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Power supply causing breaker to trip?

L

lee0539

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 17, 2001
Messages
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So after gaming for about 1 hour or so with the setup below, the breaker trips. I would think it would be overloading the breaker if it trips early on in the gaming but it trips an hour afterwards. This doesn't seem to be related to anything else as well. I can have both monitors on and overclocked really high or I can have only one monitor on and things clocked much lower and it will still be after about an hour. Is the power supply overheating possibly then causing shortage? Any quick fix or should I call my landlord to look at the breaker?

I also never had any issues until I got an SLi and new ssd drive. I don't think an SSD drive could possibly cause this issue but the second video card is probably stressing my PSU more. Could it be a bad video card or bad PSU?
 
Sounds like your setup has exceeded the breaker's rating. What else turns off when the breaker trips? Maybe you have a major appliance on the same circuit or something else that you can switch to another socket.
 
15A AFCI and a 20A regular breaker. I touched the PSU and it isn't hot. There is nothing else in that room at all besides 2 monitors, speakers, computer, and lights. When the breaker trips I looked at what else is off and it is only the bedroom stuff which has really nothing but an alarm clock besides the computer setup. It used to share with a refrigerator on a 20A but it also caused tripping so I moved it and now it trips the 15A. So it is definitely following my computer. Right now I am trying a different power strip in case that is it. I have no heater or a/c on at all. Nothing else that could possibly be drawing power. And the fact that it follows the computer on different outlets of the room as well as tripping around the same time.
 
It's probably your wiring. As it heats up over time, it causes increased power draw, which then causes the circuit breaker to trip.
 
OP, I would seriously demand (nicely at first) that the LL have a licensed Electrician come out and look at things. Something is definitely wonky. Do you hear any breaker "chatter" before it trips? As a breaker starts to heat up and reach it's overheating/trip point, it will often vibrate in the box, making a noise dubbed "chatter"...

I would try playing a game for around 45 mins, then pause the game (keeping the system loaded) and go feel the breaker and see if it feels warmer compared to the others..
 
Sounds like your wiring is kerboodled somewhere. I certainly wouldn't trust it. I had a friend start smelling smoke one day and figured out it was coming from inside the wall where some wire insulation had gotten scuffed off. Similar symptoms, they would have occasional brownouts on that circuit and the breaker would trip occasionally.
 
There has been no chattering or noise from the breaker and feeling around the breaker when it tripped didn't have any heat around it. I feel like it was tripping because of something other than overload. I tried removing the power strip and using a different surge protector as well as replacing the power cord from the computer to a different one. I will try it out tomorrow to see if it trips the breaker. If it trips again I'm going to call my landlord to have an electrician come out while I'm there so I can test the load coming from the computer as well.

EDIT: nevermind it tripped again after running firestrike benchmark then 10 minutes of gaming. My sli setup was also set at 100% power limit and 0 core voltage. Seems like once it trips it trips faster the next time
 
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Every breaker once it trips, trips faster shortly after. It's because it's already hot.

Is the socket GFCI? You might have a bad cap in the primary side filtering that's leaking to ground under load. That would trip a GFCI.
 
beware...my last power supply (power bird 900 Hard ocp gold award) started tripping breakers.......wasn't long the supply caught fire and i was very lucky it didn't take out any of my pc with it. Thats precisely why i have a best buy thermal take power supply right now.....was the only way to limit downtime to one day(traveling for work doesn't help)...but its whisper quite and voltages are dead on...no idea on ripple since no one on the planet bothered to review it (like hard ocp does)

TLDR:eek:nly time my pc ever tripped a breaker my power supply was about to catch fire.....thats been my experience anyway.....and like was mentioned ark fault and gfi breakers are designed to protect you..........yes could be a bad breaker but my money is on the supply about to exploded or catch fire/fail....btw im an electrician by trade so if you have questions shoot
 
