PC Peripherals Need help: SeaSonic Powersupply gone kaput 2 times in less than 9 months.

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cooleagle

cooleagle

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Hello guys I need a bit of help in understanding the problem better and finding a solution to it.

Here's the situation:

I had bought a SeaSonic SS-500ES Active PFC F3 Power Supply in July'11 for about Rs. 3200 from Prime abgb. Any users of the same model please give feedback as your inputs would be very valuable.

Here's the pdf of the product from the manufacturer's site: http://www.seasonicu...-Active-PFC.pdf

Main specs of my system:

- Intel Core i5 2400

- Asus P8H67 -M PRO (BIOS updated)

- 2 x 2GB Corsair XMS3 1600 RAM

- Seasonic SS-500ES (500W)

When I assembled it and switched on my system it booted but after a few mins my system was suddenly powered down without any input from my side. When I tried to restart, it would go till the boot screen of my OS and would shut down abruptly. This was within 24hrs of buying i.e. it was Dead On Arrival so it was finally replaced by Primeabgb and was working fine.

Cut to a few days before:

I tried to start my system but it would automatically reset even before showing the OS boot screen. It would then automatically restart and then show the following message: "Power supply surge detected during previous power on. ASUS Anti-Surge was triggered to protect the system from unstable power supply unit." Here's the pic:

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On entering the BIOS I see that in the 5V field, BIOS is detecting the voltage to be more than 5.7V and is showing the same field in red. Here are the pics:

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My doubts & questions:

1. Now from the above we can infer that PSU's output on the 5V line is probably above the threshold of the motherboard's acceptance levels and so RMA of PSU is required. Or am I missing something here ?

2. How can a good company's PSU like SeaSonic can go kaput 2 times in such a short span while my older system's iBall PSU went on without a hitch for around 2.5 - 3 years ?

3. Any users of this power supply on our forum, could you please give me some feedback ? Did you face any issues and how long have you been using it ?

4. Could it be that this series has some inherent design problem ?

5. How to go about with the RMA from Prime ABGB ? I had called them up & the lady from the RMA section (I forgot her name) told me to give them my system for studying/testing it which is fine.

But taking into consideration the worst case scenario should I take pics of each and every component before giving it to them to avoid any chance of the pathetic blame games that could follow later on for any reason ? Anything else that I should do to avoid any problems later on ?

6. And I want a replacement with a brand new unit and not a repaired one as its the third time and I am fed up of doing this again & again, how to ensure that I get a new unit ? Would it be a good measure to email SeaSonic directly detailing my problem with the serial no. of the product, distributor's name (are there any distributors of SeaSonic apart from Tirupati in India ?), retailer's name apart from giving it to Prime for RMA, which I think Prime should be doing but I am not sure if they'll do it ?

#ALPHA17 #Jakob #vivek.krishnan #Crazy_Eddy #mraccess I would request you guys and others on our forum to help me with this. If you understand it from your experience & could help me in anyway possible I would really appreciate it.
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There could be some post formatting issues as I have posted it from my mobile.

Thanks for reading this long detailed post.
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Hope I can get the culprit and the best solution to put an end to this recurring problem.
 
I am using Seasonic S12II 430 and 520 power supply at my home and office. They have been rock solid for over 2 years now. I also have Asus motherboard which has Anti-surge enabled. Never seen any warning about a surge. Hope primeabgb solves the issue asap.
 
The problems looks like of of faulty PSU, as above I also have the SS 12-II 520 W and never faced a single issue.

Before you blame the PSU, try another one, to see if same problem crops up

I think RMA is your option now, do take the pics of the internals, but I have not heard any stories of blame-game for PrimeABGB, but precaution is always better than cure

You can also contact Tirupati Enterprises, as they are dealers of SS in India

Thank you
 
#[member='cooleagle']: while you are at it, please send a mail to:

Code: 
clivechan@seasonic.com.tw

notifying him about this issue.
 
You would do well to measure the actual voltage at the 5V line. It's likely the supply would activate overvoltage protection at that level of 5V, so either:

1, OV protection of the PSU is not working

2, The motherboard is reading the voltage wrongly and firing off an alarm

PSUs can go bust for many reasons. In India, the domestic supply is unreliable and causes many different kinds of issues, also the way our houses are wired makes you wonder why anything works at all. It's obviously difficult to pinpoint the exact cause remotely, but if you can safely eliminate all other causes (wiring, supply spikes, motherboard etc) then you may have received PSUs from a bad batch.
 
bobbyprajan said:
I am using Seasonic S12II 430 and 520 power supply at my home and office. They have been rock solid for over 2 years now. I also have Asus motherboard which has Anti-surge enabled. Never seen any warning about a surge. Hope primeabgb solves the issue asap.
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That's all I can hope buddy.
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allrounder799 said:
The problems looks like of of faulty PSU, as above I also have the SS 12-II 520 W and never faced a single issue.Before you blame the PSU, try another one, to see if same problem crops upI think RMA is your option now, do take the pics of the internals, but I have not heard any stories of blame-game for PrimeABGB, but precaution is always better than cureYou can also contact Tirupati Enterprises, as they are dealers of SS in IndiaThank you
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Yes I was trying to get a PSU which has a 8 pin powersupply connector for the motherboard as my motherboard requires a 8 pin EPS connector.

