Prebuilt containing P850GM PSU

[Aceof]

Hey, I'm posting this on behalf of my sister who recently bought a prebuilt system from Overclockers.

Due to work, covid and the distance we live apart I couldn't build it for her in the time frame she wanted it, but I did look at what she what she'd selected prior to purchasing and gave it the green light. However, on the spec sheet regarding the PSU only detailed, "Power Supply: 850W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply". I figured it'd be fine, but a few days ago I asked her to email me the spec sheet, mainly because i'd been following the palaver regarding the Gigabyte PSUs and low and behold there's the 850W one in her new prebuilt.

I briefly explained the situation regarding that particular model and told her to email Overclockers technical support asking their advice. The response she got was;

"Not at all, there is no know issue or recall on this item. The system is covered by the 3 year warranty for your peace of mind."

I know the failure rate was something like half and that Gigabyte said they'd be fine in real world usage, but it's still a bit concerning for her. I'm not really sure where to go from here due to my limitation currently been able to get to her.

 

[Dalandius]

They have issued a recall for some of them from (https://www.vortez.net/news_story/g..._recall_for_gp_p850gm_and_gp_p750gm_psus.html)

Recall
Despite the fact that both before and after OPP adjustment versions are reliable for real-world usage, we still offer owners of the GP-P850GM or GP-P750GM products included in the serial number range listed in Appendix 1 can apply for the GP-P850GM and GP-P750GM return and exchange service. However, terms and conditions for the GP-P850GM and GP-P750GM return and exchange service may differ by region. To obtain the full terms and conditions for your region please contact the local Gigabyte Service Center.

Appendix 1 - Serial Number below can apply for Return and Exchange service
Model: GIGABYTE GP-P850GM
S/N From SN20343G031011 to SN20513G022635

Model: GIGABYTE GP-P750GM
S/N From SN20243G001301 to SN20453G025430

If it is in that range I would get her to contact them again.

 

[andy_mk3]

I'd return the system if Overclockers aren't going to be helpful over the matter.

 

[KompuKare]

Not really specific to this thread, but I had wondered what was going to happen to all those Gigabyte power supplies and pre-builts is the obvious answer. Not saying those is the case here or yet, but I could imagine Gigabyte doing very cheap deals to try to shift them to pre-builder ASAP.

 

[Aceof]

I got her to take a picture of the S/N and it does indeed fall between the 20343 and 20513 range.

 

[lee32uk]

Hey, I'm posting this on behalf of my sister who recently bought a prebuilt system from Overclockers.

Due to work, covid and the distance we live apart I couldn't build it for her in the time frame she wanted it, but I did look at what she what she'd selected prior to purchasing and gave it the green light. However, on the spec sheet regarding the PSU only detailed, "Power Supply: 850W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply". I figured it'd be fine, but a few days ago I asked her to email me the spec sheet, mainly because i'd been following the palaver regarding the Gigabyte PSUs and low and behold there's the 850W one in her new prebuilt.

I briefly explained the situation regarding that particular model and told her to email Overclockers technical support asking their advice. The response she got was;

"Not at all, there is no know issue or recall on this item. The system is covered by the 3 year warranty for your peace of mind."

I know the failure rate was something like half and that Gigabyte said they'd be fine in real world usage, but it's still a bit concerning for her. I'm not really sure where to go from here due to my limitation currently been able to get to her.

That is a bit of a lame response from Overclockers. I am sure they are fully aware of the issues with that unit. I would be asking for a replacement (Non Gigabyte) psu. Something like a Corsair RM/RMx, NZXT C, MSI MPG A-GF or Phanteks AMP etc.

Might be a good idea to post a new thread in the customer services section below, and post a link to the issue. The one below has the Gamers Nexus video in it.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/17/...ies-psus-gp-p850gm-gp-p750gm-exchange-returns


Bundles and system support section:

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/community/bundles-and-systems-support.129/

 

[Haz123]

Use your legal rights. You have 14 days to return that system under the DSR regulations, I strongly suggest you return it asap. No way you should risk using that psu over an extended period of time.

It is not just bad, it is catastrophicly terrible. That failure rate is bad for a whoopee cushion let alone a mission critical part of a PC. If it is one of the bad batch then return the entire PC under DSR.

 

[ScottiB]

All I can say for sure is that we've had our stock for well over six months, between ourselves and Caseking we've used over a thousand PSUs from that stock and the failure rate is tiny. Less than 1% (really good for a PSU). Obviously this is a far cry from the scare stories coming out about the current batch and, to be frank, the current issues are most probably due to shortage driven component substitutions rather than an inherent issue with the design.

All of our stock is from the same batch so the chances of it suddenly developing an issue when the rest are fine are infinitesimal.

In short, don't worry about it. We aren't. If there was a problem with our stock we would have discovered it months ago.

 

[ScottiB]

That is a bit of a lame response from Overclockers. I am sure they are fully aware of the issues with that unit.

Why would the CS guys necessarily be aware of an issue with a PSU which we don't sell online? especially since it seems like almost every dodgy PSU ended up in the USA?

We don't sell Gigabyte PSUs as a matter of course because their pricing in the UK can be poor in comparison to their competition. As such, our guys aren't going to come across this issue in their day to day job.

