PC Peripherals Kaput psu

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kujija

kujija

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Hello everyone.. Yesterday when I was playing mafia three and all of a sudden i heard a loud noise with the smell of burning plastic. Upon further investigation I found that the multiple power supply surge protector had fried, upon checking the circuit breaker it had tripped down and the inverter was also on overload with a beep sound. When i reconnected to another mains port it didn't turn on. Fearing for the worst i went to my friend who has a vs550 psu. To my relief Upon connecting all the wires to my friends PSU the sytem finally booted.
So now i am left with a damaged PSU, what should I do.. Repair the PSU( repair the fuse, if the problem is a blown fuse) or buy a new PSU. Btw i haven't opened the PSU. My PSU is corsair VX 450.
System spec.
I3 6100, gigabyte mobo, gtx960, 8 gigs ram.
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
 
VX450 is out of warranty now. Remove it from the comp and if you know how to open it (just around 4 screws i think), open it up and take a pic and post it here. Maybe we can find out if it can be repaired or not by looking at the pics.
 
dnRfmF
i did open up the PSU, to my surprise i didn't find any busted capacitors and circuts. I live in hinterlands region so.. Repairs would be next to impossible here. I've inquired about vs550 and i am planning to buy it. Note : the psu fan was making a tick tick noise for a while.
 
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Ok I've made up my mind. Buying a vs550 corsair. Hope this unit is as trustworthy as my oldie vx450. Btw can u guys recommend me a good surge protector and a UPS because the inverter is kaput for now and im scared to connect to it directly again. I am thinking of buying a belkin 4 or six pin. And a APC 600va hope this ups powers my hardware enough for 10 minutes
 
Hang on, isn't the vs550 a "tier-4" (lower than third class :D ) PSU which people recommend against?

Can't you get your hands on the Antec VP550P instead? (which is a "tier-3" PSU)

I also have the old vx450 still going "strong" (touchwood) and I too settled for a new vs550 because the vp550p was out of stock recently. (off primeabgb.com)
 
Yes..taking the antec vp550p into consideration, will it go with the APC 600 va UPS unit. My friends vs550 is still running good for 3 and a half years, considering it to be a four tier PSU, dont think of any reason not to buy it.

Anyone here using an Apc 600 va UPS for gaming. Want to know how much of back up time would I get to shut down the system when full load while gaming. A maximum of 5 mins would suffice for me to wind things up. I have a i3 6100, gtx960 and 8 gigs ram. I will be getting this UPS from as a gift from a friend. According to power calculator i will be getting maximum 350watts when on full load. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Aren't all APC ups square wave, causing issues with active pfc psus ?
 
i haven't personally used one but i heard square wave output is not good for good quality psus with active pfcs. and afaik there's no decent pc ups with sine wave output. i think there's some su kam model, maybe in microtek too, but nothing easily available here. so i ended up getting a microtek home inverter and a small 65aH battery, runs my pc and my lights/fans pretty well. runtime at least 1 hour for the pc compared to 25mins max for a ups. cost me about 8k
 
Yep, I stopped using APC UPS a few years ago. A Su-Kam "sine wave" invertor in "UPS mode" works well. PC and other electronics stay running when there is electricity failure/switchovers.
 
All these sine wave inverters actually give out stepped sine wave just like APC ups. Changing brands won't help since all of them use same low quality stuff inside. APC is better in build quality compared to Microtek/Luminous etc.
 
6pack said:
All these sine wave inverters actually give out stepped sine wave just like APC ups. Changing brands won't help since all of them use same low quality stuff inside. APC is better in build quality compared to Microtek/Luminous etc.
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No , only APC 850 Sinewave BI850Sine is same as Microtek/Sukam pure sinewave inverters ..
rest all other APC UPS are stepped/square wave

Although these inverters are not "pure" sinewave as advertised , still they are closer to sinewave ( much safer )
but their is a big difference between normal apc ups output and output of these Sinewave inverters ..

Just plug your speakers and listen to the background noise by connecting it to

1) mains , 2) sinewave inverter 3) APC stepped UPS and hear the difference ..

