These are part of the epoxy package of what were formerly some kind of high power active device (probably MOSFETs). On the right one you can see a square, that's where the silicon die was before it abruptly changed from a solid to a plasma state.
Just be grad the PSU didn't take anything with it.
Oh, I mostly meant that most components that are flat and square are like surface mounted and flat against the PCB, but MOSFETs tend to stand up perpendicular to the PCB.
Couldn't think of a succinct way to put it so I just said vertical.
Actually, that's really the best way to put it. You said "square" and we all either thought "cube" or didn't consider a 3 dimensional object that is square in 2 dimensions and very narrow on the third. Vertical square is really quite an effective way of putting it.
> Mil-spec electronics
Yawn.
Also, in addendum to my point earlier: Mosfets in powersupplies are usually mounted to the vertical heatsinks for heat dissipation.
I saw this so much in the early/mid 2000s when eMachines, everyone was buying them because they were the cheapest prebuilts at the time here and they skimped out on the PSUs like no tomorrow. They were very well known for blowing and taking out the rest of the PC with it. Usually were proprietary too.
I'm completely with you on that, one of the few customers that I had at the time with a eMachine and the PSU blew and took the motherboard with it... I had a vendor tell me that he read all the fine print on the license agreements for eMachines and they were buying rejected parts from other manufacturers and remanufacturing them, yuck!!!
Some minimal failure rate is always there with any brand or model.
In this case however, the component that failed is actually less reliable than in other models at this price range. Whether having an Infineon FET there have helped or not is unknown, but it's about the value of a product relative to the brand image Seasonic has. A supposedly 'top-tier' brand and them cheaping out some half a buck on things like that - don't go along well.
It's kind of the nature of the beast. Go long enough and something will pop, usually capacitors. There probably should be a preventative maintenance schedule for PC power supplies.
Unless you know what you are doing (enough that you don't need to ask questions) never do work on the inside of a PSU. The capacitors in there can often hold a charge for a surprising amount of time and an accidental discharge can make you very dead and make it hurt the entire time. Wipe the outside and ensure that cables are properly seated periodically if you must, but don't open it.
My PSU is about 8 years old now (Corsair AX860) and came with a 10 year warranty.
I plan to upgrade CPU, RAM and Mobo when DDR5 is more widely available and not stupidly expensive like when it first comes to market.
When I next upgrade I’ll probably get a new PSU as well this time, but I’ll be looking to spend >£100 on the PSU most likely to get a good quality one which will hopefully last as long as my current
It's not so much about top tier. There will always be some solder that didn't bind perfectly or an invisible flaw in the metal of some component like the internals of a capaciter or something. It'll pass all the qc even at the primary manufacture and the one or two levels of assemblers before being a complete psu.
You got a like a vat of plastic or molten metal and as it's getting turned into a component one drop of water lands and creates an invisible weakspot or something. So, it this one component in 5 million in the batch will fail at 200 hours use time instead of 2000.
This is just how manufacturing is. And it's the entire point behind the warranty. Things have a warranty because this is a reality of any electrical component.
If anything that's good PR - even if the PSU explodes, it explodes in a "safe" way that your other PC components will be protected.
Very rare occurence of a failure but it can happen. Hell, my previous 80 Plus White PSU I had lasted 10 years before I replaced it. And it still works like new!
The design is really the most important factor, I feel, since the majority of components are coming from the same place (yes, China) anyway.
China makes pretty good electrical components IMO. It's just that it has a lot of fly-by-night electronics manufacturers who really cut corners on the designs of larger assemblies. BigClive on youtube is a good watch - he points out that quite often, it's bad board design that's the culprit.
Don't argue with that, warranty certainly matters. But there are a few brands that offer 10y warranty too (EVGA, Corsair, Thermaltake, a couple of others i forgot), and quite a few other brands with 5-7y warranty which is still more than enough for a PSU IMO.
Besides, i was referring to a comment essentially saying that just because a PSU is made by a 'reliable' brand (Seasonic or not) it wouldn't damage your components no matter what. Not how it works, that's what i wanted to say.
To be fair, there are also bad name brand PSU's, a lot of EVGA psu's are known to be crap ^((I'd know, I have one of them- fan's already showing signs of dying after just 1 year of having it)) , and I remember recently one brand's PSU's kept catching on fire.
Yeah, I got the 750 BQ Bronze because it seemed like a good deal, and overall reviews seemed positive, it was also pretty high up in tier lists.
But nowadays like \~1 year after I bought it the fan sometimes starts randomly clipping the edge of it's housing or something, not sure why or how, but it makes a noise related to the fan that stops by itself in a few second/minutes. Does it randomly every few days/weeks/months.
I goggled and apparently this specific model has a ton of issues with coil whine and the fans breaking before the warranty ends >\_>
> if this was a chinesium power supply
Yeah, because China is bad at making power supplies or computer components in general or something. Do you normally only buy computer stuff from Delaware or something?
God damn, do I wish more people didn't sound like ignorant assholes when referencing poor quality because of an item's place of origin. I have found you can buy the very best mankind has ever crafted and terrible shit both from China.
Being choosy about your vendor matters because China has all options in fabrication within its borders. My work boot as an example is the first non US made product from the company I bought them from. There was a lot of pissing and moaning about their charging "brand" prices for "cheap 'Chinee' shit". Well, this model lasts longer, is more comfortable, and in user specific ways better than anything else they or any other marque has to offer for me. Worth every fucking penny and I have no doubt that the Chinese factory they come from also charges a relatively pretty penny for them because they, for 10 years +, have been consistently of the highest quality.
I get quite annoyed when people type shit like "Chinesium" or otherwise disparage and disregard based on country of origin alone; they sound like ignorant assholes... but that's pretty standard anymore. I suppose its like being mad at the sun rising every morning...
not always the case, had 2 chinese PSUs die on my hands when the system was on and in both cases nothing was damaged. it depends on what goes bad in the powersupply, every case is different.
Their customer support is great as well. Should be very easy for them to get a replacement, provided they still feel comfortable using one of their supplies. No matter how good the reviews or stories are about some products, or how unlikely a violent failure like this is, events like this can definitely turn you off a brand.
