Power supply trip after adding two LED’s

ToddTheRuse

Honorable
Oct 13, 2013
19
0
10,520
Last night I had a weird issue, and I think it is the PSU. Before yesterday the system was in the below configuration was functioning without issue for over 6 months. I added two 12” LED strips and replaced a stock fan with a cougar fan. The system turned on for about a second and shut off, and kept going through this cycle. The LED indicators on the motherboard showed that the last test was the memory test. I removed the LED’s and both sticks from the second RAM channel and it worked, put them back and same failure. I then removed the 2nd channel RAM, and put it in channel 1 slots leaving 2nd channel vacant (to see if RAM was bad). It worked. Now I’m thinking it’s the memory slot, so I put the memory originally in channel 1 into the vacant channel 2 slot, and it worked. So I plugged in the LED’s, and same failure (on for a second, reboots after pause). When I plugged in the LED’s they are off the same molex connector, so I moved on of the LED’s to another molex connector (off the same wire though) The system boots fine with everything connected. I dried a video game for a couple of minutes to make sure it worked fine under load and all was ok. I am not sure what caused this problem or if I should be concerned. I apologize if this is worded confusing.

Corsair C70 Military Green (Green) ATX Mid Tower
Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core with stock cooler (I have a 212 evo on the way)
2x Stock corsair 120mm fan
1x Cougar vortex 120mm fan
4x G.Skill Sniper Series 4GB DDR3-1866
Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" SSD
Western Digital 1TB Blue 3.5” HDD
Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit
Cooler Master 500W ATX12V 80+ Bronze Active PFC
TP-Link TL-WN781ND 802.11b/g/n PCI
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
 
Despite its 80+ certification, as is typical of the brand, your PSU is probably not good for what is on its label at realistic temperatures (80+ tests at 23C), and/or may not provide "clean" outputs under load. I would suggest replacing it with a quality, Seasonic- or Superflower-built unit.
 


Thank you for your reply, what about a corsair PSU like this one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139048
 
Solution
The Corsair "CX" line is made by CWT, not Seasonic, using some inferior Samxon capacitors that do not like heat and are known for early failure. All XFX PSUs are made by Seasonic, and they're often discounted. The Rosewill Capstone is made by Superflower, and that's another good one that is often inexpensive.