[SOLVED] Good Quality PSU burst today. Need Advice

boogie_1987

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Hi my name is Sergio, I'm from Mexico City

3 years ago I bought this PSU for my build and it worked great all this time.

iseNuwP.jpg


Sadly my PSU burst really hard today, emitting sparkles, a really loud noise and a smell of burnt plastic. My PC was connected to a 900VA UPS along with my Modem. My Monitor and Speakers were connected to a surge protector and both the surge protector and UPS were connected to the same duplex power outlet, I mean both on their corresponding outlets. My monitor, my speakers and Modem are ok.

I immediately took out my 2 SSDs and an external HDD I had plugged in and tested them on an old computer I had lying around (the one I'm using now) and they are ok, all my files are still there.
Does this mean that there's a small chance that the rest of my components could be ok?.

I checked the PSU cables, and they don't seem to be melted or burnt. I tried to smell the GPU and CPU they don't smell but I guess that doesn't mean anything.

I actually started having a shut down issue with this PC during the past year. But I thought they were power outages because the UPS also turned off emitting a small alarm, power outages are very common here where I live. But I'm almost certain they not every shut down I had was a power outage, there was something wrong with my UPS or the PSU, but I don't know.

I didn't have any overclocking going on, I wasn't even gaming I was watching some videos and checking my facebook.
  • MOBO: Aorus B450 pro wifi
  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 2600x
  • RAM: Corsair 16GB vengenace rgb pro
  • GPU: Nvidia RTX 2060 Super. (dude this one hurts the most).
  • PSU Seasonic Focus + Gold, 650FX, 650W. 80 Plus Gold.
With the info I just gave you, can you guess what could have gone wrong?. What should I do first?. I could check the GPU at a friend's house, but his PSU is below the power requirements of the 2060, would that be an issue?. I could probably test my RAM on this old computer, but the Motherboard is from 2012 or so and it's still running an AMD FX GPU, so, should I try that?.

What do you think?, is there a glimmer of hope that somehow my PSU protected my components and died on its own?.

If you need more info please don't hesitate to ask.

Thank you!.
 
Solution
Given that your drives survived it does increase the likelihood that other things survived as well. Hopefully the built in protections saved the rest of your hardware. Your ram will not work in your friend's system. Definitely don't try the RTX 2060 in there either. Failures happen, regarding electronics, without any explanation. All you can do now is buy a quality PSU, and see if everything else survived. For the money, this is a pretty good one to get.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $79.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-10-20 17:04...

logainofhades

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Given that your drives survived it does increase the likelihood that other things survived as well. Hopefully the built in protections saved the rest of your hardware. Your ram will not work in your friend's system. Definitely don't try the RTX 2060 in there either. Failures happen, regarding electronics, without any explanation. All you can do now is buy a quality PSU, and see if everything else survived. For the money, this is a pretty good one to get.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $79.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-10-20 17:04 EDT-0400
 
Solution
if it's 3 years old with a 10 year warranty i would definitely be getting my replacement.
considering that these are fairly high rated models i wouldn't expect the same issue again.

to determine if other components were affected would need to try them with a different power supply.
whether borrowing another or just waiting for the replacement.

if things turned out damaged;
check Seasonic's warranty coverage.
many opt to cover components that were damaged by a faulty PSU up to a certain dollar amount.
 
boogie_1987 Hello, and sorry that this happened to you. I presume that the components connected to your blown power supply are okay. I recommend that you reach out to Seasonic support and start the warranty process. Once approved, you can request an advanced RMA.

https://seasonic.com/contact-us

What I would do in your situation:

1. Reach out to SeaSonic support via chat, which might be easier than calling since you live in Mexico City, since they may not have a local support number.

2. Once RMA (Return request) is approved, then determine how much it would cost me to ship the broken power supply to the SeaSonic.

3. Immediately respond to this very message thread with two PC component websites that I felt most comfortable with buying a new power supply, just in case the RMA process would take too long. FYI: I would definitely submit the warranty claim whether I purchased a new power supply or not. If SeaSonic treats your right during your time of need (warranty request) then consider purchasing another unit of equal or higher wattage; personally I would increase the wattage if I anticipated upgrading to a higher tier graphics card in the next couple of years.

Friendly piece of advice: Purchase the power supply that will handle your CPU & GPU requirements for the next ten years, since that is the length of your current power supply warranty.
 

boogie_1987

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Mar 2, 2018
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Given that your drives survived it does increase the likelihood that other things survived as well. Hopefully the built in protections saved the rest of your hardware. Your ram will not work in your friend's system. Definitely don't try the RTX 2060 in there either. Failures happen, regarding electronics, without any explanation. All you can do now is buy a quality PSU, and see if everything else survived. For the money, this is a pretty good one to get.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: Corsair RM (2019) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $79.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-10-20 17:04 EDT-0400

My friend's PC is different from the PC I was planning to test my RAM on. My friend says he has a 500W PSU and the RTX 2060 Super requires a 550W. I guess I can try, just to see if I get it to post, I won't run any games or do anything, just see if it posts and maybe load windows.
 

boogie_1987

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Mar 2, 2018
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Good news.

My friend's PC posted and my GPU shows in Device Manager and Dxdiag correctly. I didn't check bios or nvidia control panel though.

I hope my RAM, CPU and Motherboard are also ok.

I will contact Seasonic now.
 
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boogie_1987

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Update

So I started the RMA process and since I'm in Mexico the shipment cost to California is around 60 dollars. A new Power Supply with similar characteristics would cost me around $120 dollars even less for some 80+ bronze ones.

If I just buy a new one, I get free shipping, it will probably arrive tomorrow and I can resume my activities, I work as a 3D artist so I have clients waiting and a couple of deadlines I have to meet.

Or I can technically save money and wait like 3 weeks or more to get my replacement. And try to do 3D work on this old FX pc with 4gb of ram.
 
Sounds like you have a decision to make. It also sounds like you can't properly do your work without access to your primary machine. You'll need to look at the potential income that you'll receive from this client compared to the $120 cost of a new power supply. A potentially much bigger issue is the opportunity cost if you lost this client for future work, if you didn't meet your deadline.

If I were in your situation here in the United States: I would buy a brand new power supply AND submit the old one for RMA. But my situation is very different than yours, since shipping from within the US to the US would be much cheaper for me. With your situation, I would probably bite the bullet, and buy a replacement power supply ASAP, but the decision is ultimately yours.
 
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boogie_1987

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Sounds like you have a decision to make. It also sounds like you can't properly do your work without access to your primary machine. You'll need to look at the potential income that you'll receive from this client compared to the $120 cost of a new power supply. A potentially much bigger issue is the opportunity cost if you lost this client for future work, if you didn't meet your deadline.

If I were in your situation here in the United States: I would buy a brand new power supply AND submit the old one for RMA. But my situation is very different than yours, since shipping from within the US to the US would be much cheaper for me. With your situation, I would probably bite the bullet, and buy a replacement power supply ASAP, but the decision is ultimately yours.

Hi. Dude thank you so much for taking the time to post all these answers I really appreciate it.

That's the main issue with my region, Latin America. Here most tech stuff are imports, so we have to deal with this.

Yeah I mean I don't think I will lose the client, but it is definitely bad for my reputation and ultimately thanks to them I'm able to buy a new one right now and it will definitely pay for itself in a couple of months or less.

So I guess I'm buying a new one, any suggestions?. Gamer's Nexus recently posted a video where they basically say that we shouldn't base out purchase on 80 ratings, so that makes this more confusing XD
 
So I guess I'm buying a new one, any suggestions?
a good place to help compare models and start a search:
 

boogie_1987

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Mar 2, 2018
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No, my system is a Ryzen 2600x, 16 GB RAM, RTX 2060 Super. I don't think it would be useful to link the website I'm purchasing from since they are from mexico, so....

But I'm looking at an ASUS ROG-STRIX-650G 80 PLUS Gold. that is going for about $110 dollars.

There's a Corsair RM750 for $110 too. There are a bunch of CX Bronze ones for around $90 dollars, semi-modular.

EVGA GQ Series 650w for $100 dollars.


EDIT: I found an XPG Core Reactor 80+ gold 750w. For $105 dollars aprox.
 
Last edited:
I've never heard of that brand here. No doubt it is good but never seen it around these paths.
whether they have it offered at any of your local stores doesn't change it's great ratings, even here at Tom's:
Newegg's base being just north of there in Southern California you may also get their free shipping options, possibly just with some added tax.
~$15 more for an additional 100w and a verified top-tier unit with a 10 year warranty is definitely worth it.

most of the XPG series i've read about are either Seasonic or Channel Well Tech which both make some nice units but you may want to research which exact model it is based on.
 
No, my system is a Ryzen 2600x, 16 GB RAM, RTX 2060 Super. I don't think it would be useful to link the website I'm purchasing from since they are from mexico, so....

But I'm looking at an ASUS ROG-STRIX-650G 80 PLUS Gold. that is going for about $110 dollars.

There's a Corsair RM750 for $110 too. There are a bunch of CX Bronze ones for around $90 dollars, semi-modular.

EVGA GQ Series 650w for $100 dollars.


EDIT: I found an XPG Core Reactor 80+ gold 750w. For $105 dollars aprox.

If an RM is only $20 more than a CX-M, then definitely the RM is the best choice.

The XPG Core reactor is also a good choice for $105.

The EVGA GQ is garbage.