Am I right in blaming the PSU?

[JamsoWamso]

I've been having Hard Drive issues - the drive not showing up (in BIOS or Windows), the drive showing up but not being able to read/write, that sort of stuff. The drive is a WD Black. I chucked in a WD Blue, and although it worked fine for a while, it eventually started behaving the same. The Black drive would show "too many bad sectors" in Data Lifeguard.

I tried different SATA ports & cables, the issue persisted.

I then kept the drive connected to my computer's motherboard, but used the SATA power connector from another computer's power supply to power it - issue persists.

So I moved the drive into the other computer completely - and the issues went away. I then powered that drive, plugged into the other computer's motherboard, with my usual PSU - no problems.

I figured it must be the motherboard, since the issue was only ever occurring when the drive was connected to my usual motherboard.

To be sure, I took the whole system apart and powered the whole system with another power supply (motherboard, CPU and all).

Strangely, the issue went away. I figured it must be the power supply. I put the system back together again, and for about a week, I've had no issues, so I thought it must've been a loose connection. But now the issue has returned.

I'm still within warranty for all of the parts inside my PC. Should I return the PSU?


PSU is a 500W SilverStone Strider Essentials Series. Motherboard is a GA-970A-D3P (rev 2), and the drive is a 1TB WD Black.

 

[bboiprfsr]

sure. if you deducted the source of the issue to be that component, you have evidence to RMA based on your warranty.

 

[Hawkshot]

due to the steps you have already taken I would agree that it seems your PSU isn't delivering enough power to your system, do an RMA on the PSU and see if the new one works better. if there is no improvement get a refund on that PSU and by a high quality psu at 550W maybe even a 620W from Seasonic