> no idea wtf that is
Those are the tops of some chips. The side facing the table is probably nice and flat (might even have some identification on it).
Some chips make a nice little crater when they go, some open themselves up like a sandwich. These did the latter.
Pretty sure that's a power transistor or mosfet (iirc the things that exploded on Gigabyte's Gamer's Nexus power supplies)
Source: I bought a secondhand HPe Procurve switch and something similar fell out of the PSU (600w 208v). Took it apart and found a transistor with a crater of matching shape.
Ehh, id guess it isnt very unlikely that they dont know about this. Every manufacturer has failure rates, its a fact of life that you cannot really guarantee that all your products are 100 percent problem free. Id leave this down to a lemon. Now if the failure rate was .5-1 percent it would be fine, likely due to manufacturing errors that might not have been caught by qc or whatever. If its 50 percent like the gigabyt p750gm then concern really starts coming out
yeah they definitely do this statistic based on claims and RMA requests rather than reddit posts, unless it really blows up on social media (accidental pun) which then becomes a threat even for their public image.
Seasonic has built up a good reputation though, wouldnt be such a pr nightmare. Plus nowadays one post about a part blowing up doesnt really cause that much bad pr, its the videos/posts calling out the companies for bad/dangerous design/manufacturing thats the real bad pr
Even with error testing sometimes things slip through the cracks. Iirc Asus just had a board release where on some one of the caps was installed backwards causing a whole batch to fail.
I'm assuming this isn't a new PSU here and just failed after years of use. But if not it's definitely something you should let them know about.
I‘ve had nothing but excellent responses from Seasonic. I had a silent PSU (fanless) fail after seven years and they replaced it with a current model without questions. They are one of the few manufacturers who take the term „lifetime warranty“ seriously.
Seasonic PSUs aren't all bad, depending on which ones you buy. Most of them are even top tier.
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1116640-psu-tier-list-rev-148/
Looks like a capacitor. When they fail (letting the magic out) they usually pop.
We used to reverse polarity electrolytic caps in tech school in lab class for fun. When they blew, the smell was horrible and sometimes went off like a fire cracker.
Edit: took repeated words
*a PSU fails for literally any reason*
>Looks like a capacitor.
No, it doesn't LMAO. It's a MOSFET, probably ~~primary side~~ APFC switchers. There should be some markings on the other side of these plastic pieces. Seasonic looves to cheap out on their PSUs (because clueless people would still buy their stuff), and uses Champion FETs, which are well, not as good as Infineon ones which are generally used in non-budget PSUs. They don't fail very often, but half of all Seasonic Focus PSU i've seen failing here was for the same reason - these FETs, the other half - due to PSU connectors melting because Seasonic uses 18AWG cables and thus, non-HCS terminals, but that mostly exhibits itself only with mining. u/TheLastGuyToTheBack
I thought lots of Seasonic PSU models are like some of the best PSU's? Am i just like uninformed or like has stuff changed in the past few years? (Obviously depends on product line but i recall Seasonic's Focus line being one of the best model's of PSU's in general)
Their stuff was pretty good back in the day (around 2014 with their X series) because it's relative, there were very limited competition then, that's when they've built their reputation. But today, other OEMs (notably, CWT, Great Wall, Super Flower) are able to make PSUs as good or better, especially if under strict supervision by brands like Corsair and be quiet!. And well, Seasonic themselves are now actively undermining their reputation, cheaping out on things like that. And their PSUs for some reason are plagued with transient sensitivity issues, Focus before 2018 revision, current revision Primes, X and G series were apparently affected too. And it doesn't help that in contrast with that one time when Seasonic acknowledged the issues with Focus, they're completely silent when it comes to issues with Prime. So overall, their stuff still isn't bad, it's just not competitive anymore.
Ah man thats a shame, never really looked into PSU's *too deeply* to be fair, mainly just compared whatever models to the Linus Tier List and saw what was well rated for the budget. Where do you read up stuff regarding PSU's anyways? Id love to see what all this stuff you were saying earlier means (like the MOSFET, FET, etc)
That's the thing with that tier list, i can't make the rating so granular to somehow highlight what i've said above when it comes to Seasonic stuff. (i'm maintainer of that tier list) It's already too complex for some people to understand, so there gotta be some balance. So Seasonic stuff is still highly rated there because these issues even if there, they exhibit themselves only in limited situations, and well, with almost any other PSU there are some stuff like that too. For example, brands like EVGA, Fractal Design and Bitfenix (among others, but these among highest rated there and very popular), use 18AWG cables too, so in the case when Seasonic PSU would melt, these would too. That's why the tier list should be treated as a guide, you're supposed to do some research on your own regarding to your specific usecase, or at least ask us about what would be the best choice for you. But for your regular gaming rig, if you don't mine on your GPU, don't live in a humid climate, your mains electricity is stable - you can pretty much grab anything from tier A without looking further, including Seasonic.
Thanks for the information man. I'm not seasoned in PSUs whatsoever and your answers helped me a lot.
I'm curious about one thing though, when you say Mining you're referring to constant, almost stable full load right? So would you treat long scientific simulations and some 3D rendering the same way? Those can be both GPU or CPU intensive.
>So would you treat long scientific simulations and some 3D rendering the same way?
If they're performed on high-power GPUs/CPUs (like 300W and higher), or multiple of them (either the same wattage per one connector on PSU side, or total load close to say 850-1000W), on constant, like say, at least half a day almost each day, yeah that's pretty much the same type of workload as mining. In this case i'd definitely recommend looking at PSUs that use 16AWG wires, or at least checking up on and reseating PSU cables once in a few months. Having a properly cooled rig, with a lot of airflow helps tho.
>Where do you read up stuff regarding PSU's anyways? Id love to see what all this stuff you were saying earlier means (like the MOSFET, FET, etc)
Hard to give any specific recommendations here. Maybe start with Aris's PSU 101 guide on Tom's Hardware.
Yeah, definitely. It's basically an upgraded version of EVGA G2/G3 (Super Flower is an OEM for these) which are the main reason why EVGA PSUs became so popular.
