PSA to not forgot to replace your PSU every few years

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AmberClad

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 19, 2005
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5+ year old Corsair HX1000 blew up about half an hour ago. Loud "POP", so capacitor must have blown. I tossed my HX520 into the rig for the time being, but I plan on getting a "real" replacement soon, as the HX520 is about as old as the HX1000 was and it doesn't have 8-pin PCIes. I had to use two sets of Molex converters to get my video card powered and I don't have enough cables left to plug the rest of my hard drives in.

Anyways, long story short, even decent quality PSUs have a limited shelf life, so to speak. I guess I should be thankful the PSU didn't take any other components out along with it :p.
 
Are you sure that thing might not still be in warranty? Iirc the warranty was 7 years, but I could be wrong.
 
MTBF is 100,000 hours. They don't need to be replaced every few years. Hell, cheapo PSU's in Dells and HPs last 5+ years in offices.
 
I have a Antec true power 430 in my 10+ old rig still working.
Only PSU I had to replace was a Corsair HX520 not due to failure but the fan bearing wore out and the blades were hitting the grill.
I sent it in under warranty and they sent me the upgraded 650.
If you buy a quality PSU and get through infant mortality they generally last for a long time.
 
cheese007 said:
Are you sure that thing might not still be in warranty? Iirc the warranty was 7 years, but I could be wrong.
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Pretty sure it's 5 years, which would make it just out of warranty. I've been meaning to get a newer smaller one for a planned Prodigy build anyway, so I finally have a legitimate guiltfree reason to pull the trigger on the AX860 I had my eye on.

Also, being that it's out of warranty, I guess there's no reason not to break the seals and open the case on it to try to see which capacitor popped...
 
Funny, the only PSU I've ever had to replace was a Corsair CX Builder series PSU. Crapped out on me in the middle of the night. I bought an Antec and never looked back.

As for the Corsair, I had it replaced and sold it. I will never buy Corsair again; too many failures in my household.
 
AmberClad said:
Pretty sure it's 5 years, which would make it just out of warranty. I've been meaning to get a newer smaller one for a planned Prodigy build anyway, so I finally have a legitimate guiltfree reason to pull the trigger on the AX860 I had my eye on.

Also, being that it's out of warranty, I guess there's no reason not to break the seals and open the case on it to try to see which capacitor popped...
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I tend to measure DC offset from time to time and I've found replacing the caps with a higher value works out really well.

Just a thought:)
 
PSU didn't take any other components out along with i
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Cause you got a good PSU is why.

I have several Corsair units going over 4+ years old still running strong.
 
I would say if you have a quality PSU, at around the end of the PSU's warranty, start looking to buy a replacement. Buy the replacement at a bargain price, verify it works, and put it on the shelf for when your PSU actually does fail.
 
Count me into the other camp. I use it until it no longer works, doesn't have the capacity, or I want different features. I'm still using Corsair's original power supply, the HX620 with no issues other than very, very slight coil whine that has been there since day one.
 
I've had my current PSU for maybe a year or two, and I have no plans to update it until I have to (i.e. when they decide they need to sell more of them and make a new standard)... I can see myself still using this 10 years from now if the standard doesn't change by then. Capacitors fail, but if they use quality capacitors it'll take a lot longer than 5 years.
 
I have more than a half dozen Corsair PSUs.
Oldest is over 5 years, a 650 watt semi-modular, runs nearly 24/7.
Had one failure of an AX 850, just DOA without warning.....RMA was painless and replaced with an AX 860i.:D

My oldest on-hand PSU is a PC P&C 850W server model that is still going strong at 8 years, and runs 24/7.

Ive had a bunch of turd PSUs go out on me at about 4-5 years. Mostly in my office, all OEM Lite-On models placed in Acer PCs used as clients.
 
So I think the earlier confusion over the warranty was due to the older OG HX line only having a five year warranty period - the newer HX and AX lines do have a seven year warranty. I ended up ordering the AX860 (regular, not "i") earlier this morning. Hopefully if this one bites the dust before I'm ready to replace it, it does so within the warranty period.

Also, I opened the lid on the HX1000, but it wasn't immediately obvious which cap had popped (the thing is packed with components oriented every which way). It wasn't either of the two giant, D battery-sized caps, and it wasn't any of the solid state ones I was able to see without desoldering the vertically mounted PCBs.

Kind of ironic that I wasn't even doing anything at the time, other than editing a Word document. Not exactly going out in a blaze of glory :rolleyes:.
 
I've only had like 2-3 PSUs fail in my life time. They tend to be fairly reliable for a long time. Of course if you don't have it on a UPS and get lot of power fluctuations it may kill it faster (and rest of your pc).
 
