Question Power supply and RX580 not getting along; blowing breaker

Jan 12, 2020
10
0
10
i just got a used Rosewill 850W psu from a classmate and mounted it up in my computer. I also have an AMD RX580 that I connected. The setup ran fine for about 2 hours testing mild-load games and downloading drivers. Then suddenly the PC shuts off. I try turning it back on, but the lights in my tower blink for a moment then blows the breaker to my room (ive had issues with that breaker before). I tried resetting the breaker and powering it on about 8 times, and it keeps flipping the breaker. I plugged in my old "graphics card"(gt640) and it works fine. I then moved my computer to my bathroom which is on a bigger breaker, and tried it with the RX580. Again, i only get a brief flicker of light and then nothing, but this time the breaker is just fine.
Im stumped lol.

thanks for any help
 
i just got a used Rosewill 850W psu from a classmate and mounted it up in my computer. I also have an AMD RX580 that I connected. The setup ran fine for about 2 hours testing mild-load games and downloading drivers. Then suddenly the PC shuts off. I try turning it back on, but the lights in my tower blink for a moment then blows the breaker to my room (ive had issues with that breaker before). I tried resetting the breaker and powering it on about 8 times, and it keeps flipping the breaker. I plugged in my old "graphics card"(gt640) and it works fine. I then moved my computer to my bathroom which is on a bigger breaker, and tried it with the RX580. Again, i only get a brief flicker of light and then nothing, but this time the breaker is just fine.
Im stumped lol.

thanks for any help
What model is the Rosewill and how old is it?
 
Jan 12, 2020
10
0
10
Sounds like your house wiring is very poor if it can't handle an RX580 system. You're probably drawing around 300W from the wall.

And yes, an RX580 uses more power than a GT640.
like i said, i plugged it into a different breaker and the breaker did not flip. There is some other issue. and yes of course the AMD draws way more power, thats why i got an 850W psu
 

King_V

Illustrious
Ambassador
I'm asking the model and age of the power supply, not the video card. Such as "Quark", "Photon", "Capstone" etc...
I think that was a typo of Rosewill RX850-S-B. A quick search shows that they've been around since at least 2007.

Even if the unit in question is not that old, given that its design is from a long time ago, it may not handle the way modern systems pull power very well, regardless of its wattage rating.

No personal experience from them, but, from the link in my sig:

Rosewill is the Newegg house brand, but is also available through other sources. There are three Rosewill lines from among they many lines they sell, which in some circumstances might be good options. The Rosewill Tachyon, Quark and Capstone M series are pretty good options especially if there are no other options available that have been recommended here. The rest of the Rosewill power supply products are generally either very "meh" or are outright poor quality.

Regardless of the other possible issues with household wiring, it might be wise to replace this PSU with a high quality, modern unit. If you can borrow a modern, known high-quality unit from someone to try out and see if you get the same issues with your breakers, that might be worthwhile.


Note: GT640 is rated at 50W TDP, the RX580 is typically 180W TDP. That the lights flicker even when you don't have an issue with the breaker tripping is definitely concerning. You'll absolutely want the household wiring seen to.
 
I think that was a typo of Rosewill RX850-S-B. A quick search shows that they've been around since at least 2007.

Even if the unit in question is not that old, given that its design is from a long time ago, it may not handle the way modern systems pull power very well, regardless of its wattage rating.

No personal experience from them, but, from the link in my sig:
Thanks King_V, I didn't catch that typo at first.

Rosewill only has a couple decent models. Just trying to make sure he's not using one of the bad models that's already 5+ years old, since he said it was used. Looks like it's even older. It may be drawing large amounts of power at the wall to do its job considering its age and low specs. and with only a 3 year warranty when new. I would'nt trust it today with any system.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: King_V

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
If turning the PC on trips the breaker, then either the breaker is overloaded, defective or something is horribly wrong with that PSU.

Since you say you have a history of problems with that breaker, I'd suspect either of the first two issues.

As for why you still get no boot on a different breaker that can handle the PSU fine, as others have already said, maybe your motherboard is too old for modern UEFI-only GPUs. That's why they are asking about the rest of your system.
 

King_V

Illustrious
Ambassador
To add a little more to what @InvalidError described, and my own personal experience.

