Dying PSU?

Andromeda1983

Andromeda1983

Andromeda1983

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Joined
21 Oct 2004
Posts
2,229
Location
Wales
PSU: 750W Seasonic Prime 80 Plus Titanium

I had a problem with an surge protected extension cable about 2 weeks ago, the plug flashed and made a noise and since then I am getting random reboots. I have of course replaced the extension cable with a new surge protected one so thats been removed from the problems but I am experiencing the following symtoms

  • Random reboots during games or stress tests ( temps confirmed to be fine during stress tests )
  • Occasionally it will shut down and only a full plug removal and wait of about 15 seconds before plugging it back in will bring the PC back on again.

Now I have tested my CPU/GPU/Ram in other systems and they all work perfectly as does my relatively new M.2 drive. So I would be right in saying that the surge could have damaged my PSU by the looks of it, what do you guys think?

The only other thing I can think of is that there's a bad earth in the socket the surge protected cable was plugged into and the PSU is kicking in its protection circuits and shutting down
 
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If there was indeed clear flash and noise during PC use that's sign of some serious power surge.
Enough to possibly blow surge protection components in that surge protector. (what model?)
And there's no guarantee that enough of it didn't come through to damage PSU.
 
Andromeda1983 said:
the flash happened as I put the cable in the wall socket )
Click to expand...
Then it was inrush current of PSU's primary capacitors charging.
That can happen with lots of appliances without own power switch cutting voltage to power supply.

Precise contact making moment likely deciding how much of spark there's:
If connection happens when mains waveform is near 0V, then current starts more slowly and there's not much of arcing/spark.
But if electrical contact is made during high voltage, instant current is going to be high resulting bigger spark.

Prime Titanium's bigger capacitors for longer hold up time also makes inrush current higher than average for PSU.

There's NTC resistor in PSUs to control/limit inrush current and its short circuit failure would certainly increase sparking, but that couldn't cause problems during use:
High efficiency PSUs have relay, which bypasses that resistor the moment PC is powered on.

PSU staying on is also controlled by motherboard, so we can't yet exclude that.
Best would be trying PC with other PSU to bracket down location of problem.
 
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