PSU Crackling

Holliday

Holliday

Holliday

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PSU is a Super Flower 650W bought from OcUK in March time.

I've had some 'crackling' noise a few weeks back but assumed it was the GFX card fan rattling.

However today after swapping out my GPU cooler with a Corsair cooler the crackling has got a lot louder and constant. I've unplugged the GPU power and also the new AIO cooler and the noise persists.

Also as I was switching back from the GPU hdmi slot to the mobo one I noticed the cable was sparking against the back of the case where the PSU is, I turned the PSU off and it stopped. Is this an earthing problem or PSU?
 
wow sparking is never good
hope you being careful

not sure what id do other than take it all apart to check stuff :(
tho maybe i understand bad, which cable was sparking? power cable sparking isnt that uncommon
 
OK you need to check that nothing is touching any contacts behind the motherboard and case. Make sure you have a grounding screw where they need to be also. Usually indicated by a hole in the motherboard surrounding by mettalic grounding points that the screw would cover. One should be enough to ground a circuit but best to ensure all screw are in correctly. Also ensure your using the correct standoffs.

Secondly ensure no dust balls or clumps of dirt are clogging up anywhere. These can harbour all sorts of microscopic conductive materials.

And you psu remove from the case and connect to a power plug. Usually psu will have on off switch set this to off. Then grab a paper clip or small piece of wire and connect one green wire to any black wire on the psu's 24 pin connector. If you feel unsure of this you can purchase a psu starter connector.
After this is in place turn the switch on the psu on and it should start up in the fan on the psu will start. Listen again for around 5-10 min to see if sounds occurs again. If it does then replace psu ASAP.
 
Mei said:
wow sparking is never good
hope you being careful

not sure what id do other than take it all apart to check stuff :(
tho maybe i understand bad, which cable was sparking? power cable sparking isnt that uncommon
Click to expand...

As I took the hdmi cable out it just rested against the back of the case and was sparking against the metal case where the PSU is.
 
bioshockeruk said:
OK you need to check that nothing is touching any contacts behind the motherboard and case. Make sure you have a grounding screw where they need to be also. Usually indicated by a hole in the motherboard surrounding by mettalic grounding points that the screw would cover. One should be enough to ground a circuit but best to ensure all screw are in correctly. Also ensure your using the correct standoffs.

Secondly ensure no dust balls or clumps of dirt are clogging up anywhere. These can harbour all sorts of microscopic conductive materials.

And you psu remove from the case and connect to a power plug. Usually psu will have on off switch set this to off. Then grab a paper clip or small piece of wire and connect one green wire to any black wire on the psu's 24 pin connector. If you feel unsure of this you can purchase a psu starter connector.
After this is in place turn the switch on the psu on and it should start up in the fan on the psu will start. Listen again for around 5-10 min to see if sounds occurs again. If it does then replace psu ASAP.
Click to expand...

I shall checking the grounding screws and attempt that paper clip thing when I'm back from work. It shouldn't be dust though, even though I bought the PSU in March I've only had the build up and running a few weeks.
 
psu do hold a lot of charge even when off
if you flip the switch at the back and press the power button on the front a few times its meant to clear the charge, thats what i do before sticking my hands in there

not sure how much it helps but makes me feel a bit better :)

...i duno about crackling noises it would scare me a little
 
I've taken the GPU from the SATA slot and the crackling has stopped. But again if I touch the hdmi cable against the back of the case it sparks.
 
i think you need one of them hooks rdy like in Formula 1 :o
just take care yeh, you are more important than the pc
 
Gpu from the sata slot? Do you mean removed from the pci-e slot. If so all good! :)

As for hdmi. It's the cabled coming from your monitor and the end that connects to your computer is what is sparking when touching the case? If so does it still spark when the monitors power cable is unplugged?
 
