Very strange PSU problems. Help!!

[Freezebyte]

Ok, this is REALLY pissing me off. First my Seagate HDD croaks for no reason on the 4th of July and I have to RMA the damn thing. I finally get it back and have to rebuild my whole damn SFF gaming PC with the below specs in my sig. Everything is working well up until late last night when I turn the machine off after getting done rebuilding it after 3 days.

Come back in the late morning to power up and....nothing. No lights, no fans no nothing. WTF? I check the power plug and the switch, just fine. I check the UPS and its providing power. WTF? I go ahead and plug the cable directly into the wall outlets, STILL nothing! I go ahead and try another power cable and nothing!!!

Very fustrated, I rip out my Antec Neo 500w from my new case and pull all the cabling and reseat everything and try again, ZIP!

Fustrated as hell, I go down stairs and rip my little Antec 380w from my HTPC and plug it into the SFF with some PCI-E adapters for my GTX 260 and it fires right up!!? So im thinking, shit ANOTHER Antec psu gone bad? I run downstairs and I plug my Antec Neo500 into my HTPC and WTF, it fires right up?!!!

I built this system with this PSU back in October and it ran with no issues, even with a good overclock on the CPU to 3.6ghz and on the GTX 260.

I"m starting to wonder if I pinched a cable or something so I go back upstairs and install the Antec Neo500 back in my SFF gaming PC and leave it outside the case with no cables pinched and not even a single damn power light on the mobo??

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE??????????????????????????

 

[Freezebyte]

Anyone?

 

[Nenu]

Is there much power consumption difference between the 2 PCs?

 

[BillR]

Anyone?

I can't explain the total situation but if you browse these threads it's more common than you might imagine. Neither Corsair or Antec or anyone else can explain this issue but trust me more good PSUs have been sent back for RMA then you could possibly believe.

Any number of things can make this happen, assembling your PC with the PSU plugged in is one there seem to be a myriad number of things that cause the problem.

Reassemble your PC inside the case, make sure no wires are pinched, make sure all fans are working (test them) and make sure your PSU is unplugged.

Once assembled reset your bios, even pull the battery for 15 or so minutes. Put the battery back in, double check everything and then and only then, plug in your PSU. Turn on the machine only after plugging in the necessary peripherals.

Betcha a doughnut it works.

If you are over clocking this situation comes up more often, if you can't recover from an OC, repeat the above steps.

Luck man.

Is there much power consumption difference between the 2 PCs?

There can be, yes.

 

[Freezebyte]

Is there much power consumption difference between the 2 PCs?

Yes, big difference

 

[Freezebyte]

I can't explain the total situation but if you browse these threads it's more common than you might imagine. Neither Corsair or Antec or anyone else can explain this issue but trust me more good PSUs have been sent back for RMA then you could possibly believe.

Any number of things can make this happen, assembling your PC with the PSU plugged in is one there seem to be a myriad number of things that cause the problem.

Reassemble your PC inside the case, make sure no wires are pinched, make sure all fans are working (test them) and make sure your PSU is unplugged.

Once assembled reset your bios, even pull the battery for 15 or so minutes. Put the battery back in, double check everything and then and only then, plug in your PSU. Turn on the machine only after plugging in the necessary peripherals.

Betcha a doughnut it works.

If you are over clocking this situation comes up more often, if you can't recover from an OC, repeat the above steps.

Luck man.

Is this problem common? It just keeps getting weirder. Earlier today I pulled out the 380 watt HTCP Antec PSU and plugged into my 500 watt Antec Neo HE and my SFF rig fired up! WTF??? As soon as I turned it off however and unplugged it, It wouldn't even power up the LED on the mobo.

What the hell is going on here?

 

[BillR]

Is this problem common? It just keeps getting weirder. Earlier today I pulled out the 380 watt HTCP Antec PSU and plugged into my 500 watt Antec Neo HE and my SFF rig fired up! WTF??? As soon as I turned it off however and unplugged it, It wouldn't even power up the LED on the mobo.

What the hell is going on here?

In my OPINION, and it's just that an opinion it has to do with logic circuits. Once they get out of sync you are done, a full reset fixes it like 98% of the time.

Neither the PSU manufactures will openly discuss this nor will the motherboard manufactures. They will replace product, no problem, but discuss this issue, don't see that happening.

Do a Google on your problem, you will find it posted all over the place. I can tell you I have a sort of confirmation from one manufacture, promised not to say who.

Oh, note on your search, this issue became more prevalent after the release of the Core Duo...worse with the quad.

Double check me, but you won't see many AMD based machines with this issue.

 

[Freezebyte]

I just tried the above troubleshooting method and the damn thing just refuses to power up, this fucking sucks. What exactly is causing this problem? What do I search for in google? Will Antec replace my PSU because of this, as this is just inexscuzable

 

[BillR]

I just tried the above troubleshooting method and the damn thing just refuses to power up, this fucking sucks. What exactly is causing this problem? What do I search for in google? Will Antec replace my PSU because of this, as this is just inexscuzable

Frustrating is the word you are looking for.

Check the molex on the mobo (the big plug) for dark spots, rare but it happens.

Have you checked the power on switch on the computer? Bend a silver paperclip into a "U" shape and stick one end in the backside of the green wire on the big plug, the other into any black wire on the same plug, will the machine start that way?

Take a small screwdriver...remove the power on wire from the mobo and carefully short the two exposed pins, does it start like that?

Try unplugging everything except the hard drive, all fans etc, bare bones. Will it start that way?

Does your mobo REQUIRE a fan reading before it will start? If so make sure the bios is set right.

 

[Freezebyte]

Frustrating is the word you are looking for.

Check the molex on the mobo (the big plug) for dark spots, rare but it happens.

Have you checked the power on switch on the computer? Bend a silver paperclip into a "U" shape and stick one end in the backside of the green wire on the big plug, the other into any black wire on the same plug, will the machine start that way?

Take a small screwdriver...remove the power on wire from the mobo and carefully short the two exposed pins, does it start like that?

Try unplugging everything except the hard drive, all fans etc, bare bones. Will it start that way?

Does your mobo REQUIRE a fan reading before it will start? If so make sure the bios is set right.

No dark spots

Case is brand new, switch works fine

Won't start even with bare bones

Mobo doesn't need fan reading to start up

 

[BillR]

No dark spots

Case is brand new, switch works fine

Won't start even with bare bones

Mobo doesn't need fan reading to start up

Paper clip? Short the power on pins with a screwdiver?

 

[larrymoencurly]

Try a different AC cord because I've had some that simply did not make good contact with certain IEC plugs.

I'd try turning on and off the AC rocker switch on the back of the PSU and slapping the PSU to move around any bad solder joints. If that helps, even once, then the circuit board probably needs to be resoldered.