Thermaltake TR2 units are junk?

Greetings to you all. I've got a system I'm working on that I think may have PSU related issues but I'm uncertain about the model's quality.

The components are as follows.
AMD FX-4300 FOUR-CORE 3.8GHZ 8MB 95W AM3+CPU
GB GA-78LMT-USB3 760G mATX MB (Board I originally used)
ASRock 970 PRO3 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS (Board I installed during process of elimination)
Kingston 8GB 1333MHz 9-9-9 DDR3 HyperX Red
WD Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s Int 3.5 HDD
Thermaltake TR2 600W Cable Management Power Supply
Cooler Master Elite 431+ Mid Tower USB3.0 & X-Dock

The problem is that whenever something is plugged into one of the USB ports, doesn't matter if you use a 3.0 or a 2.0 port, front or rear, or plug a microphone into the front or rear plug, there is a resulting pop (Static shock) and the system either freezes, reboots or one or more of the installed components stops working and the system has to be rebooted. There are also occasionally light shocks when touching the case, keyboard or when plugging in USB devices.

It doesn't do it every single time. Probably four out of six instances. First I thought it was the front panel that had a problem so we replaced that. The problem was not corrected so we went after the board and replace it. Seemed ok while testing it at my location but after returning to his house it began doing it again after about a day. Thought maybe the memory so we swapped that out and it wasn't the problem either. There are no mounting locations for the board that look problematic, no loose screws under the board or loose connections in the cabling inside the case. All cabling is new.

The power strip was replaced with a high end power conditioner and the outlets in the office where the system resides was checked for polarity. That pretty much leaves just the power supply, however, I've never seen a PSU cause a similar problem and I'm just wondering if anybody has seen this particular issue or can confirm similar issues with the Thermaltake TR2 600W units in particular, having any common or miscellaneous issues or relevant problems.

I couldn't find any common issue threads regarding this PSU so I wanted some input on what the likelihood is that the PS is at fault aside from the obvious reality that it's about the only thing we haven't replaced or swapped out and that Thermaltake in general has some problematic units. Thanks.
 
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Dark Lord of Tech

Retired Moderator
Very very very likely.

Tier 5 - Other than the units listed above for any of these brands, NOT RECOMMENDED. Replace ASAP if you have one.

A-TOP Technology
Apevia
APEX (SUPERCASE/ALLIED)
Aspire(Turbo Case)
ATADC
Athena Power
ATRIX
Broadway Com Corp
Coolmax
Deer
Diablotek
Dynapower USA
Dynex
EagleTech
FOXCONN
FSP Everest
HEC Orion
Hiper Type-R
Huntkey
I-Star Computer Co. Ltd
In Win
JPAC COMPUTER
Just PC
Kingwin Inc.
Linkworld Electronics
Logisys Computer
MGE
MSI
NMEDIAPC
Norwood Micro/ CompUSA
NorthQ
NZXT
Okia
Powmax
Q-Tec
Raidmax
Rocketfish
Rosewill
SFC
Shuttle
Skyhawk
Spire Coolers
Star Micro
STARTECH
Thermaltake Purepower NP
Thermaltake Purepower RU
Thermaltake TR2 (and TR2-RX) :(
TOPOWER TOP
Ultra X-Connect
Ultra X2 >greater than 700 watt
Ultra LSP
Wintech
XION
YoungYear
Zebronics
 
when the motherboard was installed did you put any paper or plastic spacer under the screw heads to stop the mb and case from being grounded together. if your using an after market heatsink if it uses a metal back plate is the plate shorting out to the mb or mb tray. on the back of the case is the mb or any of the cards shorting out on the io shield. in his office anyone test the wall outlet for a misswire or no gound wires. a lot of work building when built sometime they cut corners..
 
Are you saying that there SHOULD be paper or plastic washers there, or that there shouldn't be? Because there are not any and I've never seen a case or motherboard come with them and have never used them. I've seen pre-built systems that had them but none of the components I've ever bought had them so I've never known it to be an issue on any builds I've ever done. I've never used them and have never had this issue previously. I'm not ruling it out or saying you're wrong, if that's what you're saying, just saying I've not had issues with not using those ever before.

 

Dark Lord of Tech

Retired Moderator
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $59.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available


or


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $89.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available


or


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $59.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
 

bignastyid

Titan
Moderator
Didn't hear anything back from "Smorizio" about the washers. You guys have any input on this? You use washers between the screw heads and the board? I'd think if it was necessary the board manufacturer would supply them along with the screws and include a note to use them.
 
I remember those but I haven't seen any of those used in a long time. Like since the P4 days. And for certain I didn't use any of them so that's another thing I can eliminate. Kinda figured those standoffs are what you were talking about. I don't even think you could use those nowadays and not have issues with height on the I/O shield. Guess that's what you were asking. Anyhow none of those issues apply. Thanks though. I've pretty much decided it's got to be grounding issue with the PSU so I'm just going to replace it. Especially since the TR2 seems to be on everybody's sh#$ list.
 
Well, I know it's been a while since I made this, my first post here, but I wanted to revisit it and confirm that the psu was definitely the issue. I replaced it with a Seasonic M12II which resolved the remainder of the issues including intermittent failure to boot, spontaneous shut downs, shock incidents and complete failure to power up intermittently. All problems are gone and in the future it's going to be a no-Thermaltake policy for any builds aside from maybe a few of the Toughpower models.

Tier list, for reference: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/legacy-psu-tier-list-archival-purposes-only.3387365/
 
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