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Using the Wrong Modular Cables(corsair)...Problem?

G

Gavin28x

n00b
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
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45
tl:dr used older cables with HX850; trying to figure out if refub card or my stupidity blew up my system...

I have a Corsair HX850 modular power supply in my PC. On that PSU there is one set of Hardwired PCI-E cables the rest of the PCI-E power cables are modular.

I also have 2 other older Corsair Modular PSU's and all the cables that go with... this is where the story gets interesting.

So I picked up a referb VisionTek 6970 to put into my i7 950 Ausus Sabertooth x-58 system. What I did is put the referb in the top slot of the board, and connected it with the Hardwired PCI-e Cables.

I then grabbed two modular PCI-e power cables to power my original card which i put in the 2nd PCI-e slot. My problem is I grabbed two cables that went with one of the OLDER PSU's instead of the cables that plug into the 8-pin Blue PCI-E connectors on the HX850w.

I plugged in the older PCI-E cables into the black 6-pin connectors on the HX850 and then plugged them into the card I originally had on the system which I know was working.

When I powered the system on everything came on for a second then shutoff. The LED on the Mobo was blinking Green and the system would not power on again. I took everything apart and started testing individual components. I tried the Refurb card in my buddies PC, and when he powered it on, the card went up in smoke, luckily it didn't brick his PC.

So at this point I have a MOBO that is dead, it doesn't power on for anything even when isolated, The PSU seems ok(I can turn it on with a paper clip)... I got another board (same one) to test with, and put my original 6970 and all my original components on it, and used the hardwired PCI-E cables from the Corsair, and when i powered it on, the original 6970 went up in smoke...

I tested with my buddies 5670 (that may be wrong it was a mid level Radeon that doesnt take extra power) and everything works... So now I have two 6970's DEAD, and a Asus Sabertooth x-58 Dead.....


My question is... Did the Refurb 6970 that was on the hardline PCI-e power cables take the whole system, or did I SCREW myself, when I used the older cables on my original card, and didn't plug them into the Corsairs 8-pin blue PCI-E power spots...

I want to say that using the wrong cables in the black 6-pin slots shouldn't have blown anything up, it should just have left the card underpowered, and basically not booted... Or am I wrong and I blew my system?????

Also do we think that PSU is compromised (it may have blow the 2nd 6970, or when the PC originally died it may have gone down with the ship)

Also PS the cards were hooked up with one xfire bridge.
 
I believe you screwed yourself when you used the older cables. Modular cables are generally not cross-platform compatible, even with the same manufacturer. For example, AX cables cannot be used with HX power supplies, and vice versa.

Also, the black ports are for SATA/molex, right? That means in addition to providing 12v output, they also output 5v and 3.3v. PCI-E connections output 12v only. You probably were feeding 3.3v or 5v to the ground lines for the graphics cards, or something similar. That probably overloaded your power supply and caused something to fry.

What are the models of your older power supplies?
 
My other PSU's are a HX620 and the other is HX550, So they are both Modular Corsair PSUs..the cable I used fit fine into the HW850 which is unfortunate because it didn't raise enough of an alarm that i was doing something stupid.

Yes the black ports are for Sata/molex, would 3.3v or 5v damage the PCI-e card or just not power it up? Or is it the Overloading of the PSU that caused issue?

Do you think that means the PSU is compromised? Or just that situation caused it to kill the cards.

Because the Referb card was plugged in properly, it was the other card that wasn't plugged in properly, and then it only went up in smoke after I plugged it into my buddies PC, where once again it was plugged into the Hardline PCI-e power so it was setup properly.


I guess you are saying I overloaded the PSU and that caused it to take down the some of the other components, it(PSU) still seems to be working, we were able to boot up with a alternate board, but the original card did fry when we did that, it only started working when we used a card that didn't need extra power. So maybe the 12v rail is compromised?
 
RMA everything. You screwed up pretty badly, and there's no telling what damage has been done. If you have cheap hardware you're not afraid of frying, you can try testing the power supply again, but at this point I would just RMA it.
 
Yeah already started that process was just trying to see how / why I got into this mess, I always say if you do it once you'll do it again.... So theirs that at least.
 
The PSU is fine if it turns on using the paperclip test.

As for your other hardware... test it individually. You obviously fried the video card, and possibly the motherboard. It is unlikely, but the RAM could be gone too.

NEVER EVER USE ANY OTHER MODULAR CABLES THAN THOSE THAT COME WITH THE POWER SUPPLY.
 
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