News EVGA power supply allegedly kills 22TB of customer storage — revised model from RMA had a different pin layout and killed all SATA-powered devices

[cyrusfox]

This sucks for the impacted user. I have always been able to find pin outs when needed, but this is definitely not expected. Usually when getting a RMA PSU unit it has been like NIB replacement with all proper cables. EVGA would have a leg to stand on, albeit a shaky one if they included cables. but without, clear fault on them here.

 

[hotaru251]

Doesn't this make you wish for color coded power cables, and labeled socket pin-outs?

no we all just wish for standardization to eliminate any issue all together.
modular psu have been a thing for what? 10-15yrs? They should of agreed to a standard by now its not like they gain anything by having their own version of cables (as if ppl care about it they just get custom ones anyways)

 

[Loadedaxe]

Another example that the PSU industry needs to have a standard for cabling so this doesn't happen, on a side note, not having a redundant backup in today's world is insane. All of my data is stored on a local backup and the cloud....just in case.

While EVGA does make some good quality PSUs and QC is usually good, this should have been caught by them. And yes they should pay for the drives, but not the data recovery.

 

[Notton]

no we all just wish for standardization to eliminate any issue all together.
modular psu have been a thing for what? 10-15yrs? They should of agreed to a standard by now its not like they gain anything by having their own version of cables (as if ppl care about it they just get custom ones anyways)

You know the old adage about standards, right?

Standards

xkcd.com

 

[razor512]

He will have to check every fuse and diode on the board to see if they are functioning properly. Each rail should have some protection.

 

[Dementoss]

Because at the time, at least in the UK, EVGA had a good reputation, in 2018 I fitted new EVGA PSUs in both mine and my wife's PCs. So far with 5½ years use, they just work...

 

[sremick]

This almost happened to me with a different power supply brand. Luckily the cables were keyed at the ends that plugged into the power supply, and the revision had slightly different keyed cables.

 

[wkm001]

Their warranty terms don't trump negligence. Take them to small claims, I'm being this guy wins, even if they show up.

Looks like the market is growing for a SATA, 4 pin, and 8 pin tester. I can't believe the manufacturers aren't keying these connectors.

 

[newtechldtech]

and get laughed at?

There is zero proof (thats acceptable in court) it happened llike he states.
There is a reason data clauses are very rare as its nearly impossible to prove what actually caused it.
The system can easily be abused is why.

Thats why he needs a good lawyer . as a matter of fact they "did" send him different "ELECTRIC DESIGN specs" replacement product without telling him . this alone can be used as a start.

 

[pixelpusher220]

That is absolutely not a guaranteed outcome.

And could have easily been prevented with any rational backup routine.

And, from the article, we have no idea of the status of the "data". Only the demise of the physical drives.

uh "Thankfully, I do have cloud backups, but my wife and I did both lose our entire day's work as the most recent backup was from the morning."

I dare say basically nobody has that good of a backup system in place. To fry 22 TB and only lose 1/2 days work?

 

[USAFRet]

uh "Thankfully, I do have cloud backups, but my wife and I did both lose our entire day's work as the most recent backup was from the morning."

I dare say basically nobody has that good of a backup system in place. To fry 22 TB and only lose 1/2 days work?

I do.

My main system does an Incremental backup of each physical drive, between 0100 and 0500.
Every night.
6 individual SSDs, 1TB each.

I have had to recover twice.

Once was a dead drive. 960GB SSD, 605GB data on it.
Died suddenly.
Slot in a new drive, recover from the 0300 backup.
All 605GB recovered.

Other one was the OS drive.
Due to installing absolute crap software...the easiest, fastest way to "fix it" was recovering last nights incremental.
This was just a few months ago.


I could recover any or all of the 6x SSDs in my main system, to any point in the last 30 days.


Having "22TB" data does not mean copying that whole 22TB every night.
This is the concept of Incremental or Differential backups.

 

[Dementoss]

I do.

My main system does an Incremental backup of each physical drive, between 0100 and 0500.
Every night.
6 individual SSDs, 1TB each.

