Major problem with brand new CX600 Builder Series V2

[thomash131]

So far, I've had to replace this PSU via RMA at scam three times. Today, I received the third replacement in the post and immediately fitted it.

Upon booting my PC with the newly fitted PSU, I received an error in the bios:

"Power Supply Surges detected during the previous power on.
ASUS Anti-Surge was triggered to protect system from unstable power supply unit! "

I figured that maybe it was a glitch in the anti surge software or the new PSU, so I hit F2 to continue. Windows then began to load but froze on "Starting Windows..."

I rebooted my PC after seeing the same loading message for over 15 mins, on a PC that usually loads in 40 seconds. Except this time, there was no signal to the monitor, and I was encountering a problem with all three of my hard drives.

Instead of the constant whirring noise when in use, they now whir at 2 second intervals, i.e they power on for two seconds, and then off for two seconds, then on again for another two seconds and so on...

I'm really frustrated right now. This is the third time that I have replaced this PSU, and I'm scared that the components in my PC have now been fried due to a faulty PSU. Can anyone advice me on what to do?

Thanks!

[herulach]

Do you have a separate machine to test in? If not I'd first try resetting the CMOS,

[thomash131]

Thank you very much for your reply. Your assistance is very much appreciated.

Isn't that going to be a bit dangerous? Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the PSU is outputting surges and has fried my components, putting it into another build doesn't seem like a good idea...

I do however has a spare PSU, that I used temporarily whilst I was waiting for the replacement to arrive, should I test it with that?

I'll also reset the CMOS too.

Thanks again.

[Jonj1611]

3 PSU's all faulty? Hmm, doesn't sound right to me, are you sure it's not your build which sounds more likely. Possibly something shorting somewhere causing power problems?

Were the previous two PSU's tested by Scan and found to be faulty?

[thomash131]

3 PSU's all faulty? Hmm, doesn't sound right to me, are you sure it's not your build which sounds more likely. Possibly something shorting somewhere causing power problems?

Were the previous two PSU's tested by Scan and found to be faulty?

Yes, both PSU's were tested and deemed as faulty, the first died and wouldn't power up, failing the paper clip test, the second however caused my PC to reboot when placed under stress from my GPU.

Only one of the PSU's actually died, the second just stopped coping with the load.

Could you give me some examples of what could cause the psu to short out? This is only my second build so I'm not exactly over experienced.

Thanks Jon

[Jonj1611]

What exactly is your system? a 600W power supply shouldn't be under threat from a GPU to be honest.

And there are lots and lots of things that can causes shorts, everything from a screw stuck under the main board to a bad extension lead/wall socket.

[herulach]

I wouldn't put that PSU anywhere near your system again. I meant to test the other components before you RMA it. To remove the possibility of shorts take the motherboard, ram and if necessary GPU (don't use this unless you don't have integrated graphics). Assemble them on the lid of the box the motherboard came in and power it up with a known good PSU. Then gradually add parts till you've either tested everything or had a failure.

Assuming everything works fine then its up to you if you test the PSU again with that setup. For my money the £20 NFF fee would be worth it (although given the history scan may agree to test this for you anyway, give them a call and explain the situation). If you decide to put it back in the case make doubly sure that you only have the standoffs in that you need, and any fan controllers etc are set to max or disconnected (My PSU - a bequiet one shuts down if you connect a load across 12V and 5V which some fan controllers do to simulate a 7V supply).

If it has caused part failures then stop doing everything immediately and call scan.

[thomash131]

What exactly is your system? a 600W power supply shouldn't be under threat from a GPU to be honest.

And there are lots and lots of things that can causes shorts, everything from a screw stuck under the main board to a bad extension lead/wall socket.

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Black Edition
8GB Corsair Vengeance
MSI GTX 560Ti Twin Frozr II
1TB Seagate drive
500GB Samsung Drive x 2
7 Case Fans
Samsung DVD Drive

I'll check everything again, I'll rebuild it all again, and reseat the mobo in the case.