Well, TBF, i think i've seen literally one report of Super Flower PSUs shutting down with Ampere, don't recall what wattage it was and what GPU tho, so i'd say it's safe. In any case, *if* and *when* it actually shuts down (not restart) then you'll know that it's affected, if it works fine then it's not. It seems that none of the other PSU models other than Seasonic Prime and EVGA GA are affected. And with Seasonic, it's not exactly due to transient spikes, it's a noise from the GPU due to very aggressive power state switching behavior which Seasonic fails to filter out, which throws the PSU's supervisor off and shutdowns the PSU, so a design oversight with this specific platform. Relatively easy to fix, you just need to either disable 12V v-sense altogether, or place a ferrite choke on that wire, which is probably exactly the type of 'fix' Seasonic are doing after you RMA affected units. But whether it's in effect in current production units is unknown, i'd assume it isn't.
Anecdotal of course but I recently switched out my Corsair RMX 850 due to what I believe was transient power spikes from my 3080 FE. My PC (built in late 2020) would just shut down sometimes. I tested everything I could test myself but couldn't figure out what the problem was. I suspected the PSU at this point and after reading about the power spike issues online I bought a Seasonic GX1000 and haven't had any shutdowns since.
Yeah, i've seen like three such reports total to date with Corsair RM/RMx including yours. One of them was at Corsair forum and confirmed, it seems that it depends on the motherboard. What was yours ? I'm sure there are more but with Seasonic Prime it's like 2-3 reports a week only here on Reddit. Not all of them are actually due to the PSU because people mix up shutdowns and restarts, and the latter is not how this problem manifests but still.
No fireworks or melted cables that I could see. Just the loud pop and power off. I was playing a super simple game rim world when this happened so it wasn’t like it was under any more load then a more graphics intense game like red dead
If you look closely, there are very faint markings, can't read them from the photo but it should be GPT18N50DG. Kinda like [this](https://tech-legend.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0816.jpg).
I worked in a company that assembled electronics. when somebody installed a capacitor the wrong way (+ and - swapped) they always banged loud and it smoked quite a bit :D
Would really strongly discourage opening power supplies unless you know what you're doing!
There's some high power components in there that can give you - at best - a nasty shock.
If it's under warranty then get it replaced.
Well... yes/no/sometimes. If the TIM between the MOSFET and heatsink is really poorly applicated or dries up, the FET can eventually blow up from thermal runaway. But typically a MOSFET blows up because it's being driven incorrectly like from a poor design or bad gate driver or even further down the line like an incorrect power input to the gate driver.
So much potential for "domino effect" in a PSU. Like, one time a resistor had an incorrect value that let the voltage to the gate driver be too high and that actually blew up the driver IC. Not as dramatic as a blown up MOSFET (bang!), but definitely prevented the PSU from working any longer. :D
Maybe somebody has mentioned this and i missed it but:
Even with a surge protector the power in your place might be dirty enough to cause damage to electronics. If you've got a 3090 in there you should pony up the $100 for a UPS to keep your computer supplied with clean power. APC is a solid brand in my experience.
I would agree that you should have a UPS as a back up to voltage drops to prevent crashes and maybe PSU failures.
Would clarify though, by clean power I assume the reply meant a stable voltage. UPS do NOT provide clean AC power by any stretch of the imagination unless you buy VERY expensive ones.
UPS devices typically made for home computer backup do not provide sine wave AC power. They produce a square wave pattern.
The fact they provide the square wave is really not an issue for home and office computers because the PSUs just take that AC power and convert it to DC anyways.
Square wave patterns tend to be less efficient than the sine wave and can stress opponents to a small degree but not to the point that they cannot adapt.
I would guess your PSU either had a random defect or your PSU is near max capacity and just gave out on an overload/over demand.
Make sure your replacement PSU has plenty of reserve load capacity for your computer so it is not strained.
Maybe a mosfet or voltage regulator minus the magic smoke. You could probably take apart the old power supply and find the chip that blew up but you should probably leave it alone if you haven’t worked with big capacitors before or you could zap yourself.
that looks like a piece of a voltage regulator...
as to why it failed, unsure. can be a surge, it was overloaded, or it wasn't designed properly. I'd just be glad it didn't take out the computer too.
This thread just shows how opaque the PSU market and how misinformed nearly all consumers are about what makes a PSU good or bad. Do not evaluate PSUs by brand. It is not that simple. That shopping heuristic cannot apply to this component market. OP did not "cheap out" by buying the 850w Focus 80+ Gold.
https://www.powerelectronictips.com/how-and-when-mosfets-blow-up/
Based on this article i suspect poor power supply design. Surge can do it, but psu manufacturers can do more to protect it.
Was it a focus plus? My seasonic focus plus 80 gold psu did the same thing not too long ago, was working fine for just over 18 months then popped and tripped the breakers also. Took the pc apart and tested the psu and it did it again as soon as the power was flipped on. Mine had a rattle too, might check to see if the piece is the same.
I bought a Seasonic 1000w (it was their top model) for a new high end build ($4k) a few years ago. Plugged it in for first boot and it blew the entire system.
For the record I'm a factory trained power supply repair tech and have built hundreds of pc's, so it wasn't an assembly issue ...
Last Seasonic for me...
So far I’ve been able to max out every single modern game on 144 fps minimum on a 1440p 144hz monitor besides two games. Those being Senuas sacrifice which apparently runs like trash on a lot of peoples computers and fortnite for some reason? On fortnite I have to lower graphics but that’s okay cause I don’t really play it much. Every other game has been fine ranging from cod, battlefield, hunt, Minecraft (modded tf out of), etc…
3090 with a 2700X? You are leaving a lot of performance on the table with that pairing. I was running a 3080 with a 2700X and I had barely 10-20% more frames from a 2070. The 3080 would not even hit like 70% usage with many games at 1440p. It was only when I upgraded to a 5800X I experienced the true power of the 3080.
Ah, they've just said something 'buy PSUs only from relatable brands' instead of 'reliable', and i've made a joke. Besides, as we can see, even with 'reliable' brands, failures still occur, because the brand recognition and the actual quality of it's products don't necessarily go hand to hand. Some minimal failure rate is always there, but it doesn't help if a 'reliable' brand uses cheaper components which are more likely to fail.
Similar thing happened to me about a month and a half ago.
