Power supply question

Boggit · April 10, 2014, 09:55:20 AM

I recently (just ofver 2 weeks ago) bought a new Corsair CX750M power supply and an RSI R9 270 Gaming edition GC. Yesterday, the PSU just cut off, and restarted shortly thereafter. Its done it four times today. It's not hot, and appears to be working otherwise. No funny noises either.

Also since I installed it I noticed that my 2 HDD's have got quite warm. I can touch them without burning myself, but they are definitely hotter than I expected them to be. I particularly noticed it after playing a bit of Napoleon Total War, but is still hottish after playing TOAW, which shouldn't be drinking power to the drives? I have removed the PC's side panel to improve air flow, since heat was collecting in that part of the case.

Am I worrying about nothing? Is this a normal state of affairs, or should I be taking some sort of remedial action? Please advise.

GDS_Starfury · April 10, 2014, 10:06:25 AM

I'd trade out the psu for a similar wattage Antec unit. on the face of it I would guess that the one you have now is having surges.

endfire79 · April 10, 2014, 10:51:50 AM

That doesn't sound normal, don't think the PSU should cut out like that. Is your wall socket ok?
If so, and if the nothing in your rig draws more than it should, might be a bad power supply.

Redwolf · April 10, 2014, 12:56:43 PM

This is probably not caused by the PSU.

The computer suddenly turning off is usually a mainboard issue.

endfire79 · April 10, 2014, 04:33:15 PM

^ completely forgot about that. The board could be turning off if the temp is too high in there.

Redwolf · April 10, 2014, 04:39:37 PM

Quote from: endfire79 on April 10, 2014, 04:33:15 PM
^ completely forgot about that. The board could be turning off if the temp is too high in there.

I have seen plenty cases where the boards decide to do that without any of the the temperatures being too high.

Including in laptops (where the battery present proof that it is not the power supply cutting out).

Staggerwing · April 10, 2014, 05:45:50 PM

Quote from: Redwolf on April 10, 2014, 04:39:37 PM
Quote from: endfire79 on April 10, 2014, 04:33:15 PM
^ completely forgot about that. The board could be turning off if the temp is too high in there.

I have seen plenty cases where the boards decide to do that without any of the the temperatures being too high.

Including in laptops (where the battery present proof that it is not the power supply cutting out).

Laptops have some form of PSU as well. The battery in a laptop is analogous to the wall plug, not to the PSU.

MIGMaster · April 11, 2014, 09:51:17 AM

Make sure you check the fan and heatsink on your CPU if it is loose or the fan isn't cooling or if the CPU may just be dying it can create pure freakin havoc with everthing else in your PC. I really doubt it's the PSU. Is the air coming out of the PSU hot ?

Boggit · April 11, 2014, 12:53:58 PM

Thanks for all the replies. I checked temperatures with Speedfan, but everything was pretty normal for the CPU, and GPU. The HDD's were a little warm, but within the acceptable range. I took the PSU, and GPU out last night, and replaced with my old ones. Overclocker's who sold me the PSU have sent me a returns code, so I guess it will be a simple replacement.

I'd been running the PSU for close on 2 weeks without any problems, then suddenly it cut out, a few minutes later it came alive again. Weird. The power supply is stable, and I have a spike protector on the multi plug, so don't think it was the power supply itself. I contacted Overclockers the day I removed it from my machine. No quibble, and they put it down as a replace. What concerned me is that it happened five times the day after the first instance for no apparent reason. I used speedfan to check component temperatures, and they were all normal.

Redwolf · April 11, 2014, 02:08:31 PM

A temperature problem was unlikely. While the mainboard has functionality to turn the whole thing off on overheat, and it might even work, the desktop user will usually notice because of fan noise or even an alarm beeping.

You have a broken mainboard almost certainly.

Boggit · April 15, 2014, 10:52:55 AM

Quote from: Redwolf on April 11, 2014, 02:08:31 PM
A temperature problem was unlikely. While the mainboard has functionality to turn the whole thing off on overheat, and it might even work, the desktop user will usually notice because of fan noise or even an alarm beeping.

You have a broken mainboard almost certainly.

I don't know if it is. I sent back the PSU for replacement, and reinstalled the old PSU, and GPU in the meantime. Everything is running fine again, no problems at all. The only new factor was the new PSU, and graphics card. Since putting the old one back, as I say everything has worked without any problem, so I'm thinking it was a duff PSU still.