Question PSU issue or something else ?

[ChristGilley]

Hey, guys, I wanted to confirm a suspicion I have. So I restarted my computer for a windows update and it never rebooted. No amount of tinkering would allow the system to even post, it was just dead. I initially thought dead board but, after hooking the board up to an older PSU, I got signs of life. The back up PSUs I have are 550 and 650W with them being relatively close in age (5+ years.) neither of these units would let the system boot with 2 sticks of RAM or my GPU seated. Specs are 3060ti, 32GB of DDR5 and a 7900x CPU.

My hunch is that, since the 650w did let the computer boot to BIOS with one stick of RAM and the card out of the computer, that neither unit can provide enough power to get the system to boot fully assembled. I have another unit on the way but I’m no technical expert, I just know my original unit wouldn’t power the new board or an older one I had and neither of my back up PSUs could boot the new hardware. Thanks for any input!

 

[Darkbreeze]

I think it's very likely if the higher powered unit would allow it with no graphics card and only one stick of memory.

Of most importance here however is, what are the exact model numbers and brand of each of the power supplies in question and what is the exact model and brand of the unit that is "on the way"?

 

[ChristGilley]

I think it's very likely if the higher powered unit would allow it with no graphics card and only one stick of memory.

Of most importance here however is, what are the exact model numbers and brand of each of the power supplies in question and what is the exact model and brand of the unit that is "on the way"?

The highest power of the 2 working is an EVGA 650w RM Bronze, I suspect this one to be too old to power the 3060ti due to the connector type. The weaker of the 2 is a Corsair 550W Gold rating I believe. The one that died was a RM750e Corsair Gold rating. The one on the way is Cooler Master MWE 850w Gold. Someone suggested that the card may be dead but this seems unlikely to me, my thought process being that, if the card had died, surely the system would still get power just not display or would boot with the card out of the system with both sticks. The behavior of not booting with both sticks and/or the GPU seated is leading me to the power issue

 

[Darkbreeze]

EVGA never made an RM series power supply. The RM series power supplies are Corsair products.

How old is that RM750e because those have not been around that long and might very well still be under warranty if it's been 7 years or less. Not to be rude at all, but the wattage and the efficiency rating (Gold, Titanium, etc.) don't tell us really anything about the quality of the PSU. The model or at least the correct and accurate model series (Corsair RMx, EVGA G2, etc.) are really needed here and if you have a fair idea of exactly how long each unit has been in service, that would be helpful as well.

Honestly though, if you think a PSU is too old and weak to be helpful then it probably is. The RMe though should definitely not be failing already and as I said, it is likely still under warranty if you have the original purchase information, invoice or receipt.

What I'm not too certain about here though is whether you are saying that with only one stick of RAM and no graphics card installed, the 550w unit would NOT allow the system to POST, while the 650w unit WOULD? And have you tried to POST with the RM750e and no graphics card installed?

 

[ChristGilley]

EVGA never made an RM series power supply. The RM series power supplies are Corsair products.

How old is that RM750e because those have not been around that long and might very well still be under warranty if it's been 7 years or less. Not to be rude at all, but the wattage and the efficiency rating (Gold, Titanium, etc.) don't tell us really anything about the quality of the PSU. The model or at least the correct and accurate model series (Corsair RMx, EVGA G2, etc.) are really needed here and if you have a fair idea of exactly how long each unit has been in service, that would be helpful as well.

Honestly though, if you think a PSU is too old and weak to be helpful then it probably is. The RMe though should definitely not be failing already and as I said, it is likely still under warranty if you have the original purchase information, invoice or receipt.

What I'm not too certain about here though is whether you are saying that with only one stick of RAM and no graphics card installed, the 550w unit would NOT allow the system to POST, while the 650w unit WOULD? And have you tried to POST with the RM750e and no graphics card installed?

The RM750e would not show any signs of life, it wouldn’t even give debug lights on the motherboard. The EVGA is a 650 BQ, this is the one that would give debug lights then eventually booted to BIOS with no card seated and one stick. The 550 is a CX550M, this one was my primary PSU from 2017 until 2023 when I replaced it with the 750e. I didn’t try without the card for the 750 because no debug lights and fans led me to believe it had taken itself out of the equation. If you think it would be worth trying without the card seated, I certainly can but, as of this moment, the 650 EVGA is the only one that gives any signs of life
The EVGA was also only in use for about a month before it was replaced when my brother built his system

 

[Misgar]

I'm not convinced you "need" a 750W PSU to boot up a 3060Ti/7900X system. Many of my PCs consume 100 to 150W during startup, then drop back to 90 to 120W when idle. The only time my 7950X/RTX 4070 rig pulls significant power (430W) is during video transcodes. That includes power consumed by 5 hard disks and 3 M.2 NVMe drives.