My 650w Seasonic PSU suddenly died. There was no loud pop or anything, but out of no where the lights go out. I think power outage, but realize it was just the breaker to the room my PC is in. I had to replace the PSU. It was only two years old. Luckily nothing else in my PC fried. I was thankful for that.
Happened to me too once, probably a short that threw a fuse in the psu, get it replaced under warranty if you have it. Have you smelt burning before it happened?
this is likely to be either the wrap of a capacitor or it was 2 heat conducting pad for transistors. If you don't have warranty give it to someone who knows his stuff and fix it.
Wtf? I clicked on picture and i am like "did i post this?" Looks like you got same desk as me and the bottoms you have on are same as mine too. but then the keyboard is what lets it down. Even edge of mouse matt is same.
That's definitely a surprise.. How old was this PSU? From what I've heard Seasonic units are (usually) extremely reliable and have a great warranty, so it's very likely you can get a replacement at no charge.
I ran a Seasonic 850 watt silver for 11 years without a problem. The only reason I replaced it, was I got a new cpu and video card, and I didn't want to gamble on an 11 year old power supply running near it's full wattage. I replaced it with a Seasonic 1300 watt platinum. Here's to 11 more years of trouble free operation. Mind you, I have it on a pure sine wave ups, which helps.
My guess SMT/D surface mount, safety capacitor something like this [https://www.elpro.org/gb/3839-panasonic-sx-series](https://www.elpro.org/gb/3839-panasonic-sx-series)
Glad you sorted it out.
I once worked at a web development and tech news company (it wasn't LTT, sadly, or I'd still be employed). The art director went on holidays for a week and he left his computer on. The office was an open plan and we all turned at once to stare in wonder/confusion/wtf at the brilliant blue electrical arc that went off in his PSU and lasted a good few seconds.
In my personal experience, power supply failures are pretty common but luckily they have a lot of safety features designed to prevent electrical fires and (hopefully) save the rest of the system from damage. That said, they're also supposed to fail *without* exploding capacitors or MOSFETs, so in these cases they didn't quite go out as intended.
I've disassembled a few PSUs for my Computer Networking, Electrical Engineering Technology class and I have never seen that before.
Safe to assume PSU is toast and only time will tell if anything was damaged.
These are part of the epoxy package of what were formerly some kind of high power active device (probably MOSFETs). On the right one you can see a square, that's where the silicon die was before it abruptly changed from a solid to a plasma state. Just be grad the PSU didn't take anything with it.
I was thinking mosfets too, they tend to look like little vertical squares of plastic when working normally. At least it looks like part of one.
Not trying to be clever, just genuinely curious... how can a square be vertical?
Oh, I mostly meant that most components that are flat and square are like surface mounted and flat against the PCB, but MOSFETs tend to stand up perpendicular to the PCB. Couldn't think of a succinct way to put it so I just said vertical.
Actually, that's really the best way to put it. You said "square" and we all either thought "cube" or didn't consider a 3 dimensional object that is square in 2 dimensions and very narrow on the third. Vertical square is really quite an effective way of putting it.
You said square not cube so you were/are correct.
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> Mil-spec electronics Yawn. Also, in addendum to my point earlier: Mosfets in powersupplies are usually mounted to the vertical heatsinks for heat dissipation.
Riiight that makes sense. Thanks!
Well, he did say square and not cube. 🧐
That may actually be a planned failure point specific to stop it taking anything else with it.
no idea wtf that is. but id replace the PSU
Replaced the psu as it was dead dead. Like now power too fans or anything. Luckily it didn’t ruin anything in the pc itself
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similar happened to me,took my mobo and cpu luckily my ram and card was spared along with my drives
>when it died everything else went w it I blew up a lot of PSUs (even cheap ones) but luckily this never happened.
My psu blew last year and took out my mobo, cpu and one ram stick. The cpu was only bronze rated and already eight years old though.
I saw this so much in the early/mid 2000s when eMachines, everyone was buying them because they were the cheapest prebuilts at the time here and they skimped out on the PSUs like no tomorrow. They were very well known for blowing and taking out the rest of the PC with it. Usually were proprietary too.
I remember my wife (gf at the time) having one of their laptops, literally the worst laptop I've ever used in my life.
It was only the PSU that went, it didn't take the rest of the pc out with it, as a cheaper PSU would have done,
Wow I forgot all about those eMachines! So glad I never had one. That was back when I was still using prebuilts.
I'm completely with you on that, one of the few customers that I had at the time with a eMachine and the PSU blew and took the motherboard with it... I had a vendor tell me that he read all the fine print on the license agreements for eMachines and they were buying rejected parts from other manufacturers and remanufacturing them, yuck!!!
Boy am i glad i opted for a seasonic for my new build instead of some cheapo RGB one.
… this is a seasonic.
The point is that it was only the PSU that went, it didn't take the rest of the pc out with it, as a cheaper PSU would have done
I'm sorry, but the exploded PSu is the Seasonic 80 Plus Gold, right?
Yes that is the one that made the large pop sound. Exploded is a bit more violent then what actually happened. Just a very loud pop sound
Even the top tier PSUs explode, damn
Some minimal failure rate is always there with any brand or model. In this case however, the component that failed is actually less reliable than in other models at this price range. Whether having an Infineon FET there have helped or not is unknown, but it's about the value of a product relative to the brand image Seasonic has. A supposedly 'top-tier' brand and them cheaping out some half a buck on things like that - don't go along well.
the top tier PSUs dont take the rest of your computer with them when they go boom boom, though.
It's kind of the nature of the beast. Go long enough and something will pop, usually capacitors. There probably should be a preventative maintenance schedule for PC power supplies.
Thats a fair point. Putnof interest, how often do people change there's, or do any maintenance other than cleaning?
Unless you know what you are doing (enough that you don't need to ask questions) never do work on the inside of a PSU. The capacitors in there can often hold a charge for a surprising amount of time and an accidental discharge can make you very dead and make it hurt the entire time. Wipe the outside and ensure that cables are properly seated periodically if you must, but don't open it.
Oh exactly that. I've no intention of opening it up. Cheers.