Starting with the R9 series, and definitely with the RX series and Vega, AMD stopped supporting VESA mode 103, which some of the old BIOSes used. It may or may not be related to the move to UEFI, or this may have been a separate problem, I couldn't say.

This burned me when I tried to put an R9 285 into a Dell XPS 8300 (Sandy Bridge era Intel processor) - just a blank screen, wouldn't boot, wouldn't go to BIOS, nothing, and the LED on the power button, instead of being white in the normal powered-on state, was amber, which is typical of sleep mode.

When I got a Dell XPS 8700 (Haswell era Intel processor), that GPU worked fine.

(note: at the time, some R9 video cards had a BIOS switch that would allow the card to work with the old Legacy BIOS, but mine wasn't one of those)


Now, some motherboard makers were thinking ahead even back then, so the newer AMD cards can work with them. If your machine is an older Dell, HP, etc., some OEM brand, then it's more likely to have a problem with newer video cards. Nvidia, however, seems to have held on to supporting VESA mode 103 for a while longer, as I've read that the Dell XPS 8300 works with Nvidia's 10-series video cards. I don't know about the 16- or 20- series and older BIOSes, though.



Uh, I guess that was extra back-story and a very long-winded way of saying "that's why letting us know everything about your system is important" (erm, I can be quite verbose at times)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Phaaze88
Jan 12, 2020
10
0
10
Rosewill only has a couple decent models. Just trying to make sure he's not using one of the bad models that's already 5+ years old, since he said it was used.
yeah yallmight be right. He said he got it off ebay a while ago. I payed 50 bucks for it about 4 days ago. Should i try and
To add a little more to what @InvalidError described, and my own personal experience.

Starting with the R9 series, and definitely with the RX series and Vega, AMD stopped supporting VESA mode 103, which some of the old BIOSes used. It may or may not be related to the move to UEFI, or this may have been a separate problem, I couldn't say.

This burned me when I tried to put an R9 285 into a Dell XPS 8300 (Sandy Bridge era Intel processor) - just a blank screen, wouldn't boot, wouldn't go to BIOS, nothing, and the LED on the power button, instead of being white in the normal powered-on state, was amber, which is typical of sleep mode.

When I got a Dell XPS 8700 (Haswell era Intel processor), that GPU worked fine.

(note: at the time, some R9 video cards had a BIOS switch that would allow the card to work with the old Legacy BIOS, but mine wasn't one of those)


Now, some motherboard makers were thinking ahead even back then, so the newer AMD cards can work with them. If your machine is an older Dell, HP, etc., some OEM brand, then it's more likely to have a problem with newer video cards. Nvidia, however, seems to have held on to supporting VESA mode 103 for a while longer, as I've read that the Dell XPS 8300 works with Nvidia's 10-series video cards. I don't know about the 16- or 20- series and older BIOSes, though.



Uh, I guess that was extra back-story and a very long-winded way of saying "that's why letting us know everything about your system is important" (erm, I can be quite verbose at times)
yes that would make sense... the PC is originally an HP Envy i got about 7 years ago that i've been starting to upgrade.
The motherboard is original, and i believe its a Pegatron 2ACE. I have thought about replacing the motherboard before, but im not gonna unless im sure thats my issue.
 
Jan 12, 2020
10
0
10
Ok. Lets go a different direction. What system is this plugged into. The GT640 is quite a bit older (and possibly not UEFI) compared to the RX580 or other modern GPUs. It's possible that your mobo is not compatible with UEFI GPUS.
yeah the GT640 doesnt even have an 8 pin power connector for it, it gets all its power from the PCIe slots. Its super tiny lol. The RX580 is a major upgrade and have been concerned about which connecter to plug into the side of the new card since i never needed it before.
 

King_V

Illustrious
Ambassador
I did a quick search, and wasn't able to find much - but it seems like if there's a version 8.xx or higher BIOS available for your motherboard, then it might be workable with the new card.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Deskt...on-2ACE-compatible-with-my-newly/td-p/7020327

I don't hold out much hope, as the OEMs don't typically have a whole lot of motivation to make their older systems more viable, but would rather sell a newer system to you. Still, it couldn't hurt to look on HP's site and see if there's a newer BIOS available for your motherboard.
 
