Question EVGA 850W P2 power supply issues

[R0CKSTE4DY]

Ive had nothing but issues with this thing. $140 brand new when I bought it. Just sent it in for another RMA. So it will be my 4th one when I get it back. The latest one would spontaneously reboot after 10-15 mins. Then again after less time, and again and again until it wouldn't even make it past the bios boot. Its had issues in 3 different systems. I have an EVGA 850w Bronze that I've had zero issues with. Thoughts? I've paid $60 in just shipping the thing to California for the RMA's.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Did you ever stop to consider that perhaps it's NOT the power supply, and is something else altogether? Did they ever ACTUALLY say, yes this is bad, or did they just send you back the same unit because they didn't find anything wrong with it on any of those occasions?

Honestly, this sound a LOT more like a motherboard or memory issue.

What are your FULL hardware specifications including ALL EXACT model numbers and the approximate length of time each component has been in service?

 

[R0CKSTE4DY]

That would have been my first guess had I not tried it in 3 separate systems. I know for a fact at least this 3rd one is a separate one as I had done the advanced RMA which they send one out as Im shipping the other to them. Initial and final mobo was a GIGABYTE GA-970-Gaming SLI with an AMD FX-8370 and 16gb of gskill RAM. Had an MSI RX480 at one point, then a gtx 1070. Went through 2 RMA's. Had issues with both. Sent the 3rd one to my brother since the EVGA 850w Bronze I'd bought had given me zero issues. sat on a shelf for 2 years after he had issues with it trying to run his ryzen rig with a 1080. Tried running it in my newest build with an Asus Z390-P with an i5 kaby lake and 16gb of Patriot Viper 4 RAM and my gtx1070. Had blue screen and shutdown issues. threw it back in my old amd rig with a 960, and it has the issues stated above. Ive never had a single issue with my bronze in either rig, and my brothers rig has run well with his alternative. All that being said, I'm not feeling too much like its a 'me' problem as it is a unit problem. Don't get me wrong, how I could be that unlucky vexes me as well. The one and only thing I could possibly point a finger at would be my house electrical and how the power can fluctuate small amounts based one whats running on that breaker. My brother living elsewhere and having issues points away from that though.

oof long comment

Current Build Its in:
GIGABYTE GA-970-Gaming SLI -1.5yr
AMD FX-8370 with wraith cooler -1.5yr
GSkill Model F3-14900CL10D-16GBXL -1.5yr
MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GD5T OC -unknown service
Western Digital 2tb HDD not sure on the exact model - 2yrs

 

[Darkbreeze]

Makes sense, thanks for sharing that additional information.

Do you happen to be using a UPS or power strip, or are you plugging these units directly into the wall outlet? Have you tested the wall outlet (And thus, the entire circuit) with a polarity tester to verify there are no polarity or grounding issues on the circuit? You can get them fairly cheap through Amazon or most home centers. Walmart may even sell them. They look like this and they are a very good idea to have, even for other issues or purposes.

https://www.amazon.com/Sperry-Instr...?keywords=outlet+tester&qid=1574646747&sr=8-4

I mean, I agree with you, that you've done things pretty much correctly, but it's so unlikely as to be almost impossible that you are getting multiple bad P2 units. Don't get me wrong, if it were two of them, I'd say bad luck. Three, four, there's something else going on.

Perhaps a bad motherboard or other issue that is damaging them before you've had a chance to try them in another system?

Also, if you are using them with a UPS that has the wrong kind of wave form, that can cause issues and potentially damage a power supply as well. It's not as common, but it's also not as common for most people to even USE a UPS backup so that's not surprising. It's still possible.

Other than those potential considerations, I'm at a loss as to how you could get multiple bad units. I've owned and installed MANY EVGA power supplies for customers and myself, and aside from some of their cheaper models I've never seen any sort of issues like this. Doesn't mean it can't happen, but it would be really surprising.