Faulty Automatic Voltage Regulator possible cause for failed PSU?

[PaztheLobster]

I helped my girlfriend pick parts for her first desktop computer and made it a point to choose a reliable PSU since I know what a cheap PSU could do. Due to my insistence we had to go to the trouble of going into another store just to look for one. We settled on a Seasonic ECO-500 (SS500BT) since I know Seasonic is a trusted PSU brand.

The problem is that only 3 months in, the PSU completely failed out of the blue. She was able to use the computer completely fine the previous night and when she decided to turn it on again, it wouldn't turn on. Their neighborhood had a blackout for a few hours but get this, the entire system was unplugged during the blackout.

My question is this. Is it possible that a faulty AVR (automatic voltage regulator) is the culprit here? Or could it just be that the PSU just randomly died? She's been using a very old, generic AVR. Also her area is known to have brown outs often. I'm just wondering how to avoid the problem in the future while we wait for the replacement PSU. Should we invest in a better AVR?

 

[Zerk2012]

Any power supply can fail. That is one of seasonics lower quality units thus the 3 year warranty instead of the normal 5.

 

[PaztheLobster]

Any power supply can fail. That is one of seasonics lower quality units thus the 3 year warranty instead of the normal 5.

That sucks. Is there any way to reduce the chance of a failing PSU? Also do you think the brownouts could be related?

 

[Zerk2012]

Dirty power can cause all kinds of problems. Other than buying a UPS nothing really you can do.

 

[nukemaster]

If this is a the first power supply to go like that, chances are it was just a defect.

A UPS(many have some form of AVR) is always a good option if you have lots of power issues.

Lucky for me, the power here is pretty good. mostly blackouts(and those are rare). I have only seen a small number of brownouts(low voltage) here.

last 24h here.

 

[PaztheLobster]

If this is a the first power supply to go like that, chances are it was just a defect.

A UPS(many have some form of AVR) is always a good option if you have lots of power issues.

Lucky for me, the power here is pretty good. mostly blackouts(and those are rare). I have only seen a small number of brownouts(low voltage) here.

last 24h here.

Thanks, I hope you are right!