Question Normal or strange?

[Tibone101]

Hallo, I recently bought a Seasonic Focus Gold 550w for my system, it works/looks really good, the only thing if i turn it on, it turns on for 1sec (fans blowing etc), then it turns off for 1 sec (no lights), then it turns on again and it works perfectly fine?

Is this normal or just some safety check or something?

Things I have tried:
Reconnect all the cables, cleaned to be sure there is no dust in the connectors and I also tried powering on without any SATA cable plugged in.

Thx already in advance and for reading my post!

Edit1: This does NOT happen when i restart or when it is sleeping!

 

[Ralston18]

Certainly not normal and not any "safety check".

Overall, the sudden "on-off-on" pattern is likely surging current through the computer's components.

Not a good thing.

My thought: defective PSU.

 

[Tibone101]

Certainly not normal and not any "safety check".

Overall, the sudden "on-off-on" pattern is likely surging current through the computer's components.

Not a good thing.

My thought: defective PSU.

Even if it is like a new PSU, like brand new? I just installed it today

 

[AllanGH]

If new PSUs never failed, we wouldn't need warranties.

 

[Ralston18]

Unfortunately even new products can be defective.

Many products are made as cheaply as possible with little or no real quality control.

You can/could do some troubleshooting such as trying the new PSU in another computer and another known working PSU in your computer. Change nothing else.

Determine if the "on-off-on" behavior follows the PSU or stays with your computer.

However, I am aware that swapping components about/around to test is not always possible.

 

[Tibone101]

Unfortunately even new products can be defective.

Many products are made as cheaply as possible with little or no real quality control.

You can/could do some troubleshooting such as trying the new PSU in another computer and another known working PSU in your computer. Change nothing else.

Determine if the "on-off-on" behavior follows the PSU or stays with your computer.

However, I am aware that swapping components about/around to test is not always possible.

Before this PSU i bought a cheap to test if it was indeed my PSU that was failling, which it was, so i replaced it with this better one and thats the only difference now, it just turns on, it turns off then it turns on again and it stays on and everything works.

 

[Tibone101]

Update: i resetted my BIOS with the Clear CMO pin and now it isn’t acting weird anymore!

 

[jonnyguru]

Update: i resetted my BIOS with the Clear CMO pin and now it isn’t acting weird anymore!

Exactly. Sorry I couldn't get to your question sooner and you were subjected to all of this fear mongering.

It IS normal when you "cold boot" a PSU. Clearing the CMOS likely reset the power good signal timing difference it was expecting between your old PSU and the new one (no two PSUs ever have the exact same T1 and T3 timing. They're typically within a "range").

But do yourself a favor: Stop switching the power to the PSU off. You have a bulk cap that has to recharge every time you cycle the power. That could cause damage later down the road if you do this on a daily basis. There's really no reason to "turn off" your PSU.

 

[Ralston18]

Very interesting. Something like this:

https://knowledge.seasonic.com/article/18-replacement-psu-won-t-boot-cmos-clearing

However, I am curious about the overall process.

Why would that reset (Clear CMOS) not be a one time requirement?

I.e., once the timing signal difference stored then the timing signal should not need to be reset.

And the on-off-on behavior should not reoccur again if I am following correctly.

Plus I do not remember ever Clearing CMOS when swapping in a new PSU.

What I am missing?

 

[jonnyguru]

Very interesting. Something like this:

https://knowledge.seasonic.com/article/18-replacement-psu-won-t-boot-cmos-clearing

However, I am curious about the overall process.

Why would that reset (Clear CMOS) not be a one time requirement?

I.e., once the timing signal difference stored then the timing signal should not need to be reset.

And the on-off-on behavior should not reoccur again if I am following correctly.

Plus I do not remember ever Clearing CMOS when swapping in a new PSU.

What I am missing?

First: It totally depends on the motherboard. I almost never see it with a name brand board, but will often see it with weird Chinese brand boards with weird Chinese names. (yes... all motherboards are made in China. I mean for China market.) OP is lucky it started at all. Some times the board won't post at all if the timings aren't right.

And it should be a one time thing and I don't believe the OP ever said it wasn't. Once the CMOS was cleared, it should work and continue to work. It's not like he has to clear the CMOS every time he cold boots his PC. Unless you're thinking my suggestion to not turn the PC's power off every day was related to his boot up issue. It was not. I'm just suggesting for the sake of damaging something with inrush current every time the bulk cap has to recharge.

 

[Tibone101]

Exactly. Sorry I couldn't get to your question sooner and you were subjected to all of this fear mongering.

It IS normal when you "cold boot" a PSU. Clearing the CMOS likely reset the power good signal timing difference it was expecting between your old PSU and the new one (no two PSUs ever have the exact same T1 and T3 timing. They're typically within a "range").

But do yourself a favor: Stop switching the power to the PSU off. You have a bulk cap that has to recharge every time you cycle the power. That could cause damage later down the road if you do this on a daily basis. There's really no reason to "turn off" your PSU.

Yea I didn’t know if it would work! I was almost sending the PSU back! And really?? I did not know that, with my previous PSU i always switched it off for the night! Or maybe because it was a Corsair VS650 😏 But thx for the advice about the ON/OFF i will stop switching it off!