Ultra XVS 600w failed spectacularly!

A

Arcygenical

Fully [H]
Joined
Jun 10, 2005
Messages
25,066
Well, the Ultra XVS 600w that I got for a fraction of it's retail price (around 60% discounted) failed sometime over Christmas. I'm not quite sure when, since I was away, but my computer stopped sending work units to the FAH servers on the 29th of December.

So, I get back to my apartment yesterday, and I notice all the lights are off... This is strange, since I've got three dedicated 15a circuits in my place... 1 for my computer stuff, 1 for my fish tank/setup and 1 for my kitchen/lighting. All the lights in my small apartment are attached to the 120v kitchen line.

So, when this PSU failed, it shorted out, and kicked the breakers for ALL three of my circuits. This seemed odd, and I immediately assumed there was a power surge or something, that just happened to kill the PSU. Well, every other piece of equipment in my place is fine, my UPS is fine, and not a single lightbulb has burnt out. I live in a huge condo apartment, and nobody else on my floor experienced any outages or problems.

Oh yeah, and the PSU won't start up at all. Not even with a paperclip, outside of the case. I ordered a Corsair 620HX, and I'll be taking apart the ultra shortly :).

Anyone ever heard about this sort of a failure? I'm still not convinced that it was the PSU that died, but an external power surge happened to take it out... But it was behind my UPS...

failure.jpg


Hmmm... Looks like the insulation failed in the main power transformer, arced and flamed up.
 
Wen you said "spectacular" I was hoping for a video with a light show, etc.

Certainly a failed PSU would trip a breaker, but it would seem to me that if something tripped a breaker on one circuit that another breaker for another circuit shouldn't trip. Sort of goes against their nature, know what I mean?

PS: The fish Ok?
 
My fish: Merom, Yonah and Nom Nom (I let the GF name the last one :p) are doing fine :D.

But yeah, I know what you mean...

As for a light show, well, I wasn't there... but my vented apartment still reeked of burnt electronics 3 days after the event happened... so, I can't wait to see the insides!
 
It doesnt sound like the PSU was the cause but you can never completely rule it out in case it was pumping noise onto the mains and upsetting other devices. Its vaguely possible.

Due to all 3 breakers going I suspect a mains spike that unfortunately killed your PSU before the breakers tripped.
If you put the PC on an UPS it will be isolated from such events.

I was given an old UPS and replaced the battery. It works brilliantly and has probably saved my PC from some damage when the mains was cycling on/off a few weeks ago!
 
Arcygenical said:
Yeah... I guess so. I heard much better things from this OEM than their previous PSU's.
Click to expand...

This OEM is still Wintech. It's only the X3, the X-Pro and the X-Finity "EE" and 800W that are a different OEM.
 
Nenu said:
It doesnt sound like the PSU was the cause but you can never completely rule it out in case it was pumping noise onto the mains and upsetting other devices. Its vaguely possible.

Due to all 3 breakers going I suspect a mains spike that unfortunately killed your PSU before the breakers tripped.
If you put the PC on an UPS it will be isolated from such events.
Click to expand...

The PC is ON a ups... But I agree. I don't think there's any way that it was the PSU that failed first. I think it was my mains that failed, and killed the crappy PSU.

This OEM is still Wintech. It's only the X3, the X-Pro and the X-Finity "EE" and 800W that are a different OEM.
Click to expand...

I thought the X-finity was known as the crappier of the PSU's?
 
God Bless the fish.
Better luck with the Corsair.
We should get the guts up to mod our cards, do some soldering, cause sparks like I did with my GTS.

Yeah, for sure.
Good thing there wasn't a fire. Since we are breaking the laws of nature.
 
that is very odd!

If it was a short circuit it could have created some feedback on the line and tripped them all but it must have been one hell of a bang when it went.
 
The PSU did it's job, it took itself out before taking out the rest of the components.


Sounds like you are overdrawing or possibly had a spike. 3 15amp circuits for your entire place with those systems and fish tank setup is quite extreme and probably pushing it. You have a fridge in there too right? One device shouldn't trip the bank of breakers, thats why you have individual breakers.
 
Heh, this is one reason why I never leave my computers on (or even plugged in) when I'm away for more than a day.

I have had everything from monitors (not turned on, just plugged in), power supplies, to simple power strips go up in smoke. Even high quality stuff goes bad. I once had a power strip burn the floor after it exploded.

I would never trust that stuff in the house by itself for more than 24 hours. ;)
 
I remember when my Thermaltake PSU that came with my Tsunami case started smelling funny.... then *poof* and my computer wouldn't turn on. It reeked in my room of burnt electronics for about a week! Horrible Horrible smell... I had to sleep on the couch downstairs for the first 2 nights! It sucks when a power supply goes bad... but at least it only took itself out and nothing else. I think my power supply contributed to my nice MSI 939 motherboard biting it :(

Edit: Holy crap that's a disgusting PSU.... do you think it's fried? :p
 
Damn bro... that's DUSTY in there. Invest in some canned air next time! :D
 
jonnyGURU said:
Damn bro... that's DUSTY in there. Invest in some canned air next time! :D
Click to expand...

Bah, but they all have the warranty voided stickers on them if you open them D:.

The PSU has an intake fan, but no exhaust fan... So, blowing all the dust out just kinda... relocates it aha.

It's HONESTLY not all that bad, there's only a tiny bit right around the burn, less than a cubic centimeter total :p. All the "dust" on the bottom is just the gray powdercoat dust from the painting, not actual dust.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top