Question New PSU smell and AUXTIN temp spikes

rebpc23

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Jul 25, 2012
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Hello. Early this month I accidentally killed an old PSU when plugging in with it flipped on and hearing a pop. I took my PC for diagnosis and learned I also blew capacitors on mobo. I had mobo repaired, purchased rather overkill rm750x psu to replace.

When the PC was returned to me I assured all was working well, but they did forget to install updates/drivers as well as clean CPU heat sync, which was part of the repair job. Most notably, the PC had a strong, metallic/chemical fried sort of smell. I'm reluctant to use fried as a describing word but at that time, that's what came to mind.

This scent permeated the entire case, could easily smell it with the PC off from above the top fan or with the side panel off with my nose 1 foot away. I ignored this at the time because at that moment I had a high level of trust with the repair shop, and assumed they used a chemical solvent for their cleaning attempt (they used no solvents/chemicals). I assume in good faith they didn't notice anything of concern as nothing was said to me about it.

At that time I see HWMonitor showed AUXTIN spike from 44-67 C to 87-96C a few times before I shut down the PC out of concern. One of the spikes I applied external fan and it cooled down quickly in response.

After returning PC for faulty behaviour (hang ups/freezing - apparently because lack of updates/drivers). It was given back and still retained that smell, albeit less. In about 16 hours of use since then I suffered 2 instances of system freezing up shortly after start up requiring manually restart with power button. Following the second the system re-installed the Windows 10 update I was told was installed. I haven't noticed anything like that since but have only given it another ~16 hours of use since.

I tracked down the smell to the RM750x. It does seem to be reducing with time, I would no longer use cooked/fried to describe it. More of a metallic/chemical. It no longer permeates the case and is only noticeble ~4 inches away from the back of the psu. I would say when first given back the odor was 9/10 strength and could be smelled anywhere from the PC, and at present maybe 2.5/10 and only smelled from the back of the PSU.

At present, after re-updating at home post lock-up, AUXTIN is much more consistent at 43-46C but I've still seen it spike to 65-71 twice now. I was prompted to check once when leaving PC and returning to see chrome window non responsive alert. Top of the psu is room temp and the back near cable port is warm to the touch and emits warm air.

In regards to the smell I contacted Corsair, the Repair shop, and the Corsair seller in my city.
It was Corsairs opinion the smell is uncommon, but can just be 'new part smell' and should fade almost completely with time, I have a ticket for continued contact if the smell remains or worsens.
It was the Repair shops opinion the smell is probably new part smell, but could be dangerous and to contact seller.
The repair shop again didn't mention anything of smelling it themselves.
It was the sellers opinion any scent that can be smelled within the case and not just the psu is highly unusual, and a concern.

In regards to the temp spikes I contacted Corsair and the Repair shop.
It was the Repair shops opinion the temp spikes were because of the stress test they ran hours earlier, before powering down and returning to me (found this suspect)
It was Corsairs opinion the AUXTIN reading could probably be ignored, the RM750x does not have a direct temp sensor, many people have high AUXTIN temps and are fine, even if mine seemingly responds to external cooling. Corsair also found the Repair shops explanation of the spikes dubious.

While I trust the owner of the shop I've learned the techs can be forgetful at best.
From what I can see, physically, there is nothing of concern on the PSU or it's cables. However, due to poor cleaning job the power cable plugged into mobo was surrounded by dust, I did try to unplug to check underneath but it was on extremely tight and I've never connected PSU cables myself so relented in fear of breaking it.

I'm curious if anyone could provide any input from experience with AUXTIN spikes or PSU smell from this or other power supplies?

I feel better that the smell is reducing, but given the series of events I want to be as informed as possible as we know if something is wrong with the PSU, it could be a very expensive or dangerous failure.

Thanks for reading
 
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Solution
So, SID is correct that it's known that sometimes a PSU can do this. It's not a new thing and USUALLY the unit is fine and the smell will diminish over the course of the first week or two. If you've been running it regularly for more than two weeks, with some substantial gaming or other intense operations, and it is still smelling in an obvious way, I'd tend to say that's not normal and you should return it or have a further discussion with Corsair about it. Corsair is usually pretty good about customer service and generally takes care of customers in decent fashion.

If the Memory express store you bought it from is local to you, you might want to just talk to them about it and see if they will simply exchange it for another unit...
Did you buy the RM750x through the repair shop?

As far as the AUXTIN, this.

 
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Did you buy the RM750x through the repair shop?

As far as the AUXTIN, this.

Hey
No I bought it new from a liscenced retailer in town.

I did read that post on AUXTIN before I posted here, I only thought mine was a concern due the spiking variance and response to external cooling. Still not exactly sure where the sensor would be.
 
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So, SID is correct that it's known that sometimes a PSU can do this. It's not a new thing and USUALLY the unit is fine and the smell will diminish over the course of the first week or two. If you've been running it regularly for more than two weeks, with some substantial gaming or other intense operations, and it is still smelling in an obvious way, I'd tend to say that's not normal and you should return it or have a further discussion with Corsair about it. Corsair is usually pretty good about customer service and generally takes care of customers in decent fashion.

