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?

mrk · 12 Dec 2020 at 20:10

Thanks for the valuable input.

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!

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!