PSU Cap Discharge / Motherboard + Graphics LEDs Blinking

iostr33m · 2 Jun 2020 at 22:52

Hi,

I've recently upgraded my PC, installing a new Super Flower SF-850F14HG PSU (from another site but looks like it was fulfilled by Overclockers - interesting btw!); as well as a Gigabyte RTX 2070 Super Gaming OC Graphics Card.

I have a MSI x470 Gaming Plus mainboard / Ryzen 2700X.

Issue is this: with the new PSU installed and when computer is shut down, two LEDs - one above each of the 8/6-pin power ports on the graphics card blink continuously (abnormal power supply?) and the mainboard also has some LEDs lit. When the machine is powered up, the graphic card LEDs switch off.

Do I need to be concerned about this? Is my new PSU in some way faulty?

Mr Mcgoo · 3 Jun 2020 at 01:13

does you pc power up and work without issue if so it's fine. the other thing is it could be the psu surging to drain the caps. my corsair gs800 did that. all led's flashed for a few seconds until psu caps was fully drained of power/volts.

iostr33m · 3 Jun 2020 at 08:19

Yes, wakes up just fine. It definitely looks like capacitor discharge since if I switch off the wall outlet or disconnect power lead, the blinking still persists. At the time of writing it has been ongoing for about 15 minutes. There simply doesn't appear to be enough load.

Update: This has now been going for 2.5 hours.

Mr Mcgoo · 3 Jun 2020 at 11:56

ok unplug the plug from the wall so absolutely no power can be pulled and see how long it takes to stop the blinking

iostr33m · 3 Jun 2020 at 13:53

So earlier I had the power plug in the wall but the socket switch off, PSU switch on. It continued for 4 hours before I decided to disconnect the leads from the power supply (it is modular) side.

I don't think this is normal and makes me really uneasy when swapping out components. Pressing the power button (whilst switched out at the wall) doesn't cause any movement in fans or anything so cant discharge it that way either.

I think I'm going to have to return this back to the well-known bricks and mortar store as faulty.

Mr Mcgoo · 3 Jun 2020 at 17:37

you need to unplug from the wall as power (very small) will still be put into the psu even in the off switch state. then you can see if the flashing continues.

Tetras · 3 Jun 2020 at 22:03

If you're swapping stuff out I always use the PSU switch rather than the plug, they're rarely that reliable (plug switches I mean). If everything works alright this really wouldn't bother me. By the way, you're sure you're actually turning off and not just putting the PC into sleep mode?

LuckyBenski · 3 Jun 2020 at 23:55

Mr Mcgoo said:
you need to unplug from the wall as power (very small) will still be put into the psu even in the off switch state. then you can see if the flashing continues.

This simply isn't true. The switch on the back of the PSU is a physical disconnect of live and neutral wires. Switching off at the wall disconnects the live which on a properly wired house will also remove all power.

The fact is, the large capacitors in a PSU can store charge for up to 24 hours. They should have a mechanism to drain the charge down (bleed resistor), but convention is to leave capacitors overnight after disconnecting from the mains.

I wouldn't worry about it. If you've proven that it happens even when power is removed from the supply, it's unlikely to be a fault.