I think I recently binned a completely good Leadex 850W PSU :(

mrk · 12 Dec 2020 at 19:53

Not long ago I posted about PSU crackling noises and logical assumption since the PSU is from 2014 was that it's on its way out. I had originally changed the kettle lead as well as I had a spare so didn't think it was that.... I bought a new PSU from OcUK and binned the SuperFlower. It was a nice PSU for sure.

Now roll on a few weeks later to the present and the crackling is happening with the new PSU, a Phanteks AMP 650. The exact same type of crackling, at random times day or night, short or long intervals. I Googled and came across some videos and stuff pointing to the cable again, that some kettle leads don't make proper contact with the pins in the PSU socket so spark randomly.

I removed the lead and plugged in a brand new never used before one this morning after hearing the same crackling again and since then there have been none at all.

I should add that the cable I removed this morning had no black spots inside either of the 3 pin holes, appear to be all nice clean gold contacts so can only imagine the lead plug itself just wasn't sitting in the PSU properly snug and maybe the in contacts were not making a connection fully whereas with the new cable they are?

Lmg80 · 12 Dec 2020 at 20:05

mrk · 12 Dec 2020 at 20:10

Thanks for the valuable input.

Grimley · 12 Dec 2020 at 20:28

That's a pity but that can happen to even the most experienced PC builders. I've been building PC's since 2003 & I'm still learning, as there are others on here that know far more than I do about PC's.
I can imagine how cross you are now looking back, I destroyed a perfectly good motherboard thinking it was faulty a few years back & when I sold the GFX card it was connected to on the auction site it was that which was faulty. Needless to say I wasn't happy what I'd done so I've been there too. I'd put this down as lesson learned & move on, that's how you learn about PC fault finding.

mrk · 12 Dec 2020 at 20:31

Aye it's a shame, I have built so many PCs and hell my job for 10 years was IT and building/fixing systems lol. Replacing PSUs is one of the rare things to do though because typically they are bullet proof and outlast the rest of the system almost all the time. I'd never heard of the kettle lead plug itself causing sparking until now so had no cause to think anything but the PSU at fault!

At least if anything this has given me a bit of extra peace of mind as the new PSU has 10 years warranty whilst the old one only had 5 and was a year expired

As you say though, new lessons learned in even experienced disciplines!

Dg834man · 13 Dec 2020 at 03:25

hear this in offices all the time they use the same leads on monitors, cable usually barely making contact crackling goes away once its pushed home

Rroff · 13 Dec 2020 at 04:07

This is why I rarely bin PC components, even problematic ones, unless they are obviously completely dead - until they are obsolete they go in my spare parts - even if it is only so I can salvage a fan from them down the line, etc.

pp111 · 13 Dec 2020 at 11:40

It happens. I recently bought a monitor and some strange stuff happened. I tried my old monitors and they were fine so I sent the new monitor back. Eventually found out that in the issue was a Windows one. For some reason when I plugged in a new monitor it reset the settings of my primary monitor, but strangely it didn't do that when I plugged in a monitor I had already used with that pc. I mean everything pointed to it being the new monitor, but alas things are not all that they seem.

mrk · 13 Dec 2020 at 13:13

Interesting to hear these! STrangely enough I was close to returning a potentially faulty mobo/cpu this week as bought the core parts for another system for my cousin which he wanted to build so I helped out with that. Everything put together nicely by him first and I then joined the party later.

Boots up but 5 short beeps which indicates a CPU error. Checked CPU, cooler, socket... all perfect. Checked 12v connectors, also fine.

Spend an evening pondering.. Dismantle everything and start from scratch. Turns out he had unknowingly put some of the front panel connector pins the wrong way round and that caused the beeping - Who would have thought the fp connectors would trigger a CPU error BIOS beep code!

But yeah I can see how these things happen, annoying as they may be!