This link mentions 'Suggested PSU: 550W" for an Nvidia 3060Ti and a TDP of 200W. When idle, I'd expect your GPU to pull less than 50W.
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-rtx-3060-ti.c3681

The default TDP for the 7900X is 170W (PBO disabled) but again, I would expect the CPU to pull less than 50W when idle.
https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/desktops/ryzen/7000-series/amd-ryzen-9-7900x.html

I don't dispute you're having trouble powering up the system from all three PSUs and it's difficult to tell where the fault lies.

The EVGA is a 650 BQ, this is the one that would give debug lights then eventually booted to BIOS with no card seated and one stick.

Unplugging the 3060Ti will reduce the load on the PSU and remove one major item from the equation. I assume you had a monitor plugged into the mobo output from the iGPU in the 7900X. It's the recommended test when you suspect a fault in the main GPU card.

The CX550M is a lightweight unit (I've got two of them in basic PCs). I wouldn't recommend this model to power a 3060Ti/7900X, but 550W should be more than enough to power the mobo and boot into Windows with the main GPU unplugged.

The CX550M comes with a 5 year warranty, so your 2017 vintage unit may not be fully functional. I was disappointed at just how "light weight" the CX550M felt and I've no great expectations of the design quality. In comparison, my RM750/850x PSUs are much heavier and (hopefully) better designed.

Best of luck when the new PSU arrives, but you might have to change RAM, CPU or mobo to get the system working.

 

[ChristGilley]

I'm not convinced you "need" a 750W PSU to boot up a 3060Ti/7900X system. Many of my PCs consume 100 to 150W during startup, then drop back to 90 to 120W when idle. The only time my 7950X/RTX 4070 rig pulls significant power (430W) is during video transcodes. That includes power consumed by 5 hard disks and 3 M.2 NVMe drives.

This link mentions 'Suggested PSU: 550W" for an Nvidia 3060Ti and a TDP of 200W. When idle, I'd expect your GPU to pull less than 50W.
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-rtx-3060-ti.c3681

The default TDP for the 7900X is 170W (PBO disabled) but again, I would expect the CPU to pull less than 50W when idle.
https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/desktops/ryzen/7000-series/amd-ryzen-9-7900x.html

I don't dispute you're having trouble powering up the system from all three PSUs and it's difficult to tell where the fault lies.


Unplugging the 3060Ti will reduce the load on the PSU and remove one major item from the equation. I assume you had a monitor plugged into the mobo output from the iGPU in the 7900X. It's the recommended test when you suspect a fault in the main GPU card.

The CX550M is a lightweight unit (I've got two of them in basic PCs). I wouldn't recommend this model to power a 3060Ti/7900X, but 550W should be more than enough to power the mobo and boot into Windows with the main GPU unplugged.

The CX550M comes with a 5 year warranty, so your 2017 vintage unit may not be fully functional. I was disappointed at just how "light weight" the CX550M felt and I've no great expectations of the design quality. In comparison, my RM750/850x PSUs are much heavier and (hopefully) better designed.

Best of luck when the new PSU arrives, but you might have to change RAM, CPU or mobo to get the system working.

If those 3 end up being the true culprits, they all fall under return window until the 5th. My hope is that, since I was able to get to BIOS on the EVGA, that it’s just a matter of two dated and one dead PSU. Can one dying take out a GPU and one out of two sticks of RAM?

 

[helper800]

If those 3 end up being the true culprits, they all fall under return window until the 5th. My hope is that, since I was able to get to BIOS on the EVGA, that it’s just a matter of two dated and one dead PSU. Can one dying take out a GPU and one out of two sticks of RAM?

A PSU that dies can take out everything, but there are protections that are supposed to minimize damage, if any. Let's say the Corsair RM750e PSU did die and take parts with it. If it did while under warranty then Corsair may help you out with damages that it incurred assuming it was the fault of the PSU. You would have to contact Corsair in that case and see what they could do for you.

Since your parts are still within the return period, I would personally return everything for new parts. This is because it may take longer than your return period to hunt down what may or may not be a hardware issue with any number of parts.