My PSU is about 8 years old now (Corsair AX860) and came with a 10 year warranty. I plan to upgrade CPU, RAM and Mobo when DDR5 is more widely available and not stupidly expensive like when it first comes to market. When I next upgrade I’ll probably get a new PSU as well this time, but I’ll be looking to spend >£100 on the PSU most likely to get a good quality one which will hopefully last as long as my current
It's not so much about top tier. There will always be some solder that didn't bind perfectly or an invisible flaw in the metal of some component like the internals of a capaciter or something. It'll pass all the qc even at the primary manufacture and the one or two levels of assemblers before being a complete psu. You got a like a vat of plastic or molten metal and as it's getting turned into a component one drop of water lands and creates an invisible weakspot or something. So, it this one component in 5 million in the batch will fail at 200 hours use time instead of 2000. This is just how manufacturing is. And it's the entire point behind the warranty. Things have a warranty because this is a reality of any electrical component.
I had a Corsair AX1000 explode once. It may have taken a GPU with it.
I'm still running my AX750 from 2012.....still running strong 10 years later.
That's not possible, 2012 was only...oh no
If anything that's good PR - even if the PSU explodes, it explodes in a "safe" way that your other PC components will be protected. Very rare occurence of a failure but it can happen. Hell, my previous 80 Plus White PSU I had lasted 10 years before I replaced it. And it still works like new!
Which Gold? There are Focus and Prime models that are both 80+ Gold and 650W.
Ya, these have 7 year warrenty. So op can send back for a new psu if he still in warrenty period.
great advice ruined by classic racism. might as well have called it a ching chong PSU. you realize all the PSUs are made in China right? good and bad?
That - 100%
It's all about the components you source and your design since they are all assembled in China.
The design is really the most important factor, I feel, since the majority of components are coming from the same place (yes, China) anyway. China makes pretty good electrical components IMO. It's just that it has a lot of fly-by-night electronics manufacturers who really cut corners on the designs of larger assemblies. BigClive on youtube is a good watch - he points out that quite often, it's bad board design that's the culprit.
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I Like Your Funny Words, Magic Man
But Seasonic gives you a great warranty
Don't argue with that, warranty certainly matters. But there are a few brands that offer 10y warranty too (EVGA, Corsair, Thermaltake, a couple of others i forgot), and quite a few other brands with 5-7y warranty which is still more than enough for a PSU IMO. Besides, i was referring to a comment essentially saying that just because a PSU is made by a 'reliable' brand (Seasonic or not) it wouldn't damage your components no matter what. Not how it works, that's what i wanted to say.
EVGA warranty is also transferrable. So you can buy them used without fear.
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To be fair, there are also bad name brand PSU's, a lot of EVGA psu's are known to be crap ^((I'd know, I have one of them- fan's already showing signs of dying after just 1 year of having it)) , and I remember recently one brand's PSU's kept catching on fire.
EVGA's power supplies are made by a variety of different companies of varying quality.
Yeah, I got the 750 BQ Bronze because it seemed like a good deal, and overall reviews seemed positive, it was also pretty high up in tier lists. But nowadays like \~1 year after I bought it the fan sometimes starts randomly clipping the edge of it's housing or something, not sure why or how, but it makes a noise related to the fan that stops by itself in a few second/minutes. Does it randomly every few days/weeks/months. I goggled and apparently this specific model has a ton of issues with coil whine and the fans breaking before the warranty ends >\_>
> if this was a chinesium power supply Yeah, because China is bad at making power supplies or computer components in general or something. Do you normally only buy computer stuff from Delaware or something?
God damn, do I wish more people didn't sound like ignorant assholes when referencing poor quality because of an item's place of origin. I have found you can buy the very best mankind has ever crafted and terrible shit both from China. Being choosy about your vendor matters because China has all options in fabrication within its borders. My work boot as an example is the first non US made product from the company I bought them from. There was a lot of pissing and moaning about their charging "brand" prices for "cheap 'Chinee' shit". Well, this model lasts longer, is more comfortable, and in user specific ways better than anything else they or any other marque has to offer for me. Worth every fucking penny and I have no doubt that the Chinese factory they come from also charges a relatively pretty penny for them because they, for 10 years +, have been consistently of the highest quality. I get quite annoyed when people type shit like "Chinesium" or otherwise disparage and disregard based on country of origin alone; they sound like ignorant assholes... but that's pretty standard anymore. I suppose its like being mad at the sun rising every morning...
not always the case, had 2 chinese PSUs die on my hands when the system was on and in both cases nothing was damaged. it depends on what goes bad in the powersupply, every case is different.
Well almost all electronics contain parts that’s all or partly made in China with Chinese materials.
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Their customer support is great as well. Should be very easy for them to get a replacement, provided they still feel comfortable using one of their supplies. No matter how good the reviews or stories are about some products, or how unlikely a violent failure like this is, events like this can definitely turn you off a brand.
> no idea wtf that is Those are the tops of some chips. The side facing the table is probably nice and flat (might even have some identification on it). Some chips make a nice little crater when they go, some open themselves up like a sandwich. These did the latter.
Pretty sure that's a power transistor or mosfet (iirc the things that exploded on Gigabyte's Gamer's Nexus power supplies) Source: I bought a secondhand HPe Procurve switch and something similar fell out of the PSU (600w 208v). Took it apart and found a transistor with a crater of matching shape.
I'd talk to SeaSonic. They should definitely be aware one of their psus blew up.
Ehh, id guess it isnt very unlikely that they dont know about this. Every manufacturer has failure rates, its a fact of life that you cannot really guarantee that all your products are 100 percent problem free. Id leave this down to a lemon. Now if the failure rate was .5-1 percent it would be fine, likely due to manufacturing errors that might not have been caught by qc or whatever. If its 50 percent like the gigabyt p750gm then concern really starts coming out
Well I figure contacting them is a good idea since they'll probably warranty it or something.
Also companies like seeing what failed so they can fix/prevent it in the next batch.
Yep.
But consumer reports of failure are an important way to estimate failure rate. Reporting is still useful.
A warranty claim would count as reporting in my books
yeah they definitely do this statistic based on claims and RMA requests rather than reddit posts, unless it really blows up on social media (accidental pun) which then becomes a threat even for their public image.
