Massive PSU problem....

hi,

I'm having an awful problem with my rig and it's beyond my technical ability to get to the bottom of it so i'm running out of ideas and was hoping you could offer some suggestions and advice.

I put together a new PC at the start of the year with the following components:

Radeon HD5850
Fractal Design R2 PSU (650w)
Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5 (Socket AM3) Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955
samsung 2TB Hard drive
Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800 memory
Sony DVD drive
Windows 7 64 bit

It was fine for the first three months or so (apart from a windows 7 problem with restarting a pc from sleep mode and large hard drives causing a BSOD but a hotfix appeares to have fixed that) but then it started turning itself off (the power was turning off rather than BSODing or shutting down).

This gradually got worse and more frequent and then it stopped working completely.

I got the PSU replaced and it started working again but the same thing happened with it except it stopped working completely after just 5 days (so it didn't gradually get worse this time it just went).

The gfx card requires a 500w PSU (although the psu isn't listed in the certified list on AMD's website) so a 650w supply should be adequate (so I don't think it's trying to suck too much power through and blowing?). Looking at the total amperage on the 12V rail, the requirement is 40A and the PSU provides 50A so i'm not sure if that's likely to be a problem (?).

I don't think it's an overheating issue as the PSU is cold to the touch when running and I've got both sides of my case off to prevent air flow issues.

My only other guess is that there is a problem with the rig and the motherboard installation causing a short somewhere - Once I've got a replacement psu I'll be taking out all the components and trying to run the rig on top of the mother board box.

Does anyone else have any suggestions about how I can track down the problem and fix this asap? Is it possible it's a broken component somewhere? Should I be looking into getting other items replaced?

I've not got a lot of money and don't have another rig to test components in although I've been offered a cheap gfx card to try and test that against my ati one.

If anyone has got any other suggestions please let me know thanks.

Allan

Are you getting the same brand/model power supply back?

I'm not familiar with that company or their power supplies. But, it sounds to me like the power supplies aren't too reliable if you have gotten 2 in a row that are bad. Your system shouldn't even be coming close to taxing a true 650 watt power supply. Maybe someone else has an idea of the quality of the Newton R2 650W. I did notice that the box or the label doesn't show an UL certifications on it though.

As for a replacement power supply, I would suggest something like a Corsair HX650 or a Seasonic in the 500-650 watt range.

I think that PSU was ATNG build...so its decent and should put out what it advertises, so not sure if thats the issue.

I think you are on the right track to build your rig outside the case and see if it keeps hapening.

EarthDog said:

I think you are on the right track to build your rig outside the case and see if it keeps hapening.

Click to expand...

Allan,

That's a good place to start. A short from one of your MB stand-offs could be a culprit, I've been down that road before.

Another is CPU cooling. No matter how much cooling you have, if the CPU cooler isn't installed correctly, it will overheat and shut off or not start at all.

This is all hypothetical of course but a rebuild outside your case is the place to start. Take yout time and be methodical about it checking everything you install.

A digital muti-meter comes in handy too if you want to check your power suply voltages.........

Thanks for the replies - I did get the same PSU back a second time - it's only replaceable now, not refundable sadly so I'll have to get it again but it seems like a good one to me from the specs.

I'll be buying another PSU from the certified list from AMD so I'll try that with the mobo outside the case and see what happens. Watch this space.

With CPU overheating - I've ran speedfan or another profiler before (it was a while ago so can't remember it off the top of my head - if only i had my PC to check! lol) and the CPU wasn't getting above 35 degrees so I ruled that out (the power supply was definitely screwed the first time as the vendour replaced it too). Thanks for suggestion though.

Thanks again everyone, it's really appreciated.

Allan

What brand is the PSU? It would suck to replace crap with crap and may be best to suck it up and buy a new one. Its like buying a Lexus with a Geo Metro engine.

AllanWalton said:

Thanks for the replies - I did get the same PSU back a second time - it's only replaceable now, not refundable sadly so I'll have to get it again but it seems like a good one to me from the specs.

I'll be buying another PSU from the certified list from AMD so I'll try that with the mobo outside the case and see what happens. Watch this space.

With CPU overheating - I've ran speedfan or another profiler before (it was a while ago so can't remember it off the top of my head - if only i had my PC to check! lol) and the CPU wasn't getting above 35 degrees so I ruled that out (the power supply was definitely screwed the first time as the vendour replaced it too). Thanks for suggestion though.

Thanks again everyone, it's really appreciated.

Allan

Click to expand...

Allan,

If you're forced to buy another PSU, buy from this list here:

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=589708

It's more comprehensive than the AMD list. The AMD list only covers what they tested and they don't test them all. Look for sales on them, there always is one. However it's a little premature for that until you do the outside build. You don't need a big one, that 500w is for your whole system, not just your video card.

EarthDog said:

What brand is the PSU? It would suck to replace crap with crap and may be best to suck it up and buy a new one. Its like buying a Lexus with a Geo Metro engine.

Click to expand...

It's a Fractal Design R2 Newton 650w mate.

Cheers for the list RT.

Sheesh, sorry. As I mentioned before, that is a decent PSU and shouldnt be the issue, but the symptoms sure are PSU related. Report back on how the outside the case runs go.

Howdy,

Hope everyone is well...

I'm gonna bump this back to the top few pages as I've got my PC back from the dead.

It's currently running on top of a cardboard box with only 1 stick of RAM and a ****ty (but proven to work) nvidia gfx card so we'll see what happens over the next few days.

So the PSU did get fried but no idea why; no other visible damage to any component (I took it apart properly and put it back together outside the case) so will just have to see how it goes.

Watch this space.