I have had to recover twice.

Once was a dead drive. 960GB SSD, 605GB data on it.
Died suddenly.
Slot in a new drive, recover from the 0300 backup.
All 605GB recovered.

Other one was the OS drive.
Due to installing absolute crap software...the easiest, fastest way to "fix it" was recovering last nights incremental.
This was just a few months ago.


I could recover any or all of the 6x SSDs in my main system, to any point in the last 30 days.


Having "22TB" data does not mean copying that whole 22TB every night.
This is the concept of Incremental or Differential backups.

That's all very well but, the most thorough of back-up procedures, would not have protected the SSDs from damage. If the claim is completely honest, EVGA should compensate.

 

[USAFRet]

That's all very well but, the most thorough of back-up procedures, would not have protected the SSDs from damage. If the claim is completely honest, EVGA should compensate.

Absolutely.
The physical damage to the drives is all on EVGA.
Completely, no questions asked.
They need to replace the physical drive(s).

The data, however, is all on the user.

 

[CmdrShepard]

Regardless of whether the customer had backup, the whole issue here is EVGA's fault.

1. They told him to send his faulty unit back without cables and accessories since they won't be returned (standard practice).
2. They contracted a new revision of PSU with different pinout. Like, WTF? Do you want to screw your own support and logistics on purpose?
3. They sent him a newer revision of PSU without sending him revised cables.

Therefore, they should cover all expenses.

If there's anything the customer is guilty of, it's not asking EVGA what they changed in the new revision before rushing to plug it in. I am sure 99% of computer users wouldn't ask either and despite my own tech-savvyness I doubt I would have asked them either.

What they did is wrong on so many levels -- they should be publicly apologizing and sending a notice to everyone who bought those PSUs (old and new) that they shouldn't try mixing cables before more people get burned by this.

 

[racecar56]

There's a reason I've steered clear of modular power supplies for a decade now. Especially with today's case designs - or even many in 2015, for that matter - I don't think they even make much sense, except perhaps in a SFF case. I've been hearing stories like this for a long time.

But the fact that EVGA sent out that incompatible replacement is where the massive screw-up lies, and that makes it even more offensive than just a bunch of messy nonstandard nonsense that we've always been having since modular power supplies were first put out on the market. Because at least if you knew what you were doing, you could avoid it. But now a PSU maker has stepped into their own pitfall, taking customer's hard drives & data down into the hole!

I do hope that this gaining so much traction will not only push them to actually help the customer, but also for more people to actually understand what goes into the design of a modular power supply, so as not to make that kind of a mistake.

 

[USAFRet]

Regardless of whether the customer had backup, the whole issue here is EVGA's fault.

1. They told him to send his faulty unit back without cables and accessories since they won't be returned (standard practice).
2. They contracted a new revision of PSU with different pinout. Like, WTF? Do you want to screw your own support and logistics on purpose?
3. They sent him a newer revision of PSU without sending him revised cables.

Therefore, they should cover all expenses.

If there's anything the customer is guilty of, it's not asking EVGA what they changed in the new revision before rushing to plug it in. I am sure 99% of computer users wouldn't ask either and despite my own tech-savvyness I doubt I would have asked them either.

What they did is wrong on so many levels -- they should be publicly apologizing and sending a notice to everyone who bought those PSUs (old and new) that they shouldn't try mixing cables before more people get burned by this.

Yes.

EVGA is totally on the hook for the destroyed hardware. Drives, whatever.

But paying for all costs does not necessarily mean your data is 100% recovered.

 

[fzabkar]

The potential solution is DIY-able for a cost of $0. I have helped users do exactly that in this forum and others.

 

[USAFRet]

The potential solution is DIY-able for a cost of $0. I have helped users do exactly that in this forum and others.

The issue here is that EVGA screwed the pooch, in sending out a replacement power supply, that did not work with the original cables.

This is totally their fault.

The user should not have to DIY a fix. At all.

 

[DSzymborski]

There's a reason I've steered clear of modular power supplies for a decade now. Especially with today's case designs - or even many in 2015, for that matter - I don't think they even make much sense, except perhaps in a SFF case. I've been hearing stories like this for a long time.