I isolated out my speakers and gaming with headphones. It hasn't tripped yet. I'm going to try extended gaming to test it fully, but I may need new speakers. Maybe this one is short circuiting or drawing more power than it should because of something faulty. I just don't find it too comfortable gaming with headphones on for more than an hour
 
lee0539 said:
I isolated out my speakers and gaming with headphones. It hasn't tripped yet. I'm going to try extended gaming to test it fully, but I may need new speakers. Maybe this one is short circuiting or drawing more power than it should because of something faulty. I just don't find it too comfortable gaming with headphones on for more than an hour
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aside from the speaker set having a short, i see nothing in you sig that should trip a 15 amp breaker...you don't by chance have any kind of outlet power meter? try running kombuster or furmark with something like intel burn test....if it dont trip then you must be on to somthing
 
It is common for a circuit to cover parts of two rooms. That way, each room has two or more breakers so any one breaker tripping doesn't leave a room powerless. This does make finding the source of breaker trips harder since you have to find all of the outlets on a circuit. It is also common for non-code modifications to be made after construction.

Depending on your video card, it is possible you added 110 watts or more of additional load to that circuit. If you were close before but under the total breaker load, the additional load might have you almost maxing out the breaker. I am not a breaker expert but I think there are two trip modes in a standard(non GFI or newer) breaker. One is a immediate trip for a hard short. A second is thermal based based on steady current draw. A 20A breaker will allow a short term over draw to allow motors and other gizmos with a high start up current to start. If you run close to the limit, it is possible a 20A might trip at 18A steady draw if the breaker is located in an already warm place.

I have had breakers trip because heat from a nearby room heater got the breaker panel too warm.
 
Also worth mentioning ark fault breakers (used in all north america homes since around 2008) can be faulty if it was one of the first gen ones...and like Jorona said gfci outlets/breaker will trip from bad caps in your power supply. in houses i seen standard, gfci, and arc fault (and of course fusses).....since the code changed a few years ago...most new homes are using arc faults. if your breaker is tripping due to detected arks...kill the breaker...check the outlet for loose wires/ defective outlet and if those check out that could mean the ark fault breaker is doing its job by tripping since it detected arks from your supply.Which could mean its about to blow/burn up. but honestly you really need a outlet power usage meter or multimeter to measure the current pulled from the supply...if its not exceeding 15 amps then your power supply is definitely faulty.....especially since its been tripping whatever breaker you have tried so far.(including a 20 amp lol) your house wiring sounds fine to me, but on your supply sounds dangerous. aside from loose connections and revered wires on outlets thats mostly all youl find thats needing fixed on outlets anyway.
does the power wire feeding the supply ever feel warm? either the wire is way to small or the supply is drawing a lot more than it should due to it being defective or its plain and simple power supply arcing inside it. may also be a good time to listen to the supply very carefully for a crackling sound which further indicates it needs too be replaced. Me personaly i would be contacting Seasonic and see if they can cross ship you a brand new one:D
 
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Gotta remember that the ground is shared, and with a GFCI outlet, if it sees anything on the ground, it'll trip. So if those speakers or headset were leaking to ground, they could cause the issue you have.
 
Thanks everyone for the help. To update it was my surge protector or combination with speakers. Something inside is either short circuiting or causing additional amp draw. At first I thought it was my speakers but it so happens that I also removed my surge protector when i removed my speakers too. I didn't notice any issues with the surge protector until it was connected with the speakers. I thought it was the speakers because it was related to amount of time my computer was being used. I could keep the computer on for days with the surge protector but once I started gaming it would trip. Now I have the speakers directly through the outlet and the computer through a different surge protector. I have not experienced any trips. I don't know if it is a combination of the surge protector and the speakers but together along with the watt draw from my computer caused the trip. So far I went a few days without issues and played many hours gaming as well. If it ever trips again then I know it is probably the speakers and will need to be replaced.
 
bad surge protector? good to hear your system is fine and nice work on troubleshooting.....i would have never suspected a surge protector tripping breakers......guess those new afci breakers are pretty quick to detect bad equipment.....i remember when they first we added to the nec code.....everyone hated them cause they would trip like crazy:)
 
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