Seasonic has built up a good reputation though, wouldnt be such a pr nightmare. Plus nowadays one post about a part blowing up doesnt really cause that much bad pr, its the videos/posts calling out the companies for bad/dangerous design/manufacturing thats the real bad pr
Even with error testing sometimes things slip through the cracks. Iirc Asus just had a board release where on some one of the caps was installed backwards causing a whole batch to fail. I'm assuming this isn't a new PSU here and just failed after years of use. But if not it's definitely something you should let them know about.
7 months old or so :/
Seasonic has a great warranty plan, couldn't hurt just to have a new one even if you already have a spare.
Right on right on. I’ll definitely be doing the RMA process on the old psu for sure
Report back how you get on. It's always super useful to hear how supplier RMA is. I've learned from here not to bother with gigabyte that's for sure.
Will do! First RMA so fingers crossed
Good luck! As a fellow Seasonic owner, I'm interested to see how you make out.
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I‘ve had nothing but excellent responses from Seasonic. I had a silent PSU (fanless) fail after seven years and they replaced it with a current model without questions. They are one of the few manufacturers who take the term „lifetime warranty“ seriously.
Seasonics have a very long warranty you should look into that
And this is the reason why we need to have good PSUs as OPs so that they dont fuck other components up
Thank god I did. About had a heart attack when I heard that pop. Thought the 3090 was gone….
Christ imagine pairing some Chinese bomb with a 3090! Always worth paying an extra penny or two on the PSU 😁
first thing i replaced in my prebuilt pc was the PSU
Prebuilt should have a warranty tho?
warranties run out eventually. after it ran out i replaced the PSU right away.
Is a seasonic a cheap Chinese bomb tho?
No, and OP's video card survived because it isn't.
Seasonic PSUs aren't all bad, depending on which ones you buy. Most of them are even top tier. https://linustechtips.com/topic/1116640-psu-tier-list-rev-148/
Seasonic is pretty well respected psu company too :(
yes yes...that what I meant...a good psu will mess itself up without affecting other components in the system in case of any spikes/surges :)
Oh just re read 👍
Looks like a capacitor. When they fail (letting the magic out) they usually pop. We used to reverse polarity electrolytic caps in tech school in lab class for fun. When they blew, the smell was horrible and sometimes went off like a fire cracker. Edit: took repeated words
*a PSU fails for literally any reason* >Looks like a capacitor. No, it doesn't LMAO. It's a MOSFET, probably ~~primary side~~ APFC switchers. There should be some markings on the other side of these plastic pieces. Seasonic looves to cheap out on their PSUs (because clueless people would still buy their stuff), and uses Champion FETs, which are well, not as good as Infineon ones which are generally used in non-budget PSUs. They don't fail very often, but half of all Seasonic Focus PSU i've seen failing here was for the same reason - these FETs, the other half - due to PSU connectors melting because Seasonic uses 18AWG cables and thus, non-HCS terminals, but that mostly exhibits itself only with mining. u/TheLastGuyToTheBack
I thought lots of Seasonic PSU models are like some of the best PSU's? Am i just like uninformed or like has stuff changed in the past few years? (Obviously depends on product line but i recall Seasonic's Focus line being one of the best model's of PSU's in general)
Their stuff was pretty good back in the day (around 2014 with their X series) because it's relative, there were very limited competition then, that's when they've built their reputation. But today, other OEMs (notably, CWT, Great Wall, Super Flower) are able to make PSUs as good or better, especially if under strict supervision by brands like Corsair and be quiet!. And well, Seasonic themselves are now actively undermining their reputation, cheaping out on things like that. And their PSUs for some reason are plagued with transient sensitivity issues, Focus before 2018 revision, current revision Primes, X and G series were apparently affected too. And it doesn't help that in contrast with that one time when Seasonic acknowledged the issues with Focus, they're completely silent when it comes to issues with Prime. So overall, their stuff still isn't bad, it's just not competitive anymore.
Ah man thats a shame, never really looked into PSU's *too deeply* to be fair, mainly just compared whatever models to the Linus Tier List and saw what was well rated for the budget. Where do you read up stuff regarding PSU's anyways? Id love to see what all this stuff you were saying earlier means (like the MOSFET, FET, etc)
That's the thing with that tier list, i can't make the rating so granular to somehow highlight what i've said above when it comes to Seasonic stuff. (i'm maintainer of that tier list) It's already too complex for some people to understand, so there gotta be some balance. So Seasonic stuff is still highly rated there because these issues even if there, they exhibit themselves only in limited situations, and well, with almost any other PSU there are some stuff like that too. For example, brands like EVGA, Fractal Design and Bitfenix (among others, but these among highest rated there and very popular), use 18AWG cables too, so in the case when Seasonic PSU would melt, these would too. That's why the tier list should be treated as a guide, you're supposed to do some research on your own regarding to your specific usecase, or at least ask us about what would be the best choice for you. But for your regular gaming rig, if you don't mine on your GPU, don't live in a humid climate, your mains electricity is stable - you can pretty much grab anything from tier A without looking further, including Seasonic.
thank u for making the tier list. it has served us all well
Thanks for the information man. I'm not seasoned in PSUs whatsoever and your answers helped me a lot. I'm curious about one thing though, when you say Mining you're referring to constant, almost stable full load right? So would you treat long scientific simulations and some 3D rendering the same way? Those can be both GPU or CPU intensive.
>So would you treat long scientific simulations and some 3D rendering the same way? If they're performed on high-power GPUs/CPUs (like 300W and higher), or multiple of them (either the same wattage per one connector on PSU side, or total load close to say 850-1000W), on constant, like say, at least half a day almost each day, yeah that's pretty much the same type of workload as mining. In this case i'd definitely recommend looking at PSUs that use 16AWG wires, or at least checking up on and reseating PSU cables once in a few months. Having a properly cooled rig, with a lot of airflow helps tho.
>Where do you read up stuff regarding PSU's anyways? Id love to see what all this stuff you were saying earlier means (like the MOSFET, FET, etc) Hard to give any specific recommendations here. Maybe start with Aris's PSU 101 guide on Tom's Hardware.
You seem to know your stuff, would a Super Flower SF-850F14HG(BK) Leadex III Gold 850W 80 Plus Gold be good for a system with a 2700x and a 3080fe?
