PSU died, then came back alive an hour later.

[tracerit]

I have an EVGA Supernova G2 750W unit I purchased new back in July. I don't game and rarely go over 80-100W load. I've left it on for days before. However yesterday when I came home from work, my computer was off. I couldn't power it back on. I tried different outlets and plugs. I used the PSU tester accessory to power the PSU on by itself and that didn't work.

I headed out to pick up a new PSU and when I came back an hour later, I tested the PSU again and it worked! I'm atyping on it now with no issues. The unit itself is a quality unit according to reviews, but now I'm concerned about its reliability after encountering this weird situation. I was planning on making this computer as a home server leaving it running 24/7 too.

Any insights on what may have happened?

 

[Carson Dyle]

Overheated? Couldn't say why, but it might explain why it began working an hour later.

 

[tracerit]

while it does have an eco mode (fan stays off under high load), i have a 92mm fan glued to the exhaust vent side of the PSU to exhaust the air out. this 92mm fan is a lot quieter than the internal PSU fan.

i've never had the computer overheat before, temps are 35C CPU, 29C GPU, and 27C HDD. If anything, the computer was just idle the whole time.

 

[creed3020]

Dumb question, but by any chance was the power off to your home when you originally came home and then restored by the time you got back?

I ask this because perhaps it wasn't the PSU but rather the source.

 

[Gs dewd]

If it where me, I would install the new psu and check into getting an rma for the Evga. Most likely it will fail again. Just explain what happened and how you tested it to conclude the psu was at fault.

 

[bryanl]

A faulty solder joint inside the power supply may have been fixed temporarily through thermal expansion and contraction of a component by the power supply being jostled even slightly. A recent review of another EVGA Supernova 750W, version B2, said:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&file=print&reid=393

"While Super Flower [manufacture of the EVGA] generally does the soldering well enough to pass muster with me, this time out the unit seems to have been passed over with mustard instead. There's flux on some of the traces and some joints don't have enough solder. That'll be a scoring hit."

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Had this twice before, just replace it, they died pretty quickly after that.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

Don't suppose you registered it with EVGA when you got it new? If so RMA, sounds like its deiing and you want to make a server. You don't wanna leave that POS on for extended periods..................

 

[tracerit]

Good links. I registered it when I got it. I"ll send over an RMA request to see what happens. So far it's been on 3 straight days no problems, but can never be too safe. Hopefully they don't send me a unit with that soldering issue though :/

 

[bryanl]

You can test the soldering somewhat by disconnecting power to the hard disks and slapping the power supply while the computer is running. I prefer to do this with the power supply outside the case so the slapping force won't dislodge heavy cards or heatsinks. It's highly unlikely the problem will remain dormant.

 

[tracerit]

I received my RMA unit and all was well for 3 days uptime until just now. Was using the computer the last four hours and just as I went to take a 20 min shower, it decides to crap out again... :/

I guess it's safe to say it isn't the PSU anymore. Would the motherboard be the next component to look into? I can't imagine a software crash shutting the whole PC down.

 

[meeshu]

The EVGA SuperNOVA G2 750W is a high quality PSU.

It is surprising that there would be issues with this unit, although all PSU's ultimately fail.

Make sure the video card and the RAM is seated properly/firmly.

Run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, available here.

Check the computer again.

If there are still issues, then you could do a basic check of the PSU using the PSU tester and/or using a digital multimeter to measure (unloaded) voltage outputs using the procedure here

If PSU is OK then it is likely the motherboard is faulty and most likely would have to be replaced.

 

[bryanl]

Turn off all power conservation features, both in the BIOS and in the operating system, and leave off the case side panel. Then if the system stays on, it's not the power supply or motherboard.

People have received defective replacement components, sometimes multiple times.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Turn off all power conservation features, both in the BIOS and in the operating system

Oh, wouldn't it be embarrassing if the computer were just going sleep per the power settings?

 

[fire400]

i had a TR2 850 black widow and the PCI-express video card 4-pin modular unit on the PSU just melted, and within the five warranty... i was like WTF...
the plastic had warped. i'm like, fvck this, i'm not running this sh!t on a new mobo.
if your intuition tells you otherwise, use some common sense and get something else.

also, did you try other products on the same outlets? sometimes it might be a power flux with your house, and may have nothing to do with the psu.
also, try a diff/new power cord.
and if anything else, you can test run it on a junk pc and push the PSU to its knees with PSU software benchmarking/other hardware that utilize the PSU's strong points.

 

[tracerit]

checked all power options and everything looks ok. set things on performance setting.

ran a RAM test with using mdsched.exe and it reported that I have a "memory problem" once it boots back into windows. I have two sticks of Corsair Ballistix 8GB RAM, ran the test on each one and at different slots. It reported a memory problem every time.

At this point, I don't think it's the PSU anymore. I'm on a UPS, so power issues throughout the house shouldn't be a problem? the UPS never kicked in entirely.

 

[silicon]

checked all power options and everything looks ok. set things on performance setting.

ran a RAM test with using mdsched.exe and it reported that I have a "memory problem" once it boots back into windows. I have two sticks of Corsair Ballistix 8GB RAM, ran the test on each one and at different slots. It reported a memory problem every time.

At this point, I don't think it's the PSU anymore. I'm on a UPS, so power issues throughout the house shouldn't be a problem? the UPS never kicked in entirely.

try memtest for the memory.

 

[Ryanrenesis]

Definitely run memtest86+ on your RAM.

Second, can you enable "Dummy Load" on your BIOS and see if the issue still persists?

It sounds like a PSU's safety feature that trips when too little load is being pulled.

Since this happens everytime you're away and never when you're actually using the PC or when it's under load, it sounds like an awfully plausible scenario.

 

[tracerit]

ran a memtest86 on the RAM and it came up with errors. Not sure how bad but errors nonetheless. But after the memtest, the computer still stayed on for 3 days straight with no shutdowns. Either way I ended up getting new sticks of GSkill RAM and a memtest ran clear with 0 errors. Hopefully the issue has been solved, so far I have 2 days uptime going.

http://i.imgur.com/gvQ0ea4.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ZjW5c4E.jpg