Question Faulty PSU ?

[ZeyadBB]

My EVGA 500 BR PSU is only 5 months old, my PC for the last month or so was randomly shutting down & restarting immediately with the kernel power 41 (63) event in Event Viewer, it was either at idle or during use, searches turned up that the most likely culprit is the PSU, but I decided to do tests first using memtest & OCCT, as well as resetting any OC I did & resetting BIOS to default.

Then, yesterday the PC shut down randomly again, but this time the PC didn't turn back on with no power going through, as in keyboard & mouse not receiving power and PC not responding to the power button, until I plugged the power cord to another opening on the power adapter, as soon as I did that I started hearing popping noises coming from the PC and I unplugged it immediately out of fear.

Is that definitely the PSU? Did I do damage to the rest of my PC?

Specs:
PSU: EVGA 500 BR
CPU: i3 9100f
RAM: 16GB
GPU: RX 570 4GB
2 fans
1 SSD, 1 HDD

Thanks.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

PSU is EVGA 500 BR

Is that definitely the PSU? Did I do damage to the rest of my PC?

this is a very low quality unit.
it wouldn't surprise me at all that it has just failed while pushing this system.

the possibility that it also could've damaged connected components is always there.
but, you'd have to connect them to known working unit to verify for sure.

 

[geofelt]

Your psu has a 3 year warranty which is not indicative of a high quality unit.
Better power supplies will carry 7/10/12 year warranties.


The only way to test for a bad psu is to replace it with a known good psu of sufficient capability.
If the psu was faulty, I doubt it caused any damage.
Borrow a replacement to test with if you can.

If possible, I would return it. Otherwise initiate a RMA for a replacement.

 

[ZeyadBB]

Your psu has a 3 year warranty which is not indicative of a high quality unit.
Better power supplies will carry 7/10/12 year warranties.


The only way to test for a bad psu is to replace it with a known good psu of sufficient capability.
If the psu was faulty, I doubt it caused any damage.
Borrow a replacement to test with if you can.

If possible, I would return it. Otherwise initiate a RMA for a replacement.

I understand it's a lower quality unit, there's barely any decent PC components available where I live and if there are they would be priced horribly compared to their international pricing.

I checked it on the PSU tier list before buying it to have been ranked at tier C, albeit being in the 'speculative' section of the tier, that means it has low ripple on the single 12V rail, sufficient efficiency & decent protection, that would have been enough for my low- end system I thought, I only use it for studying & some gaming, no real OC applied.

I just wanted to make sure that that meant it was definitely the PSU that went bad before initiating the RMA, I don't think I can return it where I'm from.

 

[DaleH]

I understand it's a lower quality unit, there's barely any decent PC components available where I live and if there are they would be priced horribly compared to their international pricing.

I checked it on the PSU tier list before buying it to have been ranked at tier C, albeit being in the 'speculative' section of the tier, that means it has low ripple on the single 12V rail, sufficient efficiency & decent protection, that would have been enough for my low- end system I thought, I only use it for studying & some gaming, no real OC applied.

I just wanted to make sure that that meant it was definitely the PSU that went bad before initiating the RMA, I don't think I can return it where I'm from.

There is no way to be completely sure, except to replace it with a know good one - borrowed or purchased. Even new things fail.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

EVGA BR units are lower end but still by far not unsafe units, this is not at all expected behavior. Should be able to reliably power a system of this caliber without problems.

until I plugged the power cord to another opening on the power adapter

What exactly do you mean by this. What was the PC plugged into?

Don't plug it in for the time being. No way to know what's damaged unless you replace the power supply. Check EVGA for warranty, they're support is very helpful typically.

 

[ZeyadBB]

EVGA BR units are lower end but still by far not unsafe units, this is not at all expected behavior. Should be able to reliably power a system of this caliber without problems.


What exactly do you mean by this. What was the PC plugged into?

Don't plug it in for the time being. No way to know what's damaged unless you replace the power supply. Check EVGA for warranty, they're support is very helpful typically.

The power adapter/outlet which is plugged into the wall that allows me to connect monitor, PC & charger together, etc, is what I meant. The adapter/wall itself is fine, monitor & charger are working fine.

Yes, I haven't plugged it in since, I managed to immediately unplug it as soon as I heard popping noises to hopefully avoid any damages.