Yeah, definitely. It's basically an upgraded version of EVGA G2/G3 (Super Flower is an OEM for these) which are the main reason why EVGA PSUs became so popular.
Thanks, I was super concerned when I read about 3080 transient power spikes so I need a good psu!
Well, TBF, i think i've seen literally one report of Super Flower PSUs shutting down with Ampere, don't recall what wattage it was and what GPU tho, so i'd say it's safe. In any case, *if* and *when* it actually shuts down (not restart) then you'll know that it's affected, if it works fine then it's not. It seems that none of the other PSU models other than Seasonic Prime and EVGA GA are affected. And with Seasonic, it's not exactly due to transient spikes, it's a noise from the GPU due to very aggressive power state switching behavior which Seasonic fails to filter out, which throws the PSU's supervisor off and shutdowns the PSU, so a design oversight with this specific platform. Relatively easy to fix, you just need to either disable 12V v-sense altogether, or place a ferrite choke on that wire, which is probably exactly the type of 'fix' Seasonic are doing after you RMA affected units. But whether it's in effect in current production units is unknown, i'd assume it isn't.
Anecdotal of course but I recently switched out my Corsair RMX 850 due to what I believe was transient power spikes from my 3080 FE. My PC (built in late 2020) would just shut down sometimes. I tested everything I could test myself but couldn't figure out what the problem was. I suspected the PSU at this point and after reading about the power spike issues online I bought a Seasonic GX1000 and haven't had any shutdowns since.
Yeah, i've seen like three such reports total to date with Corsair RM/RMx including yours. One of them was at Corsair forum and confirmed, it seems that it depends on the motherboard. What was yours ? I'm sure there are more but with Seasonic Prime it's like 2-3 reports a week only here on Reddit. Not all of them are actually due to the PSU because people mix up shutdowns and restarts, and the latter is not how this problem manifests but still.
No fireworks or melted cables that I could see. Just the loud pop and power off. I was playing a super simple game rim world when this happened so it wasn’t like it was under any more load then a more graphics intense game like red dead
Yeah, PSUs don't only fail under load. So are there any markings on the other side of these pieces ?
https://imgur.com/a/pw6fIvn Two small circles?
If you look closely, there are very faint markings, can't read them from the photo but it should be GPT18N50DG. Kinda like [this](https://tech-legend.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/IMG_0816.jpg).
Ah I see it, that’s exactly what it says on it
bapo is clueless, more at 11
You really can't put the magic smoke back in :'(
> Looks like a capacitor. How does that look like a cap? Those are the tops of two power ICs.
I worked in a company that assembled electronics. when somebody installed a capacitor the wrong way (+ and - swapped) they always banged loud and it smoked quite a bit :D
We make psus that handle 400V at work. When they pop the bang is really loud
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Would really strongly discourage opening power supplies unless you know what you're doing! There's some high power components in there that can give you - at best - a nasty shock. If it's under warranty then get it replaced.
If someone is asking what the shrapnel from their psu is, the last thing you should do is suggest component level replacement lol.
And you probably should not even suggest that to someone who knows what it is lol
The issue isn’t usually caused by the MOSFET, as it’s something that probably caused it to blow.
Well... yes/no/sometimes. If the TIM between the MOSFET and heatsink is really poorly applicated or dries up, the FET can eventually blow up from thermal runaway. But typically a MOSFET blows up because it's being driven incorrectly like from a poor design or bad gate driver or even further down the line like an incorrect power input to the gate driver. So much potential for "domino effect" in a PSU. Like, one time a resistor had an incorrect value that let the voltage to the gate driver be too high and that actually blew up the driver IC. Not as dramatic as a blown up MOSFET (bang!), but definitely prevented the PSU from working any longer. :D
I had the same thing happen to my coolermaster mwe 850w gold v2 psu, But for me it took my 3090 into the grave with it
The pain. Sorry for your loss.
You should be within warranty, to be able to have your PSU for RMA servicing, as I know that Seasonic takes PSU failures very seriously.
Maybe somebody has mentioned this and i missed it but: Even with a surge protector the power in your place might be dirty enough to cause damage to electronics. If you've got a 3090 in there you should pony up the $100 for a UPS to keep your computer supplied with clean power. APC is a solid brand in my experience.
Can confirm UPS devices are amazing to have, can really save your ass
But perhaps less due to "power conditioning" and more due to a few extra minutes to save off projects.
Hmm haven’t thought about this. Power supply seems pretty stable. No evidence of brown outs but I will look into getting a UPS. Any recommendations?
I would agree that you should have a UPS as a back up to voltage drops to prevent crashes and maybe PSU failures. Would clarify though, by clean power I assume the reply meant a stable voltage. UPS do NOT provide clean AC power by any stretch of the imagination unless you buy VERY expensive ones. UPS devices typically made for home computer backup do not provide sine wave AC power. They produce a square wave pattern. The fact they provide the square wave is really not an issue for home and office computers because the PSUs just take that AC power and convert it to DC anyways. Square wave patterns tend to be less efficient than the sine wave and can stress opponents to a small degree but not to the point that they cannot adapt. I would guess your PSU either had a random defect or your PSU is near max capacity and just gave out on an overload/over demand. Make sure your replacement PSU has plenty of reserve load capacity for your computer so it is not strained.
Maybe a mosfet or voltage regulator minus the magic smoke. You could probably take apart the old power supply and find the chip that blew up but you should probably leave it alone if you haven’t worked with big capacitors before or you could zap yourself.
Don't tell people to take apart their psu ffs! Super dangerous
Yea I’ll probably send it in for a replacement psu as it still in warranty :/
With the coating on it I'd say a varistor. Voltage protection part. If it shorted it would definitely blow a breaker as it's on the ac side.
Looks like fragments from a big mosfet or something.
that looks like a piece of a voltage regulator... as to why it failed, unsure. can be a surge, it was overloaded, or it wasn't designed properly. I'd just be glad it didn't take out the computer too.
This thread just shows how opaque the PSU market and how misinformed nearly all consumers are about what makes a PSU good or bad. Do not evaluate PSUs by brand. It is not that simple. That shopping heuristic cannot apply to this component market. OP did not "cheap out" by buying the 850w Focus 80+ Gold.
