My 520W HX is a paper weight!

[LuckyNV]

My Corsair 620HX blew up yesterday. I can't be certain but there's nothing happening with it at all when I press my lovely 'on' button. I turned the computer on, went to make a cup of tea and the circuit-breaker went and now nothing is happening. I also bought it from scan about a year and halfish ago.

I have another psu in the house but don't really want to use it because it's very old and rated at a meagre 250W. Is there anything I can do to verify it's the PSU before I try and RMA (to either Scan if they're feeling helpful or to Corsair)?

Sorry for the minor thread hijack! (I also have a fairly pricey sound card I hope it hasn't blown... not to mention everything else!).

Just disconnect everything you do not need, install a low power GFX card if you can, basic PCI one is ideal, take out all drives except the OS one, should be fine then.

[watercooled]

There seems to be alot of Corsair PSUs breaking down! It's put me off buying one, especially since they are so expensive and often take hardware with them.

[format]

There seems to be alot of Corsair PSUs breaking down! It's put me off buying one, especially since they are so expensive and often take hardware with them.

TBH, no PSUs, not even high end ones, are immune to failure.
You've heard about Corsair here because they have a support forum here, but look around and you'll find that all PSUs can fail. It's a tiny minority really.

[d032sh]

Just disconnect everything you do not need, install a low power GFX card if you can, basic PCI one is ideal, take out all drives except the OS one, should be fine then.

Sadly I don't have a spare gfx card I can use as my old one is AGP. I'm worried because my card is an original 8800gts 640 so is fairly power hungry. Do you think it would be safe to try and boot using this just to check that everything else still works?

[watercooled]

(Reply to format) I never thought of that. Even so, only a small percentage of PC builders talk on this forum and there are still tens of cases.

[kalniel]

I never thought of that. Even so, only a small percentage of PC builders talk on this forum and there are still tens of cases.

Are you sure?

[watercooled]

I've read a fair few throughout this forum. I'd guess it was around 5-10 actually. 'Tens' was probably an unfair guess, sorry. I suppose you are right though - I mainly read them in the Corsair support forum. And there are thousands of posters on this forum, and lots use a Corsair PSU. And I do like the flat modular cables on Corsair HX models...

[LuckyNV]

Sadly I don't have a spare gfx card I can use as my old one is AGP. I'm worried because my card is an original 8800gts 640 so is fairly power hungry. Do you think it would be safe to try and boot using this just to check that everything else still works?

For booting it "might" be ok, even getting into desktop, also disconnect all fans except the CPU.
Its something I'd be wary of trying myself, I had a 250W with like 11A on the +12V rail and its as light as my mouse, I'd never try booting my machine with it.

I've read a fair few throughout this forum. I'd guess it was around 5-10 actually. 'Tens' was probably an unfair guess, sorry. I suppose you are right though - I mainly read them in the Corsair support forum. And there are thousands of posters on this forum, and lots use a Corsair PSU. And I do like the flat modular cables on Corsair HX models...

Well, my HX620 is 2 years old now from Ebuyer, working perfectly
Judging a products failure rate using forums is always going to be inaccurate, remember the multitude of Sammy F1 1TB failures... put me off a bit, but I bought one in the end, works a charm ;p

[staffsMike]

I have 2 other corsairs that are fine. I can't be sure whether its the card or the PSU that caused it but they have both gone.

I won't stop buying them on the basis of this, but if there were a closey matched enermax I might think twice lol

[staffsMike]

Since I haven't had to post this sort of thing in a long time.. is it best to just use Royal Mail? And would you sent it recorded or standard package?

[LuckyNV]

For myself I'd just go up the road which means Royal Mail, I'd use whatever service that gets there in 1-3 days with enough insurance to cover loss.

[staffsMike]

I'll pop to the post office tomorrow then and see whats best.

[moogle]

Since I haven't had to post this sort of thing in a long time.. is it best to just use Royal Mail? And would you sent it recorded or standard package?

Depends on how much you're going to pay to send it. If it's anything near £7-8+ then just use DHL (on websites like http://www.interparcel.com or http://www.freightsearch.com) or get Scan to arrange City-Link to pick it. As for insuring it. It's only useful if lets say you don't pack it well or they lose it due to natural disasters etc. It's really not gonna happen is it. I would only insure something if I'm shipping it to a business block as it could be delivered to someone else other than the intended recipient as the delivery man might just deliver it anyway as long as it's delivered to the right postcode.

[shaithis]

That's bad luck

They are made by Seasonic (unless I am mistaken) and I haven't ever seen a Seasonic die before.

Was it plugged into a surge protector or smoother?

[staffsMike]

It was in a surge protector.. haven't checked if thats working yet as I have been playing with it directly into the wall since.

I've never had a seasonic go either (which the HX's are apart from the 1000W), was very shocked (not literally lol).

Cheers moogle I think it will cost upwards of £9 so thats a good option to have.

[moogle]

haven't checked if thats working yet as I have been playing with it directly into the wall since.

You should check it. Might arrive at Scan and NFF. That's a problem with this type of fault, don't wanna test on your hardware incase it's gone mad and takes out anything in it's way but don't want to get a NFF fee. Try using the paperclip method to see if it starts and runs normally.