[SOLVED] Turning on desk fan caused my USB port to stop getting enough power. Now PC is restarting.

[tyranius]

TL;DR:

Turned fan on in my room, USB mic stopped working. Turned fan off, mic worked again. Turned PC off for one minute, it started turning off after a couple of minutes. Electrical problem or dying PSU? PSU is 10 years old.

Full Post:

PSU is a Corsair VX550. Mobo is Asrock A58M-A/BR. CPU is a 7860k AMD APU

So, I got a Vedo BM-800 USB mic. I plugged it in and all was ok. Spent all day using it on discord. Then night hits and I was gonna play games with some friends. Thing is, my CPU is throttling. The only way I can game is if I point a fan towards my PC so that the CPU doesn't throttle itself.

Now, this is a problem I've had for months now, I've been gaming with a fan pointed to my PC since it started. Already replaced thermal paste and everything, heatsink may be crapping out. Either way, I already bought another PC and it arrives in 10 days, so this is whatever.

Back to the issue at hand. I booted up my game, turned on the fan and... my mic stopped working. I turned the fan off and the mic worked again. I switched USB ports and turned the fan on again, and this time the mic worked but barely. So I re-plugged my old $2 jack mic and played the game.

After I played, I turned the PC off for a couple of minutes and problems started when I powered it back on. My PC would boot but it would turn off after a couple of minutes. Now I can't get it to stay on for more than a few minutes.

Now I'm wondering whether I have an electrical problem with my wall sockets or is my PSU just crapping out... It never gave me any issues before. I was inclined to believe it was an electrical problem because turning the fan on made it so my USB port stopped getting enough power for the mic.

One disclaimer. I rarely turn my PC off.

Is there any way I can troubleshoot this? I mean, if it was the PSU, why would turning on my desk fan cause problems?

 

[jay32267]

I think it's either a PSU problem or a power (wall socket) problem.

If you have a multimeter you can check the voltage at the wall when this happens and see if it remains within the specification for your country.

If it stays within spec I would change the PSU.

If it doesn't I would get the power problem fixed.

 

[Colif]

buy a surge protector and use PC on it, don't attach fan to it. That might fix it.

I have seen lamps do the same thing

 

[Archaic59]

TL;DR:

Turned fan on in my room, USB mic stopped working. Turned fan off, mic worked again. Turned PC off for one minute, it started turning off after a couple of minutes. Electrical problem or dying PSU? PSU is 10 years old.

Full Post:

PSU is a Corsair VX550. Mobo is Asrock A58M-A/BR. CPU is a 7860k AMD APU

So, I got a Vedo BM-800 USB mic. I plugged it in and all was ok. Spent all day using it on discord. Then night hits and I was gonna play games with some friends. Thing is, my CPU is throttling. The only way I can game is if I point a fan towards my PC so that the CPU doesn't throttle itself.

Now, this is a problem I've had for months now, I've been gaming with a fan pointed to my PC since it started. Already replaced thermal paste and everything, heatsink may be crapping out. Either way, I already bought another PC and it arrives in 10 days, so this is whatever.

Back to the issue at hand. I booted up my game, turned on the fan and... my mic stopped working. I turned the fan off and the mic worked again. I switched USB ports and turned the fan on again, and this time the mic worked but barely. So I re-plugged my old $2 jack mic and played the game.

After I played, I turned the PC off for a couple of minutes and problems started when I powered it back on. My PC would boot but it would turn off after a couple of minutes. Now I can't get it to stay on for more than a few minutes.

Now I'm wondering whether I have an electrical problem with my wall sockets or is my PSU just crapping out... It never gave me any issues before. I was inclined to believe it was an electrical problem because turning the fan on made it so my USB port stopped getting enough power for the mic.

One disclaimer. I rarely turn my PC off.

Is there any way I can troubleshoot this? I mean, if it was the PSU, why would turning on my desk fan cause problems?

Your power supply is 10-14 years old. Regardless of what the problem is you should replace it. After that you can reevaluate the problem, if it still exists.

 

[refillable]

Theoretically the load on your fan can change how your electricity is in your mains electricity, maybe a voltage drop or something like that. Because your PSU is so old it might not cope with that very well, so that could explain why your mic stops working. BUT it doesn't always have to be like that, it could be your motherboard that is causing this issue, with the PSU either contributing indirectly or not.

 

[tyranius]

Just thought I'd post an update. New PC arrived yesterday and so far I've had no problems. So it seems it was my old PSU causing the problem.

Thanks to everyone who posted.

 

[jonnyguru]

Just thought I'd post an update. New PC arrived yesterday and so far I've had no problems. So it seems it was my old PSU causing the problem.

Thanks to everyone who posted.

Pro tip: Don't use 10 year old power supplies.