PSU Blown Up. Recommend Replacement

airbusA346 · 16 Jul 2017 at 18:12

Hi

Think my PSU has just given up and decided to die while I was watching a video.

Have changed the fuse and tried a different cable, but it doesn't turn on.

It is a SUPER FLOWER LEADEX GOLD 650W FULLY MODULAR "80 PLUS GOLD" POWER SUPPLY brought from OCUK in April 2015.

Please recommend me a replacement modular 650W PSU for not too much money.

Thanks

pastymuncher · 16 Jul 2017 at 18:32

Have you tried the paperclip test to see if it's actually the psu? Disconnect all of the cables and follow the instructions here. If it is indeed the psu that has failed then you are looking at £80-100 for a good quality 550-650w fully modular psu as prices have increased. Can you list all of your components please so that we know what the psu has to power? If it's a single gpu system then a good quality 550w unit shall most likely be more than enough.

airbusA346 · 16 Jul 2017 at 18:53

Nothing happens when doing the paper clip test.

ASUS Sabbertooth 990FX
AMD FX-8120 (not OC'd)
8GB RAM
2GB Palit GTX 760

HoneyBadger · 16 Jul 2017 at 19:28

Did you add like a fan or something as well as the paper clip? Some PSUs will only work if something is drawing current.

What's the warranty on that unit? It must be covered, surely?

airbusA346 · 16 Jul 2017 at 19:46

HoneyBadger said:
Did you add like a fan or something as well as the paper clip? Some PSUs will only work if something is drawing current.

What's the warranty on that unit? It must be covered, surely?

I can't add a fan, because none appear to be powered from the PSU.

What ever the warranty is I need a replacement, so can't wait for it to be repaired/replaced.

EsaT · 16 Jul 2017 at 19:51

If it took out any bigger mains fuse (like 10A) and doesn't start now then it's likely seriously broken from primary side.

Here's few currently in stock 650W modular PSUs
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitf...plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-22b-bx.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-...old-fully-modular-power-supply-ca-027-xf.html

Though 550W PSU would be enough.
(definitely no overload to kill that PSU)

airbusA346 · 16 Jul 2017 at 19:59

EsaT said:
If it took out any bigger mains fuse (like 10A) and doesn't start now then it's likely seriously broken from primary side.

Here's few currently in stock 650W modular PSUs
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitf...plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-22b-bx.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xfx-...old-fully-modular-power-supply-ca-027-xf.html

Though 550W PSU would be enough.
(definitely no overload to kill that PSU)

Thanks.

Strange that it went for no obvious reason after being on for 6 hours today (before it broke).

How does the warranty work? May as well get it repaired as a spare.

EsaT · 16 Jul 2017 at 20:38

Would have to see its insides to say anything.
I guess something like dust in bad place could cause warming up of some component...
Or maybe some weak solder joint broke causing some component to somehow overload and short circuit.

Apparently Super Flower has office in Germany
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/posts/30959061/
Though Super Flower's website sure isn't clear in how to contact them not to mention showing how long warranty is.
Almost looks like they don't want to deal with end users...

Sure makes Seasonic's site look easy to use.
LOL, 10 year warranty for new "mid range" PSU serie...
Looks like Seasonic is throwing some challenge at others.

andy_taximan · 16 Jul 2017 at 21:06

You should sell the leads on MM, i know somebody was looking for them

Doogles · 17 Jul 2017 at 05:32

andy_taximan said:
You should sell the leads on MM, i know somebody was looking for them

Haha I hope you find them buddy!

airbusA346 · 18 Jul 2017 at 19:46

Well, it looks like I've 'wasted' £92.

Put new PSU in, pressed power button, there's a click, CPU fan tries to spin then nothing else happens, press power button again and nothing. Only way to make it click etc again is to switch the main PSU switch off and on. :mad:

EsaT · 18 Jul 2017 at 21:15

airbusA346 said:
Put new PSU in, pressed power button, there's a click, CPU fan tries to spin then nothing else happens, press power button again and nothing. Only way to make it click etc again is to switch the main PSU switch off and on.

That looks lot like something might have shorted and it triggers PSU's protections.

airbusA346 · 18 Jul 2017 at 21:45

There is definitely power to the motherboard now, because the power led is illuminated green on the board. Tbh not sure if it was illuminated before, because I didn't think to look.