If the Memory express store you bought it from is local to you, you might want to just talk to them about it and see if they will simply exchange it for another unit, especially if it's been more than two weeks and it is still doing it.

While it's not unheard of, it's not extremely common either, so it could go either way. Practically any new electronic component can do this including receivers, amplifiers, etc. I'm more concerned with the idea that you had your motherboard "repaired".

WHO repaired it, the shop you took it to? What did they SAY they repaired, because it would be EXTREMELY uncommon for any computer shop to be capable of doing any kind of "repair" to a motherboard. Even electronics repair experts with decades of experience will generally refuse to even attempt a repair on a motherboard unless it is something extremely simple. And there are very few, if any, things that can go wrong on a modern motherboard that are "simple" to repair. In fact, even the manufacturers generally won't repair a faulty motherboard that has been sent into them for warranty but will instead simply toss it into the recycle bin and send a different replacement board out because it is simply too difficult and not cost effective to try fixing boards due to the complexity of their designs these days. If that shop says they "fixed" the board and charged you for it, I'd suspect they were full of crap and charged you for something that either didn't happen or was never a problem to begin with.

I wouldn't outright call them liars, because it's always possible there was something they WERE able to replace like maybe a capacitor or transistor or diode, but it's unlikely and it's generally not as easily done as with say, a power board from a tv. I'd be at least somewhat dubious on that.
 
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Solution
Jon Gerow, also known as JonnyGuru, is the chief engineer in charge of the power supply division for Corsair. His personal website is the one SID linked to earlier regarding the smells. He specifically states, and I've known this for a long time but I'm sure anybody will trust his word over mine or some random link, that only the HXi or AXi Corsair models can be monitored for temperature. The other models simply do not have this ability so whatever HWinfo or whatever you are monitoring with is telling you is being polled from somewhere else and is not accurate nor even real.

 
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So, SID is correct that it's known that sometimes a PSU can do this. It's not a new thing and USUALLY the unit is fine and the smell will diminish over the course of the first week or two. If you've been running it regularly for more than two weeks, with some substantial gaming or other intense operations, and it is still smelling in an obvious way, I'd tend to say that's not normal and you should return it or have a further discussion with Corsair about it. Corsair is usually pretty good about customer service and generally takes care of customers in decent fashion.

If the Memory express store you bought it from is local to you, you might want to just talk to them about it and see if they will simply exchange it for another unit, especially if it's been more than two weeks and it is still doing it.

While it's not unheard of, it's not extremely common either, so it could go either way. Practically any new electronic component can do this including receivers, amplifiers, etc. I'm more concerned with the idea that you had your motherboard "repaired".

WHO repaired it, the shop you took it to? What did they SAY they repaired, because it would be EXTREMELY uncommon for any computer shop to be capable of doing any kind of "repair" to a motherboard. Even electronics repair experts with decades of experience will generally refuse to even attempt a repair on a motherboard unless it is something extremely simple. And there are very few, if any, things that can go wrong on a modern motherboard that are "simple" to repair. In fact, even the manufacturers generally won't repair a faulty motherboard that has been sent into them for warranty but will instead simply toss it into the recycle bin and send a different replacement board out because it is simply too difficult and not cost effective to try fixing boards due to the complexity of their designs these days. If that shop says they "fixed" the board and charged you for it, I'd suspect they were full of crap and charged you for something that either didn't happen or was never a problem to begin with.

I wouldn't outright call them liars, because it's always possible there was something they WERE able to replace like maybe a capacitor or transistor or diode, but it's unlikely and it's generally not as easily done as with say, a power board from a tv. I'd be at least somewhat dubious on that.
The corsair retailer is local to me, the unit was purchased 1 week ago. When I called them regarding it they said that the smell especially one permeating the whole case is very uncommon. When prompted they said I could bring it by to inspect if it was an ok smell or not. At this moment though the odor has reduced vastly. I didn't push for exchange as you've said odor can happen and can be benign, and as I've said I've never connected a psu myself, so paid the Repair store to install that and fix motherboard.

In regards to the mobo repair, yes the same Repair store that diagnosed - repaired. I was told a capacitor(s) (I forget if it was pluralized) was blown from the PSU failing. They offered a discount on the motherboard repair if I also wanted the PSU installed after.
I never inquired specifically which or where, this capacitor was. I could always phone back and ask. I didn't notice any capacitor look different.
It as an ASROCK B75 pro3, so quite old mobo, not sure if that faciliates an easier repair?

Following the pop from the old PSU, my pc still started up, but a stress test made it crash. Following that it crashed from launching games or multiple browsers, and eventually would not send a signal to the monitor, leaving it black.
 
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I did notice this when cleaning pc today.
Possibly related to the smell?
Possibly a concern on it's own.

Yellow/brown greasy looking stain(s) on the top of the capacitor.
QC mark?
leak from side?



***Corsair confirmed this yellow was a qc mark they have seen before.

Anyone with similar scent concerns, the normal time frame is for it to pass entirely by about 2 weeks, mine much less odorous, only smelled at psu's rear exhaust and no longer case fans or interior.
 
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