PSU just went pop, what do I do?

Doctor McNinja · 23 Sep 2012 at 04:43

First of all, the PSU is a Corsair AX650 that's about two or three months old. The full spec of what's inside my CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced is as follows-

Corsair AX 650w
i5 2500k @ stock speed
Corsair H100 (with two Gentle Typhoons, stock fans relocated to floor of case)
P8Z77-V Deluxe
Samsung Green 8GB (MV-3V4G3D/US)
2x Samsung 830 256Gb
1x WD Caviar Black 1Tb
1x WD Caviar Green 3Tb
1x Asus GTX 670 DirctCU II TOP (with stock factory settings, as with everything else)
1x Samsung BD-DVD (can't remember model off hand)

My PSU just made a loud 'pop' noise, like a light bulb does when it suddenly fails. The system just went completely dead and then either rebooted by itself or I rebooted it... I can't remember (it's late, I'm tired and... well, it scared me a little). If I had to put money on it, I'd say it rebooted itself, though.

I was playing GTA 4 at the time and heard the pop as everything went black. After the reboot I got a message listing the spec of my CPU, Mobo, RAM, what was plugged into my USB slots and the configuration of my hard drives followed by this message-

Power supply surge detected during previous power on.
ASUS Anti-Surge was triggered to protect system from unstable power unit!
Press F1 to Run SETUP

I can post a picture if need be but it's kind of hard to read due to the flash.

It may not be important but my mobo was displaying an "A2" Q-code instead of the usual "A0" code. [EDIT] My mobo always displays the "A0" code which means "IDE initialization is started" despite the fact I don't have and IDE drives. "A2" means "IDE detect".

Not wanting to cause any more damage, I shut the system down using the front panel power button. I unplugged everything and examined what I could see. I couldn't see any damage on either the PSU or the rest of the system and there are no burning smells or smoke.

So what do I do? RMA it?... it's only three months into a seven year warranty after all.

[EDIT] Reading that back, I may have answered my own question but it being so late, I'm not thinking clearly and I thought I'd get the jump on the problem so I can get it resolved as quick as possible.

Doctor McNinja · 23 Sep 2012 at 22:07

Thanks for all the replies guys. This is why I use the OCuk forums.

Uncle Petey said:
Your PSU may be fine.
I've had pretty much the same thing where a surge caused it to instantly shut down/reboot accompanied by the 'pop' sound which obviously wasn't the sound of anything exploding. It's the same sound you get when you switch on a decent hifi amp.
I also had the same message pop up on reboot.
Haven't had any issues since.

Seems like the auto surge protection did it's job.
You could always try switching it on again

If my sleep starved memory serves, it did sound very similar to an amp been turned on but the 'pop' sound occurred simultaneously with the shutdown, not the reboot. Just thought I should clarify that. I'll address the last bit of your comment in the following-

Uncle Petey said:
Useful info guys, but we haven't established that the PSU IS faulty yet

From the description, it sounds like the surge protection did what it's supposed to do and kicked in to stop any damage occurring.

I do hope that the surge protection did it's job. It'd be a bit of a kick in the conkers if it didn't as I've always preached not skimping on the PSU for this very reason. Establishing the health of the PSU is my goal at the moment but this has bought into sharp contrast my lack of knowledge in certain areas. So, fellow OCuk'ites (yes, I'm coining that word), is there any risk with simply turning it back on? Should I disconnect my GPU and SSD's/HDD's first (other than the boot drive)?

After reading up a little on the subject, it does seem that some people think that not only is ASUS Anti-Surge a gimmick but a gimmick that can be overly sensitive, causing it to detect surges during normal operation. There are some threads that match my story almost exactly even down to the CPU, a mobo from the same model line and a Corsair AX series PSU. Sometimes the thread ends with Anti-Surge being disabled and everything being fixed but then, some end with the issue only being resolved after the PSU is replaced.

I hope I'm not waffling.

So, what's my course of action fellow OCuk'adians (I might go with that instead)... just switch it back on?

Doctor McNinja · 23 Sep 2012 at 23:08

Uncle Petey said:
Sorry, I wasn't really clear. The pop was also simultaneous with the shutdown in my case too.

I can't guarantee anything for you, but I can say that after initially crapping my pants when I went through exactly the same thing, just switching it on again showed that nothing had been harmed.

Oh, and they may be right about Asus surge protection being a bit oversensitive. My PC is plugged into a decent 4-way surge protected socket which didn't bat an eyelid...

A high end PSU that was probably around 50% load, plugged into a £20+ Belkin surge protector, along with my monitor that didn't show any signs of a surge... Logically, I shouldn't be too worried but this is the first PC that I'm really proud of. I know it must sound like I'm like a first time parent, the baby coughs once and I think it's pneumonia... but there's always a possibility that is. My main concern at the moment is causing further damage by doing something stupid.