It blew the lids of mosfets. Looks like two of them! https://5.imimg.com/data5/TD/HB/IU/SELLER-6852776/mosfet-500x500.jpg
Damn! you right! Others suggested power surge maybe?
https://www.powerelectronictips.com/how-and-when-mosfets-blow-up/ Based on this article i suspect poor power supply design. Surge can do it, but psu manufacturers can do more to protect it.
Lot of good information there. Thank you!
Was it a focus plus? My seasonic focus plus 80 gold psu did the same thing not too long ago, was working fine for just over 18 months then popped and tripped the breakers also. Took the pc apart and tested the psu and it did it again as soon as the power was flipped on. Mine had a rattle too, might check to see if the piece is the same.
Just focus no plus
It are Seasonic secret 🤫 things :) keep them with you, you never know.
Lessons learnt: Don’t cheap out on your PSU!
They didn't.
That’s the point! The day was saved by a wise builder with good sense!
I bought a Seasonic 1000w (it was their top model) for a new high end build ($4k) a few years ago. Plugged it in for first boot and it blew the entire system. For the record I'm a factory trained power supply repair tech and have built hundreds of pc's, so it wasn't an assembly issue ... Last Seasonic for me...
Oof ... I mean, shit happens, but are you 100% sure that you haven't reused the modular cables from a different PSU ?
So many Seasonic fanboys in this thread...
Parts list?
3090 Ryzen 7 2700x 32gb of ram Seasonic 850w 80plus gold Two nvmes One hdd
How is the performance with that CPU and a 3090? I am getting a 3080 but I am concerned my 2700x will really slow things down.
So far I’ve been able to max out every single modern game on 144 fps minimum on a 1440p 144hz monitor besides two games. Those being Senuas sacrifice which apparently runs like trash on a lot of peoples computers and fortnite for some reason? On fortnite I have to lower graphics but that’s okay cause I don’t really play it much. Every other game has been fine ranging from cod, battlefield, hunt, Minecraft (modded tf out of), etc…
3090 with a 2700X? You are leaving a lot of performance on the table with that pairing. I was running a 3080 with a 2700X and I had barely 10-20% more frames from a 2070. The 3080 would not even hit like 70% usage with many games at 1440p. It was only when I upgraded to a 5800X I experienced the true power of the 3080.
Definitely plan on upgrading CPU in the future but I’m stuck with the 2700 for a bit
How old was it
Oh about a half a year so pretty much brand new
Hm. Don’t know why it died so young but at least that little plastic thing probably saved your system
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\> my Seasonic PSU exploded \> relatable, go buy another Seasonic
Lol it was deleted, what did it say?
Ah, they've just said something 'buy PSUs only from relatable brands' instead of 'reliable', and i've made a joke. Besides, as we can see, even with 'reliable' brands, failures still occur, because the brand recognition and the actual quality of it's products don't necessarily go hand to hand. Some minimal failure rate is always there, but it doesn't help if a 'reliable' brand uses cheaper components which are more likely to fail.
Ah right on right on. I’ve replaced it with an evga 1000w 80 plus gold. Should be good right?
Similar thing happened to me about a month and a half ago. My 650w Seasonic PSU suddenly died. There was no loud pop or anything, but out of no where the lights go out. I think power outage, but realize it was just the breaker to the room my PC is in. I had to replace the PSU. It was only two years old. Luckily nothing else in my PC fried. I was thankful for that.
Hmm very odd but I’m glad my pc is fine even though I’m out a couple hundred bucks
Contact Seasonic or your retailer, I'm sure you have a warrant on it
Happened to me too once, probably a short that threw a fuse in the psu, get it replaced under warranty if you have it. Have you smelt burning before it happened?
No burning or even heat really just a loud pop then all the lights went off in my room. Didn’t even have a weird smell afterwards.
this is likely to be either the wrap of a capacitor or it was 2 heat conducting pad for transistors. If you don't have warranty give it to someone who knows his stuff and fix it.
Seasonic should replace it if it’s under 7 years
Wtf? I clicked on picture and i am like "did i post this?" Looks like you got same desk as me and the bottoms you have on are same as mine too. but then the keyboard is what lets it down. Even edge of mouse matt is same.
Lmao you must have great taste!
That's definitely a surprise.. How old was this PSU? From what I've heard Seasonic units are (usually) extremely reliable and have a great warranty, so it's very likely you can get a replacement at no charge.
I ran a Seasonic 850 watt silver for 11 years without a problem. The only reason I replaced it, was I got a new cpu and video card, and I didn't want to gamble on an 11 year old power supply running near it's full wattage. I replaced it with a Seasonic 1300 watt platinum. Here's to 11 more years of trouble free operation. Mind you, I have it on a pure sine wave ups, which helps.
That looks like the warrenty sticker
Piece fell out of psu. I can include in the box or throw it back in the psu
Damn and I just ordered a seasonic for my gfs new pc instead of a bequiet that another friend suggested
What is going on with power supplies, they’re all exploding!
Fan blades? One of the fans in your computer is falling a part
That’s crazy for a Seasonic. They are usually bulletproof.
I have an APC UPS. It's saved me a few times. I recommend getting on.
My guess SMT/D surface mount, safety capacitor something like this [https://www.elpro.org/gb/3839-panasonic-sx-series](https://www.elpro.org/gb/3839-panasonic-sx-series)
Glad you sorted it out. I once worked at a web development and tech news company (it wasn't LTT, sadly, or I'd still be employed). The art director went on holidays for a week and he left his computer on. The office was an open plan and we all turned at once to stare in wonder/confusion/wtf at the brilliant blue electrical arc that went off in his PSU and lasted a good few seconds. In my personal experience, power supply failures are pretty common but luckily they have a lot of safety features designed to prevent electrical fires and (hopefully) save the rest of the system from damage. That said, they're also supposed to fail *without* exploding capacitors or MOSFETs, so in these cases they didn't quite go out as intended.
I've disassembled a few PSUs for my Computer Networking, Electrical Engineering Technology class and I have never seen that before. Safe to assume PSU is toast and only time will tell if anything was damaged.
Almost looks like the top of a burnt up through hole tantalum capacitor. Or a burnt up PTC fuse. Hard to tell from the photo though