Speakers will emit a very different and distinct noise when connected to APC UPS compared to Sinewave inverter and mains .. in sinewave inverter case the noise will be much louder and audible compared to mains but the sound quality will be same as mains noise , whereas in APC it will be totally different kind of noise

Even tubelights emit sound when they run on stepped sinewave ( remember old inverters ? )
 
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Well microtek and Iball say their UPS is fit for indian environment but now heard they all use same stepped sine wave. Then why doesnt PSU cos advertise against using their Psu on specific.brand UPS?
 
kujija said:
My friends vs550 is still running good for 3 and a half years, considering it to be a four tier PSU, dont think of any reason not to buy it.
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First, like expectancy of a UPS is typically three years.

Second, most electronic damage exists without any visual indication (ie inside a PSU).

Third, protectors too close to electronics and too far from single point earth ground can compromise more robust protection routinely found in computers. You may have witnessed a perfect example.

Four, a protector is only as effective as its earth ground. Any protector without earth ground (ie all those plug-in ones) do not even claim to protect from the other and potentially destructive surge. Worse, any protector that fails on any surge is ineffective (bogus) protection.

Facilities that cannot have damage spend tens of times less money on one properly earthed 'whole house' protector. Properly earthed means a low impedance (ie less than 3 meter) connection to single point earth ground.

Five, UPS does not protect hardware. UPS is only temporary and 'dirty' power to provide time to save unsaved data. Ignore sine wave or stepped wave rumors. Properly designed supplies consume 'dirty' power from a UPS - because best protection in a computer is provided by what must be inside every PSU.

Your only concern is a rare transient that will easily destroy plug-in protectors, and is sometimes strong enough to also overwhelm better protection inside a computer. That means a properly earthed 'whole house' solution. Best solution (to even protect from direct lightning strikes) even costs less money.
 
^^ no one's recommending a UPS for protection. What we're discussing is square wave outputs vs "sine wave". And if you think they're all the same then no point discussing with you further. Because many of us have personally experienced the difference between square and 'sine' output inverters.

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nRiTeCh said:
Well microtek and Iball say their UPS is fit for indian environment but now heard they all use same stepped sine wave. Then why doesnt PSU cos advertise against using their Psu on specific.brand UPS?
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Even a stepped or approximated sine wave is better than a square wave output. Practical examples are the above mentioned humming devices and of course the issues with active pfc psus. Don't bother wondering about advertising and marketing decisions, they're all BS to trap gullible people. The information is out there, use it and it becomes knowledge...
 
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Julian said:
Even a stepped or approximated sine wave is better than a square wave output. Practical examples are the above mentioned humming devices and of course the issues with active pfc psus.
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Is it? Every word is subjective. Some UPS manufacturers promote their product as a pure sine wave (such as one I am looking at). But it is also a square wave output. Stepped and square waves are nothing more than a sum of pure sine waves. They did not lie. They were simply subjective. Subjective is how to manipulate consumers.

Useful recommendation comes with a specification number (such as %THD). Since a pure sine wave output never exists.

If an output creates a hum, then the electronic's power supply is defective - an inferior design. All good electronics first convert incoming power to well over 300 volt radio frequency spikes. Then superior filtering, regulation, and galvanic isolation convert that now 'dirtiest' power into rock stable, low DC voltages - no hum. Especially 'dirty' incoming power discovers defectively designed (or failed) electronics.

If you hare not discussing relevant numbers (such as %THD), then no point in further discussing any of this with you. Since above is known by anyone with basic electrical knowledge.

A subjective recommendation (also called an advertising or marketing claim) is best considered speculation. It may or may not be valid. But electronics routinely convert even 'cleanest' UPS power into 'dirtiest' power. Then superior internal circuits clean that 'dirtiest' power.

'Cleaning' circuits inside an ATX standard PSU must be even better. But then many PSUs promoted subjectively can also be missing required ATX functions. First indication is a PSU with few or no specification numbers. Those spec should be at least one full page long. Because a PSU must do that much - conform to that many ATX requirements.
 
LOL @ electrical expert who says dirty power is as good as clean power or 'you're PSUing it wrong...'
 
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