The problem you run into is the vast majority of the high-quality power supplies *are* modular because that's what people who buy them expect. So if you stay away from modular power supplies, you're either limiting yourself to a small segment of the good power supplies or buying a mediocre one.

 

[fzabkar]

The issue here is that EVGA screwed the pooch, in sending out a replacement power supply, that did not work with the original cables.

This is totally their fault.

The user should not have to DIY a fix. At all.

I accept that, but the user may need to be up for a fight. Justice is rarely ever achieved without cost. In fact, the user sent the damaged drives to a data recovery company.

 

[NedSmelly]

True, but so it is the other way around! The pizza place may be mostly concerned with me giving them the $20 in return for a pizza, but most of *my* friendship with them is similar, getting to give me the pizza in return for $20.

That's a contractual agreement, and not a friendship. You can be friendly in the transaction though, which is a separate thing.

My point being that corporate entities are not looking out for you. Their marketing teams may humanise them, but people need to stop confusing this with business practices. This seems to be happening in community discourse. People should stop "supporting" their chosen corporate brand because they seemed nice. They don't need our support.

Whether EVGA has met their contractual agreement under their warranty policy (& regional consumer law obligations) is the big question. If they choose to support a customer beyond their obligations, then it's considered 'goodwill'. But it's not a case of being friendly.

 

[USAFRet]

I accept that, but the user may need to be up for a fight. Justice is rarely ever without cost. In fact, the user sent the damaged drives to a data recovery company.

The cost of the physical drive replacement is trivial, compared to whatever data was on them.

20TB of dead drive space can be replaced for $200-$300.
Which, in the corporate world, is lunch money.

EVGA absolutely needs to replace the drives.
But the data...that may not be recoverable from those original drives.

 

[CmdrShepard]

There's a reason I've steered clear of modular power supplies for a decade now.

To be clear, this isn't the reason.

Modular power supplies are great. Good cabling is hard enough with modular PSU, let alone with fixed length cables which can't be removed if you don't use them.

Especially with today's case designs - or even many in 2015, for that matter - I don't think they even make much sense, except perhaps in a SFF case.

Err... no?

I have Fractal Design Define 7 XL case and I would absolutely never bother putting a non-modular PSU into it. Even working with modular Seasonic was too much of a hassle, can't imagine having to deal with extra unused cables no matter how much space there might be inside.

I do hope that this gaining so much traction will not only push them to actually help the customer, but also for more people to actually understand what goes into the design of a modular power supply, so as not to make that kind of a mistake.

I doubt lay people will ever understand things like that because it's going against all reasonable expectations and against the principle of least astonishment.

It wouldn't have occured even to me (and I know electronics good enough to understand how power supplies are made) to check whether the voltages on the connectors have changed places between two power supplies of the same make and model.

 

[pixelpusher220]

I do.

My main system does an Incremental backup of each physical drive, between 0100 and 0500.
Every night.
6 individual SSDs, 1TB each.

I have had to recover twice.

Once was a dead drive. 960GB SSD, 605GB data on it.
Died suddenly.
Slot in a new drive, recover from the 0300 backup.
All 605GB recovered.

Other one was the OS drive.
Due to installing absolute crap software...the easiest, fastest way to "fix it" was recovering last nights incremental.
This was just a few months ago.


I could recover any or all of the 6x SSDs in my main system, to any point in the last 30 days.


Having "22TB" data does not mean copying that whole 22TB every night.
This is the concept of Incremental or Differential backups.

I think you qualify as the exception that proves the rule ;-)

 

[Moonstick2]

I dare say basically nobody has that good of a backup system in place. To fry 22 TB and only lose 1/2 days work?

The more data somebody has, and especially when it's related to their work, the more likely they are to have a good regular backup system in place. (Personally I'd have been more surprised if he hadn't any backups.) It's more usually the people who have a few 100 GBs of photos on their laptop that they never look at but still have extreme sentimental value who don't even think about having multiple copies.