Red Squirrel said:
I've only had like 2-3 PSUs fail in my life time. They tend to be fairly reliable for a long time. Of course if you don't have it on a UPS and get lot of power fluctuations it may kill it faster (and rest of your pc).
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Yup, I can attest to this.
Me & a friend had PSUs from the same manufacturer. Mine's still in use in another machine somewhere, his died inside two years. (spiked badly, smoked the motherboard, left the GPUs intact though)
The only difference? Mine was (and still is) behind a UPS for it's entire life and the power loves going *blip* at once ever week or two. (outages that last just long enough to reboot the machine)
granted this is just an anecdote so take the whole story with a grain of salt.
 
My main system is still using an Antec Quattro 1000w from ~2008. I worked that PSU hard for a long time back when I ran 2x 4870x2. It has an easier life now powering 2x GTX680s. I have another system still using an FSP550w EPS12v PSU from ~2003.
 
While I dont think power supplies have to be replaced every 4 or 5 years (Ive got a Sony Vaio desktop from 2001 that is still running on its cheap, low bidder PSU) but I agree with the OP and usually start looking to change mine after 3 years. Been looking to replace my TX750 for that very reason. Its more of a "peace of mind" sorta thing for me. Since the power supply can kill everything in your rig, I like to slap a fresh new one in there on a regular basis......plus it scratches the "buy new shit" itch I get all the time too.
 
I've never had a PSU die. I had a fan die once, but that's it..and up until 7 years ago, I only used the PSU that came with the case.
 
dC0m said:
Funny, the only PSU I've ever had to replace was a Corsair CX Builder series PSU. Crapped out on me in the middle of the night. I bought an Antec and never looked back.

As for the Corsair, I had it replaced and sold it. I will never buy Corsair again; too many failures in my household.
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That is their low end and cheapest series for a reason, the internals are not as robust as their more expensive models and thus they have a higher failure rate.

Any top shelf model from a respectable manufacturer should last for a long time unless the model just happens to have known issues which can happen.

The fans usually go if you are up around 50K hours. The latest Seasonic with San Ace fans, those fans can do up to 100K but since it's hybrid and the fan may not run I would believe it will last to it's 7 year warranty and beyond.
 
My Seasonic M12-II 430W in my HTPC has been running almost 24/7 since March 2009. Granted, the maximum load it sees is about, say 110-120W when I play some 3D games on that rig, but normally that rig is only playing video, so it's not taxed alot. My HX750 in my main rig has been running since December of that same year, and I don't expect it to just go pop any day now, I trust the PSU more than that. If it was some cheap crap, then yeah. But not a PSU of that caliber.
 
question is did it take anything in the rig with it i had one go on me and it took the mobo with it... old ass deer power supply in a super socket 7 500mhz rig...K6-2 i miss the good old days... yeah it has been 15 or so years since i had a power supply go out on me...
 
I'm running a PCP&C 750 that's been in my rig since 2004.......that and the case are the only components that have not been updated in all that time......its been pushed hard most of its life, I have a new 910 in the closet for when I need it....but this baby keep's chugging along.

The same PSU is in my kids rig also, and has been since 2006.....same story, seen many upgrades , but the PSU has stayed...
 
I am pretty sure all my power supplies are out of warranty by now.

The last one I bought was a used BFG 1200w which is in my main rig.

I did have to replace a couple capacitors in old Antec power supplies a couple years ago. Both those power supplies are still running in systems today.
 
BillR said:
I tend to measure DC offset from time to time and I've found replacing the caps with a higher value works out really well.
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How do you measure DC offset of a PSU? Most of my failures have been with capacitors and power transistors/diodes, not the controller chip.
 
Ehhh I spoke too soon. My 2TB Caviar is failing chkdsk and WD Lifeguard now. The other three drives including the SSD check out fine and memtest check out fine as well. Gonna see if Windows can repair it (minor FS corruption hopefully from the unexpected shutdown) or if it actually has bad sectors. It shows up in Windows but one of the folders is inaccessible.

It's my Steam hard drive so it doesn't have important data on it, but it'd probably take a few weeks to download all of it again, although I do have a year old backup of it lying around.
 
AmberClad said:
Ehhh I spoke too soon. My 2TB Caviar is failing chkdsk and WD Lifeguard now. The other three drives including the SSD check out fine and memtest check out fine as well. Gonna see if Windows can repair it (minor FS corruption hopefully from the unexpected shutdown) or if it actually has bad sectors. It shows up in Windows but one of the folders is inaccessible.

It's my Steam hard drive so it doesn't have important data on it, but it'd probably take a few weeks to download all of it again, although I do have a year old backup of it lying around.
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If it's failing a SMART test (what lifeguard does) then back it up and replace it, full stop. There's basically no "repairing" a drive like that.
 
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