PSU Woes

I doubt whether the PSU is the main culprit here, as 2 years seems an awfully short lifespan for any PSU.

The main culprit is usually that the PSU is being under-specced and over-stressed by supplying power to both the PC (and all its accessories) and the monitor. Monitors should always have their own power source and NOT piggyback on the PC's PSU.

Other factors that could shorten the lifespan of a PSU, imho:
Electricity supply at the socket insufficient and/or unstable;
PSU cannot provide sufficient power for the PC PLUS all the accessories inside/attached to it;
Insufficient cooling (no- or ineffective cooling fan);
Insufficient space around the case to ensure sufficient airflow;
Case never gets cleaned and is full of dust.

Never had any problems with any PSUs. I just leave my desktop PC on and perhaps reboot once a week.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
That Cooler Master one is in the "Tier E - Avoid" list :laugh:

cultists.network

PSU Tier List rev. 17.0g - Cultists Network

PSU Tier List will help you to choose the best PSU out of hundreds of models on the market. From budget to the highest end Power Supplies.
cultists.network cultists.network
Click to expand...
Only on the bottom and mid range PSU's, coolermaster highend is pretty darn good and could go blow for blow with seasonic or delta without issue.
My current PSU that is going strong for the past 3 years..... 5 year warranty, you do forgo modular aspects, if that is your thing, it has flat cables and it does bother me in the least and single rail. Modular is a nice to have and not necessarily a must have, it's aesthetics more than anything else. Would go on a rant about how much of a farce efficiency certification is, lets just say it is not particular hard to reach a gold rating, and it is more to do with how efficiently it is able to draw power, plus it is a voluntary. Personally I take everything said with a grain of salt, everyone has their preferred brand, in this day and age unless you are scrapping the bottom of the barrel it is rare to get a piece of shyte these days when buying a reputable brand.

www.fsplifestyle.com

HYPER K

HYPER K Series Power Supply meets the market mainstream and provides efficiency more than 85%.With the +12 single rail design, SATA array cable, optimized the airflow in case, no-hassle with case side panel.
www.fsplifestyle.com www.fsplifestyle.com
 
It being multiple PSUs in such a small time frame makes me think there's probably something wrong at the wall.
 
wizardofid said:
Only on the bottom and mid range PSU's, coolermaster highend is pretty darn good and could go blow for blow with seasonic or delta without issue.
My current PSU that is going strong for the past 3 years..... 5 year warranty, you do forgo modular aspects, if that is your thing, it has flat cables and it does bother me in the least and single rail. Modular is a nice to have and not necessarily a must have, it's aesthetics more than anything else. Would go on a rant about how much of a farce efficiency certification is, lets just say it is not particular hard to reach a gold rating, and it is more to do with how efficiently it is able to draw power, plus it is a voluntary. Personally I take everything said with a grain of salt, everyone has their preferred brand, in this day and age unless you are scrapping the bottom of the barrel it is rare to get a piece of shyte these days when buying a reputable brand.

www.fsplifestyle.com

HYPER K

HYPER K Series Power Supply meets the market mainstream and provides efficiency more than 85%.With the +12 single rail design, SATA array cable, optimized the airflow in case, no-hassle with case side panel.
www.fsplifestyle.com www.fsplifestyle.com
Click to expand...

That's the thing with PSUs, you don't just pick a brand as their line up will vary substantially in quality. Best to use the resources the internet provides and do some research on which ones to avoid then make an informed purchasing decision.
 
wizardofid said:
plus it is a voluntary
Click to expand...
80 PLUS is not only voluntary, but there are fees involved. A low end PSU might be able to hit Gold, Platinum or Titanium efficiency, but it doesn't make sense to spend thousands of dollars on a low cost unit.

Supervan II said:
and the monitor. Monitors should always have their own power source and NOT piggyback on the PC's PSU.
Click to expand...
Daisy chaining a monitor has no effect on the PSU, it's bypass straight from input to output. The PSU does not power the output in any way or form. It's exactly the same as using a dual/triple headed power cable, plugging into a multi-adapter, etc.

dedicated-power-cable-dual-head-1-800x800-0.jpg
dedicated-power-cable-tri-head-1-800x800-0.jpg
dedicated-power-cable-4-head-1-800x800-0.jpg


Regardless, daisy-chaining hasn't really been a thing for YEARS. Other than the generic units included with R 500 cases, I haven't seen a PSU with a C12 output for as long as I care to remember. Even the cheap Antec Atom, Raidmax, etc PSUs don't have a C12 output.
 
Progenix Oj101 said:
80 PLUS is not only voluntary, but there are fees involved. A low end PSU might be able to hit Gold, Platinum or Titanium efficiency, but it doesn't make sense to spend thousands of dollars on a low cost unit.


