Wolf - New AX500 at fault for this???

As you already know I just replaced my Enermax EG365 with a new Fortron AX500 at the recommendation of about 75% of this group!

Anyway, the rails are well within check...and everythign seems pretty peachy but last night this happened. Keep in mind I have the system plugged into an APC UPS, which is also plugged into a surge protector (but one of the smaller UP's). Normally, if the power has gone out the computer has stayed on with plenty of time for a safe shut down.


LAst night I was backing up some of my D drive to a firewire drive, and a couple of the folders said they could not be copied due to a CRC error. No matter what I did they wouldn't copy...

So I restarted...only to have the computer reset itself before getting to windows. So I selected "start windows normally" and again, the computer failed to get to windows...restarting instead.

So then I went into safe mode...amde it to Windows...shut down and restarted. This time Windows made it, but shortly after getting into Windows it started selectively locking up. I couldn't ctl-alt-del, I couldn't open Norton Antivirus, and even though I kep selecting restart and shut down the computer wouldn't.

After some puzzeld (and admittedly panicky) restarting and contemplating I had a quick power brown out. My TV flickered, my work server PC restarted, and my main rig shut off.

I decided to sleep on it...hoping that I was just having funky power in the house (despite my thinking that a UPS should solve all that anyway).

Today the PC booted into windows. I did a Scandisk on C and it fixed some security descriptors but nothing else.

New things in my PC are the Fortron, a Seagate 300GB, a Maxtor 300GB, and 4 sticks of OCZ Rev. 2 PLatinum ram (2 GB) running at 2-2-2-5 (Passed 8 hours of memtest, but haven't had time to test longer - passed about 2 hours of windows memtest).

The system drive is a complete fresh install of Windows and my apps done 5 days ago...and until last night is was purring.

Restarts have always been PS related for me...but with the new AX500 I am suspecting a virus now or something. What can you tell me?

Thanks!!
Shane

There is absolutely nothing here to indicate the power supply is in any way responsible. You know you have power issues, you saw the brown out. If your UPS is does not a line-interactive or AVR type it will not correct brownouts.

My HOPE is that the land power was at fault. It certainly could have been. I will have to wait (painfully) and see if any more issues arise.

What UPS would you recommend for avoiding things like this? I would hate for this to happen in the middle of a recording session!

Shane

I'm with Larva - there's nothing really to suggest the PSU is at fault. My system does this sort of thing too when the power fluctuates, and it makes no difference what PSU I am using at the time. The AX500-A should run that system without trouble. To be safe, you could check the rails with a meter, keeping in mind 12v2 can only be measured at the 12v or ATX connector.

How is it doing after sleeping on it?

Thanks for the reply.

It seems to be okay today, but I am taking it easy doing backups a small bit at a time. The power was in and out yesterday so I suspect that was at fault.

I thought I was immune to power fluctuations because of the UPS, but I guess not.

I will check the 12v2 rail in a bit. The others were pretty strong. % was fluctuation 5.00 to 5.01 and mothing more. !2v was about 12.3 at idle and 12.2 at load which is more flux than the OCZ has, but still WELL within tolerable range.

I hope it was the land power. I rely on this system for everything.

Shane

Category 5 said:

My HOPE is that the land power was at fault. It certainly could have been. I will have to wait (painfully) and see if any more issues arise.

What UPS would you recommend for avoiding things like this? I would hate for this to happen in the middle of a recording session!

Shane

Click to expand...

I use the APC SmartPower 1400VA, a server-grade line interactive UPS. They can be bought as refurbs rather inexpensively these days, and are great units that will drive stiff loads.

What UPS are you using? There are two UPS topographies that will correct brownouts, and if your UPS is not one of those (LI or AVR), there is no doubt about what happened here.

Thanks for all the help guys. I am faulting the power for the problem since it has not returned (knock on wood).

The CRC copy problems were due to bad sectors on the Maxtor hard drive (brand new...go figure) but they are replacing it under warranty.

I just went out and bought a pair of Belkin 550va UPS units with AVR. Hopefully I'll be immune to this problem in the future. I was going to get the APC 800va one for my studio rig, but I figured I'd try the Belkins first. Both have AVR and the APC was $60 more ($130 vs $70 each). I don;t need more than a few minutes to shut down after a power failure...and usually we have power "flickers" where it comes back on within 5 minutes, so I think the opnes I got will be good.

Just to update for anyone searching this thread though, I do not fault the AX500-A and anm finding it to be an excellent, quiet and cool PS overall. A great deal at $72 shipped!

Shane

Sounds like a plan. A good UPS is really an imperative where I live, and it's hard to narrow down issues like yours anywhere without eliminating power condition as a possible culprit. I seriously doubt that you will have another problem, but if you do, it will be a much simpler situation that can be diagnosed. Smart money spent, and all users that care for their PCs as most members here do would be similiarly smart to buy a beefy and capable AVR or LI UPS to insure the type of reliability we all strive for.