EsaT · 19 Jul 2017 at 06:39

That LED tells 5V standby is working...
Or ar at least close enough to 5V to light up that LED and not too much to it into "smoke emitting diode".

You could try narrowing down location of problem by first removing graphics card.
And if no change putting it back and disconnecting CPU's power cable.
While PC won't boot properly it should stay powered on in BIOS/POST phase in both cases.

Though short circuit shouldn't damage correctly working PSU so did you actually measure outputs from that Super Flower?

airbusA346 · 19 Jul 2017 at 08:50

EsaT said:
That LED tells 5V standby is working...
Or ar at least close enough to 5V to light up that LED and not too much to it into "smoke emitting diode".

You could try narrowing down location of problem by first removing graphics card.
And if no change putting it back and disconnecting CPU's power cable.
While PC won't boot properly it should stay powered on in BIOS/POST phase in both cases.

Though short circuit shouldn't damage correctly working PSU so did you actually measure outputs from that Super Flower?

It gets nowhere near BIOS/POST. I turn the power on, press the on button, there's a click, the CPU fan moves a few Millimetres (then returns to original position) and nothing else happens. Pressing the power button again does nothing... No click, or movement. Only way to replicate is the turn mains off and on.

I did the paper clip test and got nothing. I don't have any case fans to test with it because both my fans are powered and run from the motherboard.

airbusA346 · 19 Jul 2017 at 08:56

Also surely if the CPU, memory or graphics cards were broken, the computer would still boot to a point?

EsaT · 19 Jul 2017 at 10:06

airbusA346 said:
I did the paper clip test and got nothing. I don't have any case fans to test with it because both my fans are powered and run from the motherboard.

If there's no output voltages with PS-ON pin (green wire) connected to black that tells there's problem in Super Flower.

Some 15 years ago when manufacturers first started pushing efficiency up there were few PSUs which wouldn't work without load but nowadays every single PSU is capable to working without any load.
In fact most reviewers actually do zero load measurements.

airbusA346 said:
Also surely if the CPU, memory or graphics cards were broken, the computer would still boot to a point?

It wouldn't boot.
But it would stay powered, PSU on and fans/HDDs running.

As random shot you could try switching motherboard's battery.
Though dead CMOS/RTC battery shouldn't be able to cause short circuit like symptoms and definitely no shut down because while PC is powered there's nothing needing that battery power.

airbusA346 · 19 Jul 2017 at 10:12

EsaT said:
If there's no output voltages with PS-ON pin (green wire) connected to black that tells there's problem in Super Flower.

Good job the guide said which pins to use, because there are no coloured wires. All black.

EsaT said:
It wouldn't boot.
But it would stay powered, PSU on and fans/HDDs running.

Yeh I know it wouldn't boot to Windows, but it should in theory get as far as BIOS/POST etc, which is doesn't. No HDD's running etc.

EsaT said:
As random shot you could try switching motherboard's battery.
Though dead CMOS/RTC battery shouldn't be able to cause short circuit like symptoms and definitely no shut down because while PC is powered there's nothing needing that battery power.

Certainly is a long shot. Seen as the computer died mid flow.

EsaT · 19 Jul 2017 at 11:08

With also mains fuse giving up the ghost and current symptoms I would assume situation to be either of these:
Super Flower's protections failed to protect it from short circuit of failing PC component causing its massive failure.
Super Flower had massive failure which also fried some component(s) of PC.

Guess the latter could be caused by heavy power surge from say lightning strike...
But lightning strike would be hard to miss and even if it came from longer distance/other source there likely would be also other broken things besides PC...

airbusA346 said:
Good job the guide said which pins to use, because there are no coloured wires. All black.

You can thank fashion hype Cors'ass for this all black fashion **** PSU cabling.

During years I've multiple times (week ago last time) asked Seasonic about at least making accessory cable set of good old sleeved cables mentioning that problem.
All their current PSUs use same modular cables so maybe they would consider it more if also you told them why black cabling is bad thing:
https://seasonic.com/contact/

Really tells lot about criticality of PSUs "reviewers" that none of them give minus points from cables lacking colour coding.

Danny75 · 19 Jul 2017 at 13:50

My computer wouldn't start up at all (no post, no boot, no lights) with a dead graphics card in it. FWIW.