Daisy chaining a monitor has no effect on the PSU, it's bypass straight from input to output. The PSU does not power the output in any way or form. It's exactly the same as using a dual/triple headed power cable, plugging into a multi-adapter, etc.

dedicated-power-cable-dual-head-1-800x800-0.jpg
dedicated-power-cable-tri-head-1-800x800-0.jpg
dedicated-power-cable-4-head-1-800x800-0.jpg


Regardless, daisy-chaining hasn't really been a thing for YEARS. Other than the generic units included with R 500 cases, I haven't seen a PSU with a C12 output for as long as I care to remember. Even the cheap Antec Atom, Raidmax, etc PSUs don't have a C12 output.
Click to expand...
gold and bronze are a dime a dozen......most of them craptastic, the problem I have is that people associate the rating with quality which couldn't be further from the truth. Efficiency rating or rather the 80+ certification is heavily skewed towards input and output testing is just and extra and isn't even remotely comprehensive as it needs to be, which why the 80+ standard for the most part is a farce to say the least. Sure to get higher than gold rating requires much better internals but the pricing above gold is generally triple or more, most often people are going to go after bronze and gold, silver is a little weird middle ground very few actual silver PSUs.

But the fact remains that getting gold rating doesn't take much, below plat the efficiency rating should NEVER be use as a measure of quality, hence I am calling it a farce in general and not a necessarily a mark of "quality". More often that not I don't even bother with the rating, it is meaningless sub plat rating, other than telling me it isn't entirely a piece of crap.

Either way you know me lol, I know my way around them.....On a budget were modular isn't of concern the FSP does what it needs to....5 year warranty to boot....tells me more than enough....
 
Supervan II said:
I doubt whether the PSU is the main culprit here, as 2 years seems an awfully short lifespan for any PSU.

The main culprit is usually that the PSU is being under-specced and over-stressed by supplying power to both the PC (and all its accessories) and the monitor. Monitors should always have their own power source and NOT piggyback on the PC's PSU.

Other factors that could shorten the lifespan of a PSU, imho:
Electricity supply at the socket insufficient and/or unstable;
PSU cannot provide sufficient power for the PC PLUS all the accessories inside/attached to it;
Insufficient cooling (no- or ineffective cooling fan);
Insufficient space around the case to ensure sufficient airflow;
Case never gets cleaned and is full of dust.

Never had any problems with any PSUs. I just leave my desktop PC on and perhaps reboot once a week.
Click to expand...
This isnt 2002 when PSU's had both an input and output port.

They stopped doing that a very long time ago.
 
Progenix Oj101 said:
80 PLUS is like the emissions of an engine. A low emission engine says nothing about its reliability.
Click to expand...
But to be fair it is also about use case, generally have mid range components, I could run a 4080 on that PSU, but I won't trust it for sustained high load, I suspect the rails would get a little flaky, it doesn't make it a bad PSU, just the wrong PSU for the given task. Buying a 20 grand GPU and pairing it with bronze PSU in general is just asking for instability and issues, usecase is important too, even after all these years people still cheap out on the PSU, lol the more things change the more they stay the same.......

You know me I am a strong advocate for headroom on a PSU, at least 200watt more than I need. I am still using my raidmax 850watt AE by andyson( Oem) 14 years later and still works exactly like it should, it is however so old it still uses a double forward design.....lol
 
Ok, so new PSU delivered and installed... No dice

Can anyone recommend someone/somewhere to take it to assist with trouble shooting? I'm in Melkbos, so close to Table View in Cape Town would be best
 
Greg_M said:
Ok, so new PSU delivered and installed... No dice

Can anyone recommend someone/somewhere to take it to assist with trouble shooting? I'm in Melkbos, so close to Table View in Cape Town would be best
Click to expand...
I pray for you that it's not the motherboard. Have you attempted some troubleshooting?

EG: Different wallpoint, different cable, double-checked connections into motherboard. Is it reacting at all? Did you put the switch on the PSU itself etc...
 
Greg_M said:
Ok, so new PSU delivered and installed... No dice

Can anyone recommend someone/somewhere to take it to assist with trouble shooting? I'm in Melkbos, so close to Table View in Cape Town would be best
Click to expand...

Specs for the PC and the PSU?

Is it plugged into an extension or directly into the wall socket? (This fixed a long-standing issue for me).
 
The Voice said:
Specs for the PC and the PSU?

Is it plugged into an extension or directly into the wall socket? (This fixed a long-standing issue for me).
Click to expand...

Will try directly to the wall, but tried a completely different plug point.

It's a 650w PSU, on a MSI 470(something) motherboard, AMD chipset (forget which one)

But I removed everything, tried a vanilla boot.
 
Remember years ago my PC just wouldn’t boot. Struggled for ages, swapping out parts (including the PSU), nada. At a loss, I took it to the Asian PC store (CyberOrange - shout out if they’re still around). They opened it up, unscrewed the mobo and a random screw fell out. It was shorting the motherboard because it was making direct contact with the case… anyway, they installed some new risers, good as new.
 
Greg_M said:
Will try directly to the wall, but tried a completely different plug point.

It's a 650w PSU, on a MSI 470(something) motherboard, AMD chipset (forget which one)

But I removed everything, tried a vanilla boot.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, sounds like it may be the mobo at this point. Keep an eye on the cooler when you turn it on: does the fan try and spin?
 
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