Question PSU turning on and off under load. Very soft clicking at the pcb simultaneous to the instability.

Nov 23, 2019
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Model: Corsair VS550.
PSU turns off under load, paperclip test shows proper voltages but when connected to a load the PSU is unstable and there's a very soft clicking noise whenever there's the instability (it keeps turning on and off). The noise is audible when you open the PSU up, put the fan away and there's no ambient sound, a very very soft sound. Might just be a relay but the sound corresponds to the instability.
it behaves as if you're constantly connecting and disconnecting the ps enable wire when under load. the instability is still there when there's no load but the frequency goes way down.
Checked the PCB no visually faulty components and everything seems to be soldered properly.

Any idea what the problem might be?
Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
 
Not exactly a helpful answer.

Really? Because it's 100% the correct one, you could show slightly more gratitude given you had a correct answer within half an hour of posting. VS units are trash, and you've already indicated that it's struggling under load.

Unless of course you're skilled at replacing PSU components? Although if you were, you probably wouldn't be asking this question..
 
Nov 23, 2019
3
0
10
Really? Because it's 100% the correct one, you could show slightly more gratitude given you had a correct answer within half an hour of posting. VS units are trash, and you've already indicated that it's struggling under load.

Unless of course you're skilled at replacing PSU components? Although if you were, you probably wouldn't be asking this question..

The reply was prompt, but as I said, not helpful.
I'm an embedded hw/sw engineer, so yeah pretty sure I can replace the appropriate components. The capability was never a problem.
The problem is narrowing out what part to replace. The location where the clicking noise is coming out isn't necessarily the faulty component. It could be any of the mosfets or the controller or maybe something else.
That's why I asked here, if anyone else has a decent knowledge of atx smps circuits and has maybe solved this before, might be of a lot of help.

I don't really need the psu, I just wanna figure out what went wrong.
Seems like this is the wrong place to ask such a question