Ensure you are wearing rubber soles whilst working on the computer and touch the side of case with a metallic object and touch psu casing and case floor before working anywhere on it. This will ground out any charge within the case if any.
 
bioshockeruk said:
Gpu from the sata slot? Do you mean removed from the pci-e slot. If so all good! :)

As for hdmi. It's the cabled coming from your monitor and the end that connects to your computer is what is sparking when touching the case? If so does it still spark when the monitors power cable is unplugged?
Click to expand...

Yes pci-e slot sorry.

And yes that's correct. Not tried it with the monitor unplugged but with the PSU switch off it stops. Taking the PC apart now so can't check with the monitor turned off.
 
OK having the psu off eliminated the monitor anyway.

So yes take it all apart buddy. Test the psu outside the case. If all goes well then run it step by step. So psu only then psu and mobo with cpu and ram. Then a gpu etc. To it happens again. Or better still doesn't happen! Keep me posted and I'll try and get you through this. :)
 
bioshockeruk said:
OK having the psu off eliminated the monitor anyway.

So yes take it all apart buddy. Test the psu outside the case. If all goes well then run it step by step. So psu only then psu and mobo with cpu and ram. Then a gpu etc. To it happens again. Or better still doesn't happen! Keep me posted and I'll try and get you through this. :)
Click to expand...

Cheers mate. The only thing which is confusing me is when I took the GPU from the PCI slot the crackling stopped, which would lead me to believe the GPU is the issue (it would crackle when in the slot even without the power leads to it) But since the sparking still occurred even with that removed surely it's not the GPU.

Also with the PSU removed from the case then the hdmi cable no longer sparks against the back of the case. So I shall try with the GPU plugged in and PSU out the case see if the crackle occurs.

Off to work now but shall report when I get home. Cheers again pal.
 
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It's looking more like an incorrect grounding of some sort or shorting on the circuit possibly around the gpu are but not the gpu itself. Removing the mobo should help resolve this one.
 
bioshockeruk said:
It's looking more like an incorrect grounding of some sort or shorting on the circuit possibly around the gpu are but not the gpu itself. Removing the mobo should help resolve this one.
Click to expand...

Right, after a lot of testing I've determined the crackle is actually the Corsair H90 pump. I had the mobo on the desk, turned it on without the pump plugged into the PSU and the noise was there, I then plugged the pump into a CPU fan header and it seemed a more gurgly noise, and finally plugged into the Enthoo PWM and it was very quiet (I assume due the pump not working at 100%)

Now my only issue is after reseating the mobo and adding on some standoffs I missed, the hdmi cable still sparks when touching the metal in the case even with the mobo on the desk. And I should mention the PSU has a high pitch whistle even when the PC is powered off (but PSU switch on)
 
Due to movement and disturbance in the case the pump may make gurgling noises but should settle after some time.

The fact that you are experiencing various 'noises' all point imo to the psu. I would rma it asap to avoid any more risk to yourself or your components. It would be interesting to see if you had a multi-meter if there was any current running through the psu casing also. But for sake of your health I would just advise to get that replaced.
 
bioshockeruk said:
Due to movement and disturbance in the case the pump may make gurgling noises but should settle after some time.

The fact that you are experiencing various 'noises' all point imo to the psu. I would rma it asap to avoid any more risk to yourself or your components. It would be interesting to see if you had a multi-meter if there was any current running through the psu casing also. But for sake of your health I would just advise to get that replaced.
Click to expand...

The pump seems to have calmed down indeed. Thinking about going to get a cheap mains tester to see if there's any current around the case.

Reading about my PSU now also and it should have come with a UK plug, but it came with a EU one which I'm using with an adapter, not sure if that's causing any issues.

Cheers for your help any way mate.
 
OcUK are sending me out a UK cable, should get it tomorrow.

Turned on the PC just now and no fans came on (case and cpu heatsink), had to restart and then they all came on. So assuming this cable doesn't help things it seems like an RMA jobby indeed.
 
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