To me, this sounds like it may be a motherboard/CPU issue potentially caused by th PSU dying. Motherboards are sensitive to damage because there are so many components on them and many layers of the PCB that can become internally shorted with a burst of unexpected power. That combined with the PC only booting with one stick of RAM is indicative of a motherboard or a CPU issue. To confirm this you would need to check the pins in the CPU socket. If any are bent or broken off that could explain booting issues with 2 sticks of RAM and POST issues. In the case off scorch marks in the socket or on the bottom of the CPU assume both are faulty. Check that bottom of the CPU to make sure all of the contact pads are there. Make sure that when trying to boot the PC with 1 or 2 sticks of RAM that they are in the correct slots. Slots A2 B2 or in this order physically:
CPU 0/1/0/1. In the case of a single stick, make sure that it is in slot A2 or: CPU 0/1/0/0

 

[ChristGilley]

A PSU that dies can take out everything, but there are protections that are supposed to minimize damage, if any. Let's say the Corsair RM750e PSU did die and take parts with it. If it did while under warranty then Corsair may help you out with damages that it incurred assuming it was the fault of the PSU. You would have to contact Corsair in that case and see what they could do for you.

Since your parts are still within the return period, I would personally return everything for new parts. This is because it may take longer than your return period to hunt down what may or may not be a hardware issue with any number of parts.

To me, this sounds like it may be a motherboard/CPU issue potentially caused by th PSU dying. Motherboards are sensitive to damage because there are so many components on them and many layers of the PCB that can become internally shorted with a burst of unexpected power. That combined with the PC only booting with one stick of RAM is indicative of a motherboard or a CPU issue. To confirm this you would need to check the pins in the CPU socket. If any are bent or broken off that could explain booting issues with 2 sticks of RAM and POST issues. In the case off scorch marks in the socket or on the bottom of the CPU assume both are faulty. Check that bottom of the CPU to make sure all of the contact pads are there. Make sure that when trying to boot the PC with 1 or 2 sticks of RAM that they are in the correct slots. Slots A2 B2 or in this order physically:
CPU 0/1/0/1. In the case of a single stick, make sure that it is in slot A2 or: CPU 0/1/0/0

I should have prefaced that I did take the board out when I thought it was dead. This is how I reached the conclusion that the PSU had died, I had an older board, CPU and RAM that ran off the 750e for years. It refused to boot as well. While I had the newer board out, I checked everything to make sure there wasn’t visible physical damage. That included the CPU and RAM. I’ll do some more troubleshooting, if I can avoid having to send the hardware back, I’d like to but if that ends up being the only option, so be it

 

[Darkbreeze]

Is that MWE Gold you have coming an original MWE, a V2 or a V3? Because it makes a tremendous difference on whether it's a good purchase or not. Also, if you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for this unit because depending on where you are, you might definitely be able to get a much better power supply for less money. The current crop of MWE units are really not at all worth what they are being sold for.

 

[ChristGilley]

Is that MWE Gold you have coming an original MWE, a V2 or a V3? Because it makes a tremendous difference on whether it's a good purchase or not. Also, if you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for this unit because depending on where you are, you might definitely be able to get a much better power supply for less money. The current crop of MWE units are really not at all worth what they are being sold for.

It’s a V3, it was less than the Corsair equivalent as well as a couple other brands I’ve heard good things about. It was 105 I believe and I did some reading around before finalizing to be sure I wasn’t buying something that’d do the same thing in less time. It’s supposed to be here tomorrow so, in the meantime, I can try to confirm if there’s any other underlying issues but it’s hard for me to trust the 2 older PSUs

 

[ChristGilley]

I should have prefaced that I did take the board out when I thought it was dead. This is how I reached the conclusion that the PSU had died, I had an older board, CPU and RAM that ran off the 750e for years. It refused to boot as well. While I had the newer board out, I checked everything to make sure there wasn’t visible physical damage. That included the CPU and RAM. I’ll do some more troubleshooting, if I can avoid having to send the hardware back, I’d like to but if that ends up being the only option, so be it

Replying to this with an edit, the older hardware ran off the 550, not the 750 🤦🏻

 

[ChristGilley]

Update: Corsair approved an RMA for the 750e, I will most likely keep that as a back up but am waiting to hear how they do would like to handle if any of my other hardware was damaged from the failure. I’ll be able to test tomorrow and will update then. I’m hoping it’s just a lack of power, I work from home and being down for a week or more due to being ill prepared for a malfunction is not ideal