Doctor McNinja · 24 Sep 2012 at 00:05

Uncle Petey said:
I understand mate, I've been there. It happened to me within a week of building it.

If you're really concerned, try the paperclip test posted above.

(I may show my lack of knowledge here but...)

What's the purpose of the paperclip test if I can still boot the computer? I thought it simply showed whether the PSU was dead or alive... surely the automatic reboot has answered that question.

Doctor McNinja · 24 Sep 2012 at 00:20

wazza300 said:
have you removed the cmos battery to fully clear the cmos?? leave it out a good 30minutes and then try,psu might be fine

The only setting I've changed in the BIOS is the boot order. Would clearing CMOS still help?

Doctor McNinja · 24 Sep 2012 at 00:41

sadbuttrue said:
If you read the Asus forums there are many people complaining about this feature causing issues even after replacing the PSU. The general advice is to simply disable it in bios.

The problem is though, is that I've read numerous posts where people have said that after replacing their PSU, they had no problems with ASUS Anti-Surge. For some reason “By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.” springs to mind. I am leaning towards Anti-surge being the only real issue but I'm not basing that assumption on fact so I'm still wary. Anyway, if I decide to fix it tonight, I'll end up not going to bed tonight.

I'll sort everything out tomorrow and report back.

wazza300 said:
yeah if its corrupted,so would loading optimised defaults and re entering any bios settings

Thanks for clearing that up. I guess it won't hurt to take the belt and braces approach, take out the battery tonight and clear the CMOS.

Doctor McNinja · 24 Sep 2012 at 19:14

Well, all appears to be well. Mind you, it's only been on for a couple of minutes but I am posting this from my PC so at least it's working. When I booted up everything was by the book. I entered the BIOS and the 3.3, 5 and 12 volt levels were all within tolerances. Even though I have a suspicion that ASUS Anti-Surge may be more trouble than it's worth/doesn't work, I'm leaving it enabled for now.

Doctor McNinja · 28 Sep 2012 at 01:55

westom said:
Anti-surge device is dependant on hardware on the motherboard. If that hardware has not been calibrated, then even the 'anti-surge' message may be deceptive. Essential is to first confirm those BIOS numbers with an acutal multimeter. 3.5 digit meters are are even available for a few quid in Maplin.

The thing reported as a 'surge' is completely different from something else (also called a surge) that the Belkin will magically eliminate. Too many only know using word association. Therefore fail to appreciate the word 'surge' describes many different and unrelated anomalies.

Are those BIOS numbers correct? Post those numbers. Each can be within ATX Standard limites and still be defective. Details provided with those numbers.

The numbers from the BIOS are-

3.360
5.040
12.288

I'm not sure what you mean by "Details provided with those numbers".

The reason I mentioned having a Belkin surge protector was to make it clear that it wasn't an issue with the power outlet. I do realise that "surge" has many different meanings.

[EDIT] Do you have any recommendations for which multimeter I should get (key features, quality makes etc.)?

Doctor McNinja · 30 Sep 2012 at 21:23

I've ended up ordering a Draper 60792. It's a little pricer than most but I'd rather go with a name I know.

@westom

I hope this isn't a stupid question but here goes... is it necessary to unplug all the cables and remove the PSU from the case in order to test it?

Doctor McNinja · 3 Oct 2012 at 20:42

westom said:
Absolutely not. Best diagnostic procedure starts by changing nothing. First collect facts. For example, in one event, a connector was defective. He unplugged and reconnected. Temporary cured a symptom. That connector remained defective. Then failed again days later.

Always get facts before making a change. A multimeter reports best numbers when its probe touches unchanged wires. Best place to measure is where six relevant wires enter a nylon connector attached to the motherboard.

With a maximum load. measure (on the 20 VDC range) any one of these four wires: orange, purple, red, and yellow. As jackocurly0074 notes, also compare numbers reported by the BIOS when also measuring multimeter numbers. To calibrate the motherboard's multimeter.

Although irrelevant to your problem, another two wires are a green and gray. We can discuss them later to learn how a computer works.

Remember, a heavily loaded system that has completely failed is an excellent boat anchor.

My multimeter arrived today (the post arrived at 18:30!). The battery is a bit fiddly to put in and the stand on the back of the case is rather fragile but everything seems fine. I can't complain too much for the money... I'll give it a good go though.

You said "compare numbers reported by the BIOS when also measuring multimeter numbers.". Do you mean that I should check the voltage with the mulitmeter whilst in the BIOS or just compare the multimeter results to the ones I have already taken down?*

I haven't got time tonight for fiddling about so I'll test tomorrow. I think I might try to memorise the layout of the 20+4 (Corsair AX's have smexy all black cables).

Oh, and I'm looking forward to learning about the gray and green wires. I think learning about computers can be as enjoyable as using 'em.

*I've checked the voltage numerous time in the BIOS and the numbers are always the same.