Wife's Corsair died

[ScottinIndy]

Last night the wife was online playing EQ, Her rig suddenly died, She tried to power it back up and heard a buzzing sound and then the breaker to the wall socket kicked out. I had a Fortron Bluestorm 500 in the closet and hooked it up and she is back up and running, Looks like RMA time with Corsair, 4 month old HX520, Just running an AMD 5000+BE, 96gt, 1 HD and 2 optical drives,2 gigs of Ram with XP and a fan controller, So it really wasn't even close to breaking a sweat. Just goes to show ya, Good stuff dies from time to time and it's nice to keep a spare around...:)

[Sam__]

UL dude, my corsair 520 has been doing me well for ... must be at least 6 months now.

and +1 on keeping spares on hand, i start feeling nervous if i dont have a spare of something for testing or temp replacement.

[Super Nade]

It happens. When you send it back to Corsair, ask them why it died? The buzz-crackle-pop usually indicates that there was something loose in there that shorted out. :)

[RollingThunder]

Last night the wife was online playing EQ, Her rig suddenly died, She tried to power it back up and heard a buzzing sound and then the breaker to the wall socket kicked out. I had a Fortron Bluestorm 500 in the closet and hooked it up and she is back up and running, Looks like RMA time with Corsair, 4 month old HX520, Just running an AMD 5000+BE, 96gt, 1 HD and 2 optical drives,2 gigs of Ram with XP and a fan controller, So it really wasn't even close to breaking a sweat. Just goes to show ya, Good stuff dies from time to time and it's nice to keep a spare around...:)

Scott,

Been keeping track the best I can here on OC Forums. Yours is only the second one reported that failed completetly. There have been two others that were RMA's for other reasons; buzzing sound and ticking sound. The latter may have been the fan touching something, hard to tell.

I know this is no consolation and not much of a research on durability. Please advise of your RMA experience and turn-around time with Corsair. They have been reported as still being outstanding.

[madhatter256]

Hopefully it wasn't a surge or brown out or abnormal AC ripple in your wall that killed it, otherwise it might happen again :O

[ScottinIndy]

Hopefully it wasn't a surge or brown out or abnormal AC ripple in your wall that killed it, otherwise it might happen again :O

I don't think that is the problem, Various builds have been run in the same spot over the years, The standard precautions have been taken in regard to surge protection etc. I really think it's just an islolated case of PSU failure, It happens from time to time.
RT, I will let you know on the RMA, I recently had to RMA a Voyager flash drive with Corsair, Took a little over a week and the communication was excellent, I expect no less from them. Nice of you to track failure rates as best you can, With Corsair I wouldn't expect too high of a number, I'm really not concerned about it, I know Corsair is quality stuff and from time to time things like this happen. The fact that nothing else got fried is one of the reasons you should go with quality parts in the first place! :)

[Satsumomo]

I have a story about the 750TX...

I bought 2 of them, one for me and one for my buddy. I tested both out for about 5 hours each and they worked beautifully. Then suddenly, one of them shut down, and never turned back on.

I went to NCIX to make a return, and they tested it there and it worked! But they took my word for it, and gave me another unit.

I get home, and then I realize I had taken the wrong unit in, I gave them the functional one and the dud was still at my place. Doh! The guys at NCIX were really nice though, they replaced the real defective one anyways, even though they had already shipped the good one to Corsair... oops! I felt really bad about that.

However, both PSU's are still running strong after 5 months.

[RollingThunder]

I have a story about the 750TX...

I bought 2 of them, one for me and one for my buddy. I tested both out for about 5 hours each and they worked beautifully. Then suddenly, one of them shut down, and never turned back on.

I went to NCIX to make a return, and they tested it there and it worked! But they took my word for it, and gave me another unit.

I get home, and then I realize I had taken the wrong unit in, I gave them the functional one and the dud was still at my place. Doh! The guys at NCIX were really nice though, they replaced the real defective one anyways, even though they had already shipped the good one to Corsair... oops! I felt really bad about that.

However, both PSU's are still running strong after 5 months.

Sats,

OK, that makes three.

[JaY_III]

i might be another with the buzz sound then death.

i got a 750TX made a buzz sound every now and then, now it wont turn on.
have it unplugged, so hopefully it might power back on in the morning.

[Kris]

My 650TX died and took out my 8800gts and apparently the card took out my lcd or they both failed at the same time? PSU was less than a year old....

[cmichaelt]

My 650TX died and took out my 8800gts and apparently the card took out my lcd or they both failed at the same time? PSU was less than a year old....

so what happens? you have to replace all those blow parts? never had it happend to me so i'm just wondering if that means you eat the cost of replacing all those besides the power supply.