 

[ChristGilley]

The 550 does boot without the GPU seated and one stick in the appropriate slot. I’m going to test both sticks to ensure it’s not a RAM fault. I’d assume at this point that, if the motherboard wants the GPU completely unseated, that it’s most likely dead?
Edit: it is also not detecting my drives in BIOS. It prompted me to configure BIOS and it detects my BOTH sticks of RAM now and the processor but no drives

 

[Darkbreeze]

It’s a V3, it was less than the Corsair equivalent as well as a couple other brands I’ve heard good things about. It was 105 I believe and I did some reading around before finalizing to be sure I wasn’t buying something that’d do the same thing in less time. It’s supposed to be here tomorrow so, in the meantime, I can try to confirm if there’s any other underlying issues but it’s hard for me to trust the 2 older PSUs

Too bad you ordered it already. This would have been a much better option for about 30 bucks less.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: ADATA XPG Core Reactor II 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $79.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-05-30 17:47 EDT-0400


Review (Same platform as 650w): https://hwbusters.com/psus/xpg-core-reactor-ii-850w-psu-review/11/

Even if you'd gone with an 850w, which you certainly don't need with your current hardware, you'd still have saved about 20 bucks. But at least what you ordered isn't terrible. It has a few issues under high loads but otherwise is decent.

 

[ChristGilley]

Some more testing with the 550w Corsair, it seems that the PSU took my GPU and hard drives with it. I’ve tried multiple SATA power cables to no avail on getting any of them to show up in BIOS. I did manage to update the BIOS and it’s showing my RAM and CPU and reading so I think the board and those components are fine

 

[helper800]

Some more testing with the 550w Corsair, it seems that the PSU took my GPU and hard drives with it. I’ve tried multiple SATA power cables to no avail on getting any of them to show up in BIOS. I did manage to update the BIOS and it’s showing my RAM and CPU and reading so I think the board and those components are fine

Make sure to test the storage devices in another device. It could be that the motherboard is not reading them because the board itself took damage, however, you are likely correct that the storage devices are dead.

 

[ChristGilley]

Make sure to test the storage devices in another device. It could be that the motherboard is not reading them because the board itself took damage, however, you are likely correct that the storage devices are dead.

I’m going to test a different drive and see if detects that one. That’s an easy confirmation

 

[ChristGilley]

So the test drive was detected by my motherboard and it even tried to boot windows (it ran the Windows troubleshooter) so this leads me to believe that the GPU and the drives were taken out with the PSU and all need to be replaced

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, that's a drag man. Good reason to not recommend the RMe series considering there's been a few other mishaps that have occurred on systems where somebody was using one of them. Reviews of it are not particularly good either. Coincidentally I had just been talking with another senior member here that just purchased one of those and I suggested to him it wasn't a super great option even before this thread happened. Hopefully the damage in total is limited and you don't find any other problems.

 

[ChristGilley]

Well, that's a drag man. Good reason to not recommend the RMe series considering there's been a few other mishaps that have occurred on systems where somebody was using one of them. Reviews of it are not particularly good either. Coincidentally I had just been talking with another senior member here that just purchased one of those and I suggested to him it wasn't a super great option even before this thread happened. Hopefully the damage in total is limited and you don't find any other problems.

My GPU also fried due to this situation. I have an old 1060 laying around that fired right up in both PCIE rails. So it seems my drives and card both ate a burst of volts and took the dmg for the rest of my hardware. Which is good but I’m pretty well shafted for a bit, especially if ZOTAC or Corsair don’t cover it. I believe I still have a year left on the cards warranty with ZOTAC but I’ve read they can be pretty ghostly when it comes to warranty claims

 

[Darkbreeze]

If Corsair is replacing the PSU under warranty and the PSU took out the graphics card, I'd definitely be having a conversation with them about covering that as well.

 

[ChristGilley]

If Corsair is replacing the PSU under warranty and the PSU took out the graphics card, I'd definitely be having a conversation with them about covering that as well.

I did include it in my ticket, if I can get the card covered, that’ll be a huge weight off my shoulders in terms of cost to get my system back to the spec it was running at earlier in the week. It’ll take bit for me to get my storage situation sorted but, once I can windows on this old drive, I’ll at least have a system. I do appreciate everyone’s suggestions on what to test and look for. It did help me narrow down and ultimately figure out that the more expensive components that were brand new (mobo, RAM and CPU) survived, thankfully