I wouldn't put that PSU anywhere near your system again. I meant to test the other components before you RMA it. To remove the possibility of shorts take the motherboard, ram and if necessary GPU (don't use this unless you don't have integrated graphics). Assemble them on the lid of the box the motherboard came in and power it up with a known good PSU. Then gradually add parts till you've either tested everything or had a failure.

Assuming everything works fine then its up to you if you test the PSU again with that setup. For my money the £20 NFF fee would be worth it (although given the history scan may agree to test this for you anyway, give them a call and explain the situation). If you decide to put it back in the case make doubly sure that you only have the standoffs in that you need, and any fan controllers etc are set to max or disconnected (My PSU - a bequiet one shuts down if you connect a load across 12V and 5V which some fan controllers do to simulate a 7V supply).

If it has caused part failures then stop doing everything immediately and call scan.

Okay, I'll use a different PSU to see what happens, but what do I do if the PSU has caused damage to my other components? I'm a student so have literally no money to replace the parts, I only just managed to scrape the money together to send the previous PSU back to scan.

Thanks for your replies everyone.

[Jonj1611]

Good luck with it.

Just to add though there is no way in a million years that that setup should come anywhere near to overloading that PSU.

That's a very similar setup to mine apart from I have an i5, and from the wall my computer draws only about 300w, according to my voltage reader thingy.

[herulach]

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Black Edition
8GB Corsair Vengeance
MSI GTX 560Ti Twin Frozr II
1TB Seagate drive
500GB Samsung Drive x 2
7 Case Fans
Samsung DVD Drive

I'll check everything again, I'll rebuild it all again, and reseat the mobo in the case.


Okay, I'll use a different PSU to see what happens, but what do I do if the PSU has caused damage to my other components? I'm a student so have literally no money to replace the parts, I only just managed to scrape the money together to send the previous PSU back to scan.

Thanks for your replies everyone.

As I said, if it appears that part failures have happened you need to call scan immediately, so they can advise what the next step would be.

[thomash131]

As I said, if it appears that part failures have happened you need to call scan immediately, so they can advise what the next step would be.

Thanks, I appreciate your help.

Would they be liable for the damage caused by the faulty component?

[thomash131]

As I said, if it appears that part failures have happened you need to call scan immediately, so they can advise what the next step would be.

Thanks, I appreciate your help.

UPDATE: I've just tried the PC again with another PSU, and it works just fine. Everything is perfect. Tried the new PSU again and the problem comes back.

Called corsair, and they're gonna RMA it

[KimJongWill]

Other than this suspected fault. Does anyone else have any problems with this power supply as I'm thinking of putting one my new build.

[DoomWolf]

Other than this suspected fault. Does anyone else have any problems with this power supply as I'm thinking of putting one my new build.

Personally, I would stay away from the Corsair CX series as there seems to be a reason why they are relatively cheap! My experience seems to mirror that of the OP's.

I had a CX430 (430w is easily enough for the system it went in) from Scan that also failed under load from the moment I first used it. It would get less than a minute into installing Windows before switching itself off. That one went back to Scan, their tests confirmed its failure under load and they refunded me.

In the meantime I'd purchased a replacement CX430 from Amazon which worked perfectly. That was five weeks ago. Yesterday, however, I went to switch the PC on and... nothing. On taking the side of the PC off I could see that the fans would start up for a split second before stopping. I had to switch the PSU off and remove the power cable before plugging it back in and switching it back on before I could repeat seeing the fans have a flicker of life. I swapped in another PSU (a Corsair VX550 that had been running 24/7 in my old server PC for years) and everything worked again.

Now I have to try and get Amazon to refund a PSU that is just out of their 30 day return period as I don't want another one of those pieces of junk to replace it. I'm not willing pay to send it to the Nethelands as doing so would cost more than 50% of what I paid for it just over a month ago.

I think I've learned my lesson not to trust any sort of cheap PSU again, regardless of what brand name is on it.

[flearider]

if you have had 2 that have gone and can verify it .. get corsair to send you a prepaid label ..

[Greybeard]

Called corsair, and they're gonna RMA it

If you have your RMA #, post it or send me a PM - I'll see what I can do to speed up the process.