How to tell if a PSU is failing.

[Ben333]

@spl, not quite right. ED good reference.

A scenario where improper power return occurs could be through the un-sleeved "earth" ground, the bottom round prong on a 3 pin mains plug. It eventually ties directly in with your neutral (white) line. (If you live in north America anyways, idk about other places)

If more than a certain amount of ma of difference comes out over the hot (black) line than comes back on neutral (white) then a GFCI will pop. Normal old school breakers in the USA however only care about current going out, it can come back through on the white, the green \ bare "third prong" earth, or through your hand, arm, chest, legs, feet to the basement floor. That's why we have GFIs. Power factor is more complicated and comes down to electrical engineering of an appliance and its efficiency and use of power.

So... for "that can never happen", well it CAN happen, and that is why by law GFCI outlets are used near you kitchen and bathroom sink. So when the blow dryer falls in, as soon as that current goes through the water, hits some copper in your drain pipe and makes it back to "earth" instead of going through the GFCI, the GFCI will trip. There are also breakers that do the same / similar thing.

 

[EarthDog]

Ok, now that we have some details corrected/clarified, let's focus on the OP and hope his change was successful.

Apologies for the slight threadjack Whitehawk!

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

Ok, now that we have some details corrected/clarified, let's focus on the OP and hope his change was successful.

Apologies for the slight threadjack Whitehawk!

I installed the new PSU this past Monday and no pops on the breakers, btw the breaker that popped is a Arc Fault breaker plus there are 3 PC's on that breaker all running [email protected], so when the 1 PSU started going bad it did not take much to trip.