[JaY_III]

update on mine, flick the switch on the back, get a few seconds of buzzing and cracking then it goes off. It also trips my UPS at times.


Tried without UPS and it still will buzz and crack

[Oklahoma Wolf]

update on mine, flick the switch on the back, get a few seconds of buzzing and cracking then it goes off. It also trips my UPS at times.

Primary side failure - there's no getting out of an RMA on that unit, I'm afraid.

[JaY_III]

Primary side failure - there's no getting out of an RMA on that unit, I'm afraid.

thanks,
Started my RMA online last night, just waiting for the result.
or till 10 to see if i can return locally.

But it does serve me right, you said get the 550 :D
but the 750 was on sale for less than the 550

Moral of the story
Always buy the PSU that Oklahoma Wolf says to buy

[RollingThunder]

thanks,
Started my RMA online last night, just waiting for the result.
or till 10 to see if i can return locally.

But it does serve me right, you said get the 550 :D
but the 750 was on sale for less than the 550

Moral of the story
Always buy the PSU that Oklahoma Wolf says to buy

Jay,

I don't want to put words into OW's mouth but I don't think he would say not to buy that model. A week or ten days ago NewEgg had the 750on sale for $70 (after $40 MIR) and my son bought one. Not because he needed 750 watts..... Perhaps the same sale you saw.

That makes four pending some details from Kris or perhaps some thoughts from OW on the possibilities.

[JaY_III]

Jay,

I don't want to put words into OW's mouth but I don't think he would say not to buy that model. A week or ten days ago NewEgg had the 750on sale for $70 (after $40 MIR) and my son bought one. Not because he needed 750 watts..... Perhaps the same sale you saw.

That makes four pending some details from Kris or perhaps some thoughts from OW on the possibilities.

He said i only needed the 550
I got power hungry and went above what he said i needed as the 750 was on sale cheaper than the 550. Nothing wrong with that model, but not every product can work perfect all the time. Anyhow RMA complete, and I am up and running again, but with water now :D

Oh and tested it one last time before i brought it in, the thing sparks too :D

[Kris]

so what happens? you have to replace all those blow parts? never had it happend to me so i'm just wondering if that means you eat the cost of replacing all those besides the power supply.

I did eat the cost of the parts. I don't believe in returning parts that I have used in a overclocking rig even when that is what they are designed for... I ended up replacing the entire computer just to be safe! If my old motherboard and cpu check out later I will turn them into an htpc.

The failure appears to have induced or been induced by my oc'd 8800gts letting go while playing some CSS. Like I said the lcd is dead for sure as it wouldn't even power up and the video card will spin the fan but it will not allow my computer to boot(throws a 7F boot error code).

On a lighter note I had a hell of a time getting my new rig stable. It turns out that my new memory(same as the old) was bad from the get go...

Not a fun month!

[JaY_III]

your telling me.
I had the worst build ever with my current rig.
1 stick of RAM was bad but passed memtest, yet the system was randomly unstable with that i stick in. Then my PSU goes south.

1st time i ever had a bad stick of RAM and 1st time a PSU was bad, all in one build :(

[ScottinIndy]

Thought I would give an update on the RMA process in regard to the 520HX, I was issued the RMA on 12/5/08, Because of my work schedule I did not actually mail the PSU in for repairs until 12/17, I paid to ship via USPS priority mail with insurance. The USPS said Corsair received the PSU on Monday 12/22. I got no receipt confirmation from Corsair, So on the 28th I emailed customer support and asked if they indeed received the PSU, Their website link to my RMA showed they still had not received it. I got no answer, I emailed again on the 30th. I got a response on the 31st saying they had just received the PSU that day. The weblink was then updated to show that they had just received it on the 31st as well. Hmmm, USPS says 22nd, Corsair says the 31st, Anyway, I got an E-mail this morning saying that they will ship a replacement PSU today, They apologized and said that because of high demand for parts for that particular PSU and the Holiday schedule the RMA took longer than normal. I guess what has me somewhat confused is that if they are shipping a replacement I don't see why the high demand for parts would affect the RMA in any form. I marked the PSU I sent in, So I will know if it is indeed a replacement or if they actually repaired mine.
Anyway, In the grand scheme of things it is no biggie, I had a spare to use so I wasn't in any big hurry, It was completely my fault for not getting the PSU in the mail promptly and thus pushing the RMA into the Holdiay madness, However they were not closed for two weeks during the Holiday season and I think the lack of communication is really a big disappointment.