I thought so too about the PSU, it says it's tier C ('speculative') on the tierlist, it came from EVGA which I know is good when it comes to warranty and it should've been fine to run my low-end PC, far from unsafe.

I managed to contact the local supplier & I'll be initiating an RMA soon.

 

[ZeyadBB]

Update: The PSU came back fine and it isn't experiencing any shutdowns during testing.

There are also no visible burn marks on either the PSU or the motherboard. Can someone direct me to where I should check for burn marks more accurately?

Also, does this pin the problem (and the popping noises I heard when I replugged the PSU into the outlet) down to the motherboard?

Should I re-install the PSU and try to turn the PC on or would that further damage the PC?

Thanks.

 

[Misgar]

There are also no visible burn marks on either the PSU or the motherboard.

Visible burn marks are rare and only occur when high currents flow when something shorts out a %V or 12V supply. Most faults I've diagnosed in computers have been invisible to the human eye. Don't expect to find burn marks on dead components.

popping noises I heard when I replugged the PSU into the outlet

I hear perfectly normal popping noises if I plug an ATX PSU into a wall outlet with the PSU's rear panel switch set to On. They're due to a very short duration (millisecond) high current surge of up to 100A that flows into the PSU from the AC mains, as the 420V DC bulk capacitor in the PSU charges up.

I also hear abnormal popping noises or even bigger bangs, if I plug a damaged or dead short circuit PSU into the mains. It's wise not to repeat the performance! You might destroy your PC.

After a while, you get to know the difference.

Chuck your PSU in the trash can (or dispose of it more thoughtfully at a environmentally friendly waste facility) and buy a new PSU.

 

[ZeyadBB]

Visible burn marks are rare and only occur when high currents flow when something shorts out a %V or 12V supply. Most faults I've diagnosed in computers have been invisible to the human eye. Don't expect to find burn marks on dead components.


I hear perfectly normal popping noises if I plug an ATX PSU into a wall outlet with the PSU's rear panel switch set to On. They're due to a very short duration (millisecond) high current surge of up to 100A that flows into the PSU from the AC mains, as the 420V DC bulk capacitor in the PSU charges up.

I also hear abnormal popping noises or even bigger bangs, if I plug a damaged or dead short circuit PSU into the mains. It's wise not to repeat the performance! You might destroy your PC.

After a while, you get to know the difference.

Chuck your PSU in the trash can (or dispose of it more thoughtfully at a environmentally friendly waste facility) and buy a new PSU.

It isn't the PSU, I got it tested & came back fine, no popping noises, as well as plugging it into another PC for 2 days straight with no problems or shutdowns like I was experiencing before the incident.

Might the popping noises (they were long ones, not the normal single popping noise you'd hear when plugging the PSU, I know those) be from the motherboard? And if so, is it dead & what might have been damaged alongside it?

 

[Misgar]

Might the popping noises (they were long ones) ... be from the motherboard?

The only "normal" sounds I've heard coming from motherboards are from the optional loudspeaker for BIOS beep codes and small high RPM fans on chipsets and M.2 drives.

I've seen motherboards with burst electrolytics, but this type of capacitor is being phased out in favour of "solid" capacitors, which seem to be less prone to bursting. Even when a capacitor bursts (or in extreme cases explodes) it's usually a fairly rapid affair, not long a drawn out noise.

Without sitting in front of your board, I cannot be sure what's happening, but it might be a semiconductor (diode, transistor, chipset) or an inductor dying due to an internal short circuit. If this is happening, the motherboard is junk.

The only other likely cuplrits are a partially burnt out 24-way ATX main supply header/cable assembly or 4/8-way ATX12V CPU supply header/cable assembly, or power leads to a GPU card. These will emit a fizzing/crackling noise if contact resistance is high, due to partial insertion. Most likely to happen on an RTX4090, but you could check your RX570 PCIe power lead connection.

If you have a modular PSU, check all the plugs are fully mated, otherwise this might happen (but highly unlikely).

 

[ZeyadBB]

The PSU is working fine, but you telling me to check the PSU cables got me to check the one cable I hadn't checked which is the power cable, the one from the PSU to the wall, I had another one from an older PSU & apparently that was the fix. So the crackling noises I kept hearing were in fact from the power cable connected to the PSU and not popping noises coming from the PC itself.