Friday night head scratcher help :(

I've sorted it! God knows what was happening earlier, removed PSU from case, removed memory, boot>error, added memory boot>fine. Put PSU back in case and it worked.

I followed this process:

Basic first, 24 + 8 Pin, single dimm - boots
Add 2nd dimm, boot, 3rd, boot, 4th, boot
Add on-board connectors (audio, FP, USB etc) boot
Plug in Molex & Sata chain, boot, optical, boot, SSD, boot, HDD, boot
Add GPU boot.

Final thing to do...add the pump into the molex chain! - FAULT FOUND!!!

Add the pump, 2 second switch on then off, remove pump, boots perfectly.

Now I need to do some digging and find why the hell my pump is killing the machine, it only runs a +12v and gnd, so the 12v must be leaking to ground somewhere either in the pump or the pump cabling!

Just tested it a good 10 times in a row, power to pump = system dead, no power to pump = running perfectly.
 
Pump runs fine on a spare psu that I use for bleeding. Will test resistance on between the pins tomorrow.
 
Thanks for the suggestion lazder but I've narrowed th problem down to being my waterpump of all things. More detective work tonight t see what's wrong with the pump and hope a fix doesn't involve draining my loop...again.
 
damnit, forgot a multimeter :(

Will have a fiddle tonight, see if there is anything glaringly obvious.

Any theories on why the pump is causing a short welcome. The only things I have thought of so far are:

1. Cable crushed somewhere, or exposed 12v somewhere.
2. Pump has leaked into the motor (unlikely, using non-conductive fluid)
3. The rail the pump is on is just too much for the PSU (again unlikely, iirc I have 40A on each 12v rail).
 
I am doing just now, had some more teething problems earlier without the pump connected to anything, but I've got it up and running now with the pump running from an old PSU. I've also checked the BIOS version, its F8, according to GB I need F9 or above for a 3960X to be stable.

I'm still a little curious if my PSU is on its last legs, may have an ask about on the MM if anyone has a ~650w PSU I can borrow for a few days
 
OK up and running with windows installed, now getting random power cuts on it, think its time to ask about to borrow a PSU.

It's as if someone is ripping the power cable out of the back :/
 
Last edited:
Will try that tomorrow, I had it sat with nothing other than the motherboard connected in the bios for 2 hours without a shut down, just started happening again once I added other things to get windows installed.
 
Also I downclocked the cpu to 1.2ghz last night.

Bad psu almost makes sense now as yesterday I would get split second on/off to start with before it would finally fire up. A psu expert would be welcome right about now :D
 
Unfortunately not, the other supply is a cheap nasty 350w thing that only has 20 & 4 pin atx power connections.

Just had a chat with our seniors electrician, he thinks it does sound like a faulty capacitor that's struggling to hold power, with it being completely drained when left and then shutting down at random times. Though he said the only real way to tel is a visual on the caps, which I can't do due to warranty.

Currently trying to source a psu to test with, something in the 600w region should be enough to get the basics running. This has to be the most frustrating fault I've ever had.
 
Set off now, you might make it by 2013 :o

If I can't source a unit by the end of today I'm going to grab a cs 600 for testing.

I would just take the whole thing to a local shop but my 800d fully loaded weighs over 40kg and I don't drive.
 
It is under warranty still, it's around 3 years old. I just don't want to have to wait through an rma to find out its something else.

Have some good and bad news, bad news is I couldn't get a loan on a psu, the good I have tomorrow off work and a shop in town said they will test the psu, motherboard and cpu for me!
 
That as well, if I sent it to corsair and no fault was found I'd be looking in the region of £50-70 wasted.

I really hope tomorrow the psu fails so I at least know where I stand.

Found a thread on avf from a few years ago, same symptoms as me, turned out it was the psu.
 
Cheers, also have my eye on a BeQuiet! Dark Pro 1000W too :D

This is almost good news, I just got home, hit the power button, power for split second then off, sounds like a capacitor or something in the PSU isn't holding power.

It the first time in the last few days I've actually hit the power button and cracked a little smile!
 
Yep, hopefully tomorrow I'll get it confirmed that the PSU is on its last legs so I can sort out a replacement and get the ball rolling for RMA.

The irony is, in the last few weeks I'd been thinking to my self "Might be a good idea to buy some low end spares for testing if something dies, like a cheap GPU, PSU and memory" :p
 
gbgt2 said:
This does not help you at all but I rebuilt my PC at the weekend - I turn on the PSU and the board lights up fine, then I press the power button on the front of the case and absolutely nothing happens .. panic time! It turned out I had managed to plug the CPU power cable in upside down on the motherboard end .. I thought it was a bit difficult to plug in :D
Click to expand...

Had a similar situation last year, moved into a new case, hit the power - nothing, promptly stressed out for an hour before realising it helps to plug the EPS cable in :p

doyll said:
Being able to smile after what the gremlins have put you through is a good sign indeed.
Click to expand...

Space Monkey said:
I swear the PC gremlins are in league with the sock monsters! True story :p:D

Glad it's coming alone PGI :)
Click to expand...

Yep, its all starting to come together now, not enough juice to power up until i've cycled it 10-15 times then once its up randomly dropping out. Makes a little more sense now the red mist has cleared. Prior to this I'd only ever associated a PSU failure with being 100% dead, as in jump it and nothing happens.
 
I'll try have a better look with a torch when I take it out later tonight, iirc looking through the fan doesn't show much due to the make up of the unit and of course some dust thats in it.

The more I read about the symptoms of a bad PSU cap the more I can relate.

The guy at the local store says he will test the unit and should only take a few mins, any ideas as to what exactly he will do? i.e. just plug it into another machine or use some sort of load bank?
 
Plus I already told him I've shorted it out and it fires up, if they don't have a load tester hopefully they have a semi-powerful machine floating about they can hook it up to.

I would normally open it up to have a look my self but not keen on voiding £190 worth of warranty.
 
Already planned ;)

Though I'm not sure how much weight a statement from an independent store will carry with Corsair. Saying that Corsair RMA is usually a great experience.

Going to take the PSU out just shortly, will try snap some pics of the insides.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom