Question I just realized I've had the PSU's fan blocked for 38 months, should i replace the PSU ?

[Grid487]

PC Components:
Asrock B450 Pro4 (7 years old)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G - (38 months) Just died 5 days ago
NVIDIA 1660 SUPER - (Used, 32+ months old, 20 months on me and 12+ months from the original owner)
4x8GB DDR4 RAM Sticks (2 sticks are 38 months old, other two are 7 years old)
Samsung 970 EVO Plus (37 months)
SSD WD Green 120 GB SATA (38 months)
Corsair CX650M (38 months)

For the first 18 months of assembling the pc, i used the pc for around 12-18 hours per day with around 4-5 hours of gaming with the APU, mostly Warzone and Garry's Mod. And the next 20 months was with the 1660. During all this time i didn't realize that i put the PSU in a way that completely blocked the fans. only in the latest 2 months i realized this and placed the PSU on top of a casing on its plastic net which allowed the heat to get out of the PSU (i dont use a casing).

On the 30th of August 2024, my pc got its first boot freeze on the asrock logo after the cirlces spun once, repeating a force shutdown and turning it on again once or thrice usually fixes it.
Around March of this year, i started getting full pc freezes whenever i run heavy chinese games like Once Human or Delta Force. PC instantly freezes on these games' splash screens. Warzone still ran fine so i just brushed it off as the fault of those games.

But after getting boot freezes every week or so--finally the CPU died around 5 days ago where it refused to get past the boot freeze no matter how many forced restarts i did. Tested a PC shop's 5600x on my motherboard with my PSU and it loaded into the PC shop's windows (on their HDD) just fine.

I usually operate the cpu 12-18 hours a day with an average temp of 60-70C, and that does not seem like it would damage the CPU(?) so i'm suspecting that despite my PSU still being able to power up my system successfully, it has been degraded and is dangerous to use...

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

only in the latest 2 months i realized this and placed the PSU on top of a casing on its plastic net which allowed the heat to get out of the PSU (i dont use a casing).
Can you pass on images of how your build or rather your PSU was put together...? You might want to think about building inside of a chassis with optimal airflow to aid in the removal of heat from your components.

4x8GB DDR4 RAM Sticks (2 sticks are 38 months old, other two are 7 years old)
If they're Corsair rams, then you might want to revert to two sticks of ram that you initially had or the one you picked after the fact. Corsair is the only brand in the market that has PCB versions for their ram kits since they source IC's from multiple vendors. This in turn can and will lead to instabilities in your platform.

Asrock B450 Pro4 (7 years old)
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

Corsair CX650M (38 months)
Is this;
https://www.corsair.com/us/en/p/psu...EE9tW_Q6PZEY7F9nPqdM8gZIPGvgjPj#tab-techspecs
the PSU you're working with? If so, you should have access to 5 years warranty on the unit, if you suspect it's at fault, RMA it.

 

[Grid487]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

only in the latest 2 months i realized this and placed the PSU on top of a casing on its plastic net which allowed the heat to get out of the PSU (i dont use a casing).
Can you pass on images of how your build or rather your PSU was put together...? You might want to think about building inside of a chassis with optimal airflow to aid in the removal of heat from your components.

4x8GB DDR4 RAM Sticks (2 sticks are 38 months old, other two are 7 years old)
If they're Corsair rams, then you might want to revert to two sticks of ram that you initially had or the one you picked after the fact. Corsair is the only brand in the market that has PCB versions for their ram kits since they source IC's from multiple vendors. This in turn can and will lead to instabilities in your platform.

Asrock B450 Pro4 (7 years old)
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

Corsair CX650M (38 months)
Is this;
https://www.corsair.com/us/en/p/psu...EE9tW_Q6PZEY7F9nPqdM8gZIPGvgjPj#tab-techspecs
the PSU you're working with? If so, you should have access to 5 years warranty on the unit, if you suspect it's at fault, RMA it.

Can you pass on images of how your build or rather your PSU was put together...? You might want to think about building inside of a chassis with optimal airflow to aid in the removal of heat from your components.
PC parts are in boxes now...but yea i need a casing

If they're Corsair rams, then you might want to revert to two sticks of ram that you initially had or the one you picked after the fact. Corsair is the only brand in the market that has PCB versions for their ram kits since they source IC's from multiple vendors. This in turn can and will lead to instabilities in your platform.
Yes they're Corsair RAM sticks. So should i only use two Corsair RAM sticks? i don't really understand what you mean on this sorry i'm lacking on PC knowledge.

What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?
I'm not sure right now and don't really want to boot the BIOS with a suspect PSU...but last time i brought it to an ASUS repair shop in early 2022 (maybe january-february) and updated it to be compatible with the 5000 series AMD CPUs.

Is this;
https://www.corsair.com/us/en/p/psu...EE9tW_Q6PZEY7F9nPqdM8gZIPGvgjPj#tab-techspecs
the PSU you're working with? If so, you should have access to 5 years warranty on the unit, if you suspect it's at fault, RMA it.
Yes it is, i'll see if it works out.

But on pure speculation alone could my PSU be degraded by now? i mean i suspect that it's at fault but i can't really know if it's truly broken. 38 months of activity with its fans blocked leads me to think it is but i don't have a definitive answer... visited a couple of local pc shops and none of them suspect the PSU but they didn't really do a thorough check, just listened to my 38 months fan blockage story and not really look into it.

 

[Flayed]

I read recently that Ryzen 5 3600s have been dying due to running at high temperatures with the stock cooler, presumably in poorly ventilated cases. What was your CPU temperature like during its lifespan? Could that be the cause of your CPU failure?

 

[Grid487]

I read recently that Ryzen 5 3600s have been dying due to running at high temperatures with the stock cooler, presumably in poorly ventilated cases. What was your CPU temperature like during its lifespan? Could that be the cause of your CPU failure?

My 5600G usually operated 12-18 hours a day with an average temp of 60-70C.
But during its first year before i got the GPU it was more like 60-70C non gaming or low-mid usage softwares (12 hours~) and 70-80C when gaming with its APU (3-4 hours per day for a year)

 

[Flayed]

My 5600G usually operated 12-18 hours a day with an average temp of 60-70C.
But during its first year before i got the GPU it was more like 60-70C non gaming or low-mid usage softwares (12 hours~) and 70-80C when gaming with its APU (3-4 hours per day for a year)

Those temperatures sound fine to me. Could be bad luck, you got a duff chip maybe.

 

[Grid487]

Those temperatures sound fine to me. Could be bad luck, you got a duff chip maybe.

Hmm...but could it be a possibility that after years of my PSU's exhaust/fan getting blocked, the PSU got degraded and bit by bit broke the CPU?

 

[Flayed]

Hmm...but could it be a possibility that after years of my PSU's exhaust/fan getting blocked, the PSU got degraded and bit by bit broke the CPU?

I guess it is a plausible theory, but it is based on very little other than that your CPU has failed.
I don't think your build would be consuming anywhere near the 650W your PSU is rated for, and I doubt the PSU needs tons of cooling running at half capacity.
Replacing the PSU with a higher quality model wouldn't be a terrible idea, but you may only need to replace the CPU.

 

[Grid487]

I guess it is a plausible theory, but it is based on very little other than that your CPU has failed.
I don't think your build would be consuming anywhere near the 650W your PSU is rated for, and I doubt the PSU needs tons of cooling running at half capacity.
Replacing the PSU with a higher quality model wouldn't be a terrible idea, but you may only need to replace the CPU.

Hmm...during February of this year i had random restarts whenever i played Delta Force force 3-4 hours non stop, first my pc blue screened, then i think two other times it just completely restarted my pc. Those events were the only things i could think could be related to the PSU maybe?
My CPU and GPU temps were tame with my CPU around 70C and GPU around 75C
Oh and if the internals of the PSU are damaged because its fans are 100% blocked, maybe the rating could lower from 650 to 400 or even lower?

 

[Flayed]

Hmm...during February of this year i had random restarts whenever i played Delta Force force 3-4 hours non stop, first my pc blue screened, then i think two other times it just completely restarted my pc. Those events were the only things i could think could be related to the PSU maybe?
My CPU and GPU temps were tame with my CPU around 70C and GPU around 75C
Oh and if the internals of the PSU are damaged because its fans are 100% blocked, maybe the rating could lower from 650 to 400 or even lower?

It's possible, but I wouldn't bet money on it being the case. As Lutfij said earlier, you could RMA the power supply if you think it has failed.

 

[Misgar]

Oh and if the internals of the PSU are damaged because its fans are 100% blocked, maybe the rating could lower from 650 to 400 or even lower?

If the PSU was supplying more than half rated power with a blocked fan, you may have gently "cooked" the electrolytics and reduced their life time.

These caps are usually rated at 85C or 105C. For each 10C reduction below these maximum temperatures, you double the life expectancy of the capacitors. If you operate an 85C cap at 75C, you typically double its life. At 65C, it's 4x. At 55C it's 8x. The cooler you run the caps, the better. 105C caps are often found in more expensive PSUs, 85C in cheaper PSUs.
https://electronics.stackexchange.c...ytic-capacitors-last-in-seldom-used-equipment

As electrolytics age, they start to dry out. The capacitance drops, the ESR increases and so too does the ripple voltage. Eventually the mobo/CPU/GPU may start to complain.

Your CPU and GPU aren't likely to draw huge amounts of power and many PSUs don't even switch on their fans until you hit 40 to 50% rated power. You've probably got away with minimal PSU cooling.

 

[Grid487]

Thank you for the replies and information, for now i'll attempt to RMA it but at the same time also get a new PSU and CPU.