD said:
cool, might be worth hooking the PC up to a different socket until you can get that one looked at. Have ya got any family or friends who are electritians? It might just be something simple like a loose terminal screw inside the socket front.
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Yeah it just happened again, turned pc off let it sit for a bit, turned it back on in the hope it was resolved but it sparked at the wall again so yup looking like a faulty socket.

Might get him to test in other sockets tomorrow. Top of my head I am unsure about an electrician but will ask around, I think you could be right and its likely something wrong with the socket - I am too chicken to open it up myself so better get someone else look at it :p

Cheers all, will keep you updated :)
 
toon_mad said:
I ordered a PSU anyway because my Corsair 850W Gold is likely running my system but only just, so I ordered one with more headroom - I just wanted to hold on longer before I got a new one but today was kind of a impulse decision.
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First, a connection that is sparking is 100% defective. A concept that so many do not get. Something can be completely defective and still provide power. That connection is completely defective - must be replaced. No PSU or surge protector claims to or does anything for a solution.

Second, at 850 watts, then your computer is so hot as to also toast bread. You have power supply that massive due to a concept called brainwashing. Some are just old what to think. That somehow becomes a truth. Again, if you are consumer anywhere near that power, then your computer is also a bread toaster.

Your computer is probably consuming something over 100 watts most of the time. It unusually power hungry, it might demand 350 watts for short periods.

So why tell computer assemblers to buy a 600 watt supply? We do not want help lines clogged teaching electricity to people who should have learned layman simple stuff in high school. So we say a 300 watt computer needs a 600 watt supply.

Third, if any doubt exists, then get a Kil-A-Watt. Learn what exists before making any conclusion. Only useful answers are always based in perspective - that means numbers.

Is sparking creating over 1000 volts on a 230 volt circuit. Of course not. So every protector ignores what is only a less than 230 volts - due to that sparking.
 
westom said:
First, a connection that is sparking is 100% defective. A concept that so many do not get. Something can be completely defective and still provide power. That connection is completely defective - must be replaced. No PSU or surge protector claims to or does anything for a solution.

Second, at 850 watts, then your computer is so hot as to also toast bread. You have power supply that massive due to a concept called brainwashing. Some are just old what to think. That somehow becomes a truth. Again, if you are consumer anywhere near that power, then your computer is also a bread toaster.

Your computer is probably consuming something over 100 watts most of the time. It unusually power hungry, it might demand 350 watts for short periods.

So why tell computer assemblers to buy a 600 watt supply? We do not want help lines clogged teaching electricity to people who should have learned layman simple stuff in high school. So we say a 300 watt computer needs a 600 watt supply.

Third, if any doubt exists, then get a Kil-A-Watt. Learn what exists before making any conclusion. Only useful answers are always based in perspective - that means numbers.

Is sparking creating over 1000 volts on a 230 volt circuit. Of course not. So every protector ignores what is only a less than 230 volts - due to that sparking.
Click to expand...

Can we have that repeated in non gibberish ?
 
Electrician came out this morning, fitted a new cover as the old one was a little warn but he said it was likely caused by some of the internal wires which had been squashed together and one of them had moved a little and was catching the back metal plate.

Anyway all is working grand now, just a faulty socket and nothing more :)

Cheers all
 
Doogles said:
My G2 1000w died, RMA'ed now, but there was a recall on these units. Dump the serial number into it to find out if it is affected. Like you said could be the socket.

http://www.evga.com/articles/00803/
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I ordered that exact PSU EVGA 1000w G2 gold, tested the serial came up green and ok.

Sorry got mixed up, tested it on my brothers EVGA 1000w G and all green on his too just to completely rule that out, but as I said in my last post now it was indeed the socket so all is good :)
 
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