The reason that we have this stock is because, when PSU supply was short Caseking managed to secure a container load from Gigabyte direct at a decent price for exclusive use in system builds. We've been using these now since early February, pretty much all with 3080/3090/6800/6900 level graphics. We have had only three systems, in all of that time, in which we swapped the PSU & that's not a guarantee that the PSU itself was to blame, we often switch out multiple parts when diagnosing a system.

This model of PSU has been in production for a few years and these issues only started to occur in recent weeks. We're not talking about an inherent issue, we're talking about a specific batch problem and our stock is a lot older than the recall batch in question.

 

[lee32uk]

Why would the CS guys necessarily be aware of an issue with a PSU which we don't sell online? especially since it seems like almost every dodgy PSU ended up in the USA?

We don't sell Gigabyte PSUs as a matter of course because their pricing in the UK can be poor in comparison to their competition. As such, our guys aren't going to come across this issue in their day to day job.

The reason that we have this stock is because, when PSU supply was short Caseking managed to secure a container load from Gigabyte direct at a decent price for exclusive use in system builds. We've been using these now since early February, pretty much all with 3080/3090/6800/6900 level graphics. We have had only three systems, in all of that time, in which we swapped the PSU & that's not a guarantee that the PSU itself was to blame, we often switch out multiple parts when diagnosing a system.

This model of PSU has been in production for a few years and these issues only started to occur in recent weeks. We're not talking about an inherent issue, we're talking about a specific batch problem and our stock is a lot older than the recall batch in question.

You work in the tech industry, so you should be aware of an issue that has been relevant since about March when Gamers Nexus highlighted it.

Whether the issue is with a specific batch remains to be seen. Unless they changed the spec or had faulty components then I can't see why they would suddenly fail so catastrophically.

As for your stock being older, the op has stated that the psu serial number does fall between the ones listed by Gigabyte.

All I am saying is I would have expected a better response from OCUK.

 

[ScottiB]

You work in the tech industry, so you should be aware of an issue that has been relevant since about March when Gamers Nexus highlighted it.

Realistically, we can't jump at every issue that pops up in the industry, there's a new one every week it seems and when a manufacturer has an issue which they think we need to be aware of, they usually inform us.

As far as the OPs specific issue, it's one thing to contact our CS guys and, as he claims to have done, ask 'if they were aware of an issue with a certain product' (which as I've explained, we aren't experiencing). It's very much another thing to contact us and say 'i've got this part, serial number, and it's included in a recall notice'. If you knew how many times a day we get questions from end users about a problem that they read about you would understand (you know what the internet is like)

I wouldn't expect every member of our CS team to read every news story that's floating around, especially from a US focused outlet. They don't have that much time on their hands during the working day and we don't issue them with homework

We jump when WE find an issue and trust me, if we had come across an issue with this PSU my tech manager would be the first to moan at me. I asked him when I first saw tech Jesus' rant earlier this month and got the all clear. In contrast, we had an issue with a different PSU earlier in the year and he was in my ear within a week of the first failure.

Every system undergoes and extensive torture test before it leaves us, if the PSU has a weakness it should show up, especially with the current generation of power spiking GPUs.

I've spoken to Gigabyte already and they've said that only US units appear affected. So much so that they wonder if the 110V supply could be the trigger factor, it wouldn't be the first time that a PSU bug has only impacted the US but it's still being investigated and I hope to hear more early next week, so I'm jumping to a conclusion again. As I did earlier and I apologise, I was mistaken about the manufacturing dates on the batch in question, since the first I heard of the issue was in the last few weeks I assumed that the stock would have been much more recent, but I've just had confirmation that the affected units were actually manufactured last year.

If the OP has a crippling concern about the PSU then they should contact the system support team, as outlined in their welcome package with specific details of the recall notice. Their manager is aware of this issue, although, as I said already, he's also aware that we are not experiencing it ourselves.

 

[lee32uk]

Thanks for the detailed reply Scotti I guess that would explain why it is only USA units affected. Hopefully the op feels more reassured.

 

[EsaT]

I've spoken to Gigabyte already and they've said that only US units appear affected. So much so that they wonder if the 110V supply could be the trigger factor, it wouldn't be the first time that a PSU bug has only impacted the US but it's still being investigated and I hope to hear more early next week, so I'm jumping to a conclusion again.

Low US/NA mains voltage puts more stress on primary side needing to draw over twice the current from mains.
That blows up active PFC sized just enough for current drawn from European (or Chinese) mains voltage.

But Gigabyte certainly lacked proper QC in this.
With Taiwan being one of the low voltage countries should have been easy to test this.
Of course cheap "China Export" manufacturer changing parts in later production runs without telling anyone, or claiming it performs the same and there's no need for re-testing isn't new.

That isn't even exclusive to China problem and has happened somewhere you would think strictest level testing would be automatic:
Dozen years ago AMRAAM's rocket motor manufacturer changed propellant formula without testing it works reliably in high altitude flight temperatures.
When that problem was exposed in USAF's testing, it resulted over two year stop in missile deliveries threatening whole AMRAAM program.

So Gigabyte should definitely do complete testing for some PSUs from every production batch.