I have checked two 400Wer PSUs of my friends but they have a 4 pin cable but I've asked one more to check his 500Wer if it has a 8pin awaiting his reply.

I am not sure about the compatibility between 4pin PSU input and a 8pin motherboard socket, I think there's some adapter needed for it to work.

Yes precaution is any day better than cure.
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Thanks buddy.
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Gannu said:
#[member='cooleagle']: while you are at it, please send a mail to:
Code: 
clivechan@seasonic.com.tw
notifying him about this issue.
Click to expand...

Thanks buddy for the email id but could you please tell me who is the person(Clive Chan) that I am gonna send a mail to ?

Is he a person/executive which handles the RMA for Mumbai/India ? Should I attach a copy of my purchase invoice with the email ?

Could you tell me why aren't # tags working for me ?

cranky said:
You would do well to measure the actual voltage at the 5V line. It's likely the supply would activate overvoltage protection at that level of 5V, so either:1, OV protection of the PSU is not working2, The motherboard is reading the voltage wrongly and firing off an alarmPSUs can go bust for many reasons. In India, the domestic supply is unreliable and causes many different kinds of issues, also the way our houses are wired makes you wonder why anything works at all. It's obviously difficult to pinpoint the exact cause remotely, but if you can safely eliminate all other causes (wiring, supply spikes, motherboard etc) then you may have received PSUs from a bad batch.
Click to expand...

I can test it using a MM but what's wrong with the internals of the PSU is a mystery. So I am a bit skeptical if it would zap my MM in the process, but if my doubt is not true do tell me buddy.

About the motherboard being faulty I'll check with a different PSU if I can get one with a 8pin EPS input cable. Thanks buddy.
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_______________________________

Is there no user of this PSU on our forum ?
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It seems only I bought this one.
 
#[member='cooleagle']

I checked out on internet, and my model has the 8 pin EPS pin

My PSU model is quiet popular in this forum so you can search for a member, who is located in your city, who can help out

Also this 8 pin EPS is hard to find on the 400 watt iball PSUs which come with cabby

Alternatively you can check out this thread on Toms Hardware, and try the method at your risk

Hope it helps
 
Firstly, I would agree with #[member='cranky'], it might be from a bad batch. You could try to use another PSU and see if that works, or gives the same issue.

As for the 8pin requirement, if you go to lamington road, you can find 2 x 4 pin molex to 1x 8 pin converter. This should do the trick, do see if its available. Else, see if you can clock down/disable cores if needed and use a single 4 pin only.

Thirdly, as for the tagging, I shall try again, #[member='ALPHA17'] #[member='Jakob'] #[member='Crazy_Eddy'] #mraccess but i feel you have edited the post and done it, so tagging may not be working.
 
Well, I have assembled many systems using SS 400 and SS 500 too. Havent heard of such issues yet even after a year. It has 5 yr warranty if I am not wrong. As Cranky has suggested, disconnect everything and check the voltage on 5v rail, if its similar or near to what mobo is showing, then certainly a case of bad supply or get it checked with some other mobo (say, a friends PC)

cooleagle said:
Is there no user of this PSU on our forum ?
sleep.png
It seems only I bought this one.
Click to expand...
 
allrounder799 said:
#[member='cooleagle']

I checked out on internet, and my model has the 8 pin EPS pin

My PSU model is quiet popular in this forum so you can search for a member, who is located in your city, who can help out

Also this 8 pin EPS is hard to find on the 400 watt iball PSUs which come with cabby

Alternatively you can check out this thread on Toms Hardware, and try the method at your risk

Hope it helps
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link buddy but I'll keep that in mind.
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vivek.krishnan said:
Firstly, I would agree with #[member='cranky'], it might be from a bad batch. You could try to use another PSU and see if that works, or gives the same issue.

As for the 8pin requirement, if you go to lamington road, you can find 2 x 4 pin molex to 1x 8 pin converter. This should do the trick, do see if its available. Else, see if you can clock down/disable cores if needed and use a single 4 pin only.