Jan 12, 2020
10
0
10
I did a quick search, and wasn't able to find much - but it seems like if there's a version 8.xx or higher BIOS available for your motherboard, then it might be workable with the new card.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Deskt...on-2ACE-compatible-with-my-newly/td-p/7020327

I don't hold out much hope, as the OEMs don't typically have a whole lot of motivation to make their older systems more viable, but would rather sell a newer system to you. Still, it couldn't hurt to look on HP's site and see if there's a newer BIOS available for your motherboard.
ive gone through the HP support program, and it says my BIOS is at 8.18, and theres no new updates.
I also see that my motherboard is exactly a 2ACE 1.09, if thats any help.
 

King_V

Illustrious
Ambassador
Well, with that BIOS version, if whoever posted in that thread I linked to is correct, then your BIOS version should UEFI, and thus work with the newer video cards.

Though, that user ALSO says the Pittsburgh board from Pegatron doesn't support UEFI, so that's already inconsistent. I'm also finding inconsistent info on how old it is.

What CPU is in that board, and what does the BIOS screen look like? (ie: does the text look like the old style DOS text, or like a more modern font?)
 
Jan 12, 2020
10
0
10
Well, with that BIOS version, if whoever posted in that thread I linked to is correct, then your BIOS version should UEFI, and thus work with the newer video cards.

Though, that user ALSO says the Pittsburgh board from Pegatron doesn't support UEFI, so that's already inconsistent. I'm also finding inconsistent info on how old it is.

What CPU is in that board, and what does the BIOS screen look like? (ie: does the text look like the old style DOS text, or like a more modern font?)
I have an intel 4820K cpu, i7 quadcore at 3.6GHz. The Bios screen looks super old, definitely the DOS text (after googling what that looks like).

I also just tried switching the connectors from the power supply going to my motherboard. The supply has 1 cable with an 8P connector, and 1 with a 4+4P connector. Both work with this motherboard. Neither of these connectors will plug into the graphics card. The psu also has 2 cables each with 2 6+2P connectors, none of which plug into the motherboard, but both plug into the graphics card. Dont know if this is related to the issue, but might be useful. Again, having the graphics card plugged in blows the breaker to my room, and refuses to boot up on a bigger breaker.
 

King_V

Illustrious
Ambassador
Well, the connectors seem right. The only four things I can state (not even definitively) are:
  1. I fumbled with regard to the BIOS and UEFI thing - you did say that it worked for two hours initially, I have no idea how I missed that! So, even with the old DOS style text (which suggests that it's not UEFI), the BIOS version number and that it actually worked for two hours at first means your system can support it.
  2. The Rosewill isn't listed among the known "good" Rosewill power supplies, so it MIGHT be problematic.
  3. That it powers up (but doesn't work) in one room, but blows the breaker in the other suggests household wiring issues.
  4. It is possible that the GPU itself is fried after the two hours of usage. Whether it just was a defective one anyway, or the shaky electrical system of the house did it (coupled with a lack of adequate protection on the part of the PSU, I couldn't guess.
Since your old card still works in the system, is it possible to have a friend test the RX580 in a known good PC? Or have a shop try it out?
 
Last edited:
Jan 12, 2020
10
0
10
Well, the connectors seem right. The only four things I can state (not even definitively) are:
  1. I fumbled with regard to the BIOS and UEFI thing - you did say that it worked for two hours initially, I have no idea how I missed that! So, even with the old DOS style text (which suggests that it's not UEFI), the BIOS version number and that it actually worked for two hours at first means your system can support it.
  2. The Rosewill isn't listed among the known "good" Rosewill power supplies, so it MIGHT be problematic.
  3. That it powers up (but doesn't work) in one room, but blows the breaker in the other suggests household wiring issues.
  4. It is possible that the GPU itself is fried after the two hours of usage. Whether it just was a defective one anyway, or the shaky electrical system of the house did it (coupled with a lack of adequate protection on the part of the PSU, I couldn't guess.
Since your old card still works in the system, is it possible to have a friend test the RX580 in a known good PC? Or have a shop try it out?
So i just tried putting my RX580 card into my buddy's rig... brief blink of power and then nothing. Just like mine.
He let me try out his old GTX960 that he recently retired and it works perfectly in my rig so far... using it right now. Looks like the XFX is toast. Thank you and the others for all the help!