Thirdly, as for the tagging, I shall try again, #[member='ALPHA17'] #[member='Jakob'] #[member='Crazy_Eddy'] #mraccess but i feel you have edited the post and done it, so tagging may not be working.
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I hope I get a replacement from a new batch. Thanks for the tip buddy, I'll try to buy that adapter locally if available before going to lamington.

About the disabling of the cores I didn't see any option of doing that in my BIOS but can do it only for a specific process when booted into the OS. Am I missing something, could you tell me how to disable the cores ? Or can we do it by undervolting the processor ?

I had tagged the users before editing it but I'm doing so using tapatk, so that could be the reason. Thanks for tagging them though.
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I have an idea let's see if it works, #[member='vivek.krishnan']

Update: It works
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chiragsthakur said:
Well, I have assembled many systems using SS 400 and SS 500 too. Havent heard of such issues yet even after a year. It has 5 yr warranty if I am not wrong. As Cranky has suggested, disconnect everything and check the voltage on 5v rail, if its similar or near to what mobo is showing, then certainly a case of bad supply or get it checked with some other mobo (say, a friends PC)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply but did you use the SS 500ES variant or the SS 500ET variant ? ES variant has a 8cm fan but the ET variant has a 12cm fan.

And about testing yes I am gonna try getting an adapter or a PSU with a 8pin EPS input cable to check my mobo. I don't think it would be a good idea to connect my PSU to my friend's mobo as it may damage it but I can do so only if my mobo shows wrong readings for a different PSU also.

Thanks will update the result here once I have checked it.
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#[member='Gannu'] My bad buddy, should have checked before asking you.
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Just checked while going through the Manufacturer Support section, Clive Chan is (or was ?) representing SeaSonic & had posted in that section. Will notify him by sending an email anyways. Thanks.
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Hello #[member='medpal'],

Just checked your comments in the Manufacturer Support section and I think you are using the same PSU model(SS-500ES) since April' 11.

Could you tell how has been your experience with the unit ?

Has there been any problem with it regarding overvoltage/heating/any other issues & if possible could you check & post here the voltages being indicated in your BIOS(& not Hardware Monitor as it sometimes gives wrong info) for the 3.3V, 5V & 12V ?

________________________________________

BTW guys got a confirmation from my friend that his 500W PSU has a 8pin EPS cable, so no need to do anything else
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But the only problem is that my friend's company is currently slogging him, so I'll get to test it on the coming Saturday/Sunday. I'll post the outcome. Thanks for your replies.
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Gaurish said:
I too had a bad experiences with Seasonic in the past[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]. It conked off within 3-4months & dealer refused warranty. somehow, I managed to get it replaced with [/font] Tagan 600w PSU which working fine since then
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So, Atleast in my books; seasonic is bad
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Thanks man ! So I am not the one which is having issues with SeaSonic PSUs.
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BTW could you tell me how did you get it replaced with the Tagan, I might have to do something similar.
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#[member='allrounder799'] #[member='vivek.krishnan'] #[member='cranky'] #[member='chiragsthakur'] #[member='Gannu'] #[member='bobbyprajan'] #[member='Gaurish']

Hello guys thanks for your replies but I have some good news and bad news.

First the good one, it seems that my PSU is fine but the bad news is that my Asus motherboard seems to have a faulty Anti-surge trigger circuit as when I finally got a chance to check it using my friend's PSU yesterday it turns out that its rather showing the same message as it had when my PSU was connected.

But here's caveat his PC wasn't working either as his system engineer had taken his Gigabyte motherboard for RMA and his system isn't even a year old. He told me that his engineer had checked his PSU with some 'thing'(not a multimeter for sure he says) and found it to be working correctly but his motherboard seems to have some problems so he took it with him for RMA.

Now I am a bit confused as to whether trust that engineer or not, rather is my friend's PSU working correctly or not ?

What should I do guys ?

Should I give the system to prime without knowing what was wrong with it and let them find the issues ?

Am I missing something here ?

Here are the pics of the BIOS:

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Thanks for reading & awaiting your replies to get a better view.
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Looking at your problem it seems that MB is at fault, it would be better if you get it checked with Prime(if its not very far away from your place). if its not feasible you can directly send it to RMA they will do the required

Repairing from other engineer might void your warranty
 
allrounder799 said:
Looking at your problem it seems that MB is at fault, it would be better if you get it checked with Prime(if its not very far away from your place). if its not feasible you can directly send it to RMA they will do the required

Repairing from other engineer might void your warranty
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No man I never was going to show it to any engineer cause that won't be needed.
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I meant to say that could I trust that my friend's PSU didn't have any problems as his engineer had confirmed the same.

I'll give it to prime let's see how they do it and that will determine my & my friends future purchases from them.
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