My PSU died because of ̶i̶m̶p̶r̶o̶p̶e̶r̶ ̶c̶o̶o̶l̶i̶n̶g̶.̶. Don't be like me

Hello there. Today, my girlfriend’s PC PSU died. She was doing something in the kitchen, when one of the circuit breakers tripped. She tried turning it on, but the PC wouldn’t start.

I came back home and brought a PSU from an older PC we had lying around. Plugged it in and everything worked.

And I pretty much know why this happened. You see, the power supply is(was) a beQuiet SFX-L 600W Gold. It’s fitted in a Cooler Master NR200P. The air intake was from the side. This side was facing down, under our bed.

The poor bastard was choking - I just forgot about this orientation when we moved. And then it just died. There is no GPU in the system, just a 5700G and an NZXT X63 AIO.

And it still died, when idling (was only downloading something when it happened). Learn from my mistake. Let the PSU breathe. I thought it would be fine since it was gold and would just dissipate the heat through the chassis.

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While I’m sure that’s not good for it, I’m not sure you can draw the conclusion that this is what killed it without actually taking it apart at the very least

$100 says that thing would last forever in a sealed box with no fan

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No GPU and a 5700g, idle? That’s a system draw of what 30w? I have a hard time believing even zero airflow that a 30w load killed a 600w gold PSU

More likely you have really bad electrical wiring and when the breaker was tripped is when it died

The house might not even be grounded properly

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Hmmm, so my intuition about the quality of the PSU might be right after all.

Now that I think about it, the bathroom breaker does trip quite often - especially when the ventilation fan is turned off.

And a while back, my washing machine broke - it was still under warranty, so a repair man came in and fixed it. He didn’t say what was wrong with it though.

How can I figure out if my electrical wiring is bad? I’ll open up the PSU today, and see if there is any obvious damage.

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I’m obviously going to not recommend this, but if you’re going to anyways then you need to avoid accidentally discharging any caps as there are some capable of electrocuting a person. There is a safe way to discharge them if you care to look it up on youtube.

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I have the same PSU for my homeserver. Form factor and fan direction is a bit wierd, but building smaller form factor cases require these kind of PSUs. So far everything runs fine (server up for most of the last 1.5 years).

Get an outlet tester (~$12), and check all your outlets for bad wiring.

If everything passes it could be time to replace some breakers.

If stuff fails the test, then you’ve found your problem.

This won’t really help solve any active problems. PSU is already dead, and the wiring of the house is more of a concern.

Also, those capacitors will KILL YOU if you make a mistake. IDK if you know what you’re doing when it comes to power equipment, but please exercise caution.

Best of luck.

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Thanks for the warning. I was just about to open it up, before I checked the forums. I didn’t know the capacitors had that much capacity. Perhaps they can be salvaged? I was planning on making a reactor at work for the synthesis of nanoparticles using the exploding wire method…

But, back on topic.

Yeah, this one worked for more than a year before it died. Today I got another one - didn’t find one of similar power in the same form factor. The system works now.

I think I’ll invest in one - can you recomend me a good brand? I know nothing about outlet testers. Preferably for the EU market (Type C?)

Am American so I am not familiar with any European brands. @MazeFrame might know?

Socket testers as in Live/Neutral/Earth test-lamp or in the sense of hugely expensive installation tester?

Something like this?

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you’re on 230v?

that’s even MORE efficient that 120v so even less heat, yeah something funky with your power
or it was a defective unit with shortened lifespan

either way no way it was killed by heat

I agree.

This was likely just a matter of electrical failure due to either bad luck,
or other issues in the computer, house electrical circuit or a spike in the net.
Overheating is not very likely to be the main cause given the systems specifications.
Unless it really is a bad quality unit.
But In many cases a psu just fails because of bad luck or age.

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That should do just fine.
When the results look funky (one outlet is fine, the next one isn’t), get an electrician involved.

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Alright, so I tested the outlets around the house, and this is what I get:




It seems most of them are ok, as in they are grounded. Except one - but that one wasn’t the one that was connected to the PC.

I guess it was the power supply? I don’t see how a bad circuit breaker can cause a power supply to die.

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I still rock a Corsair 850W from 08 and it has been thoroughly punished with case temps way above what anyone would recommend and its still goin strong. Granted I have replaced the fan due to failure but if you run it fanless it fairly quickly shuts down by itself.

I would be very surpised if that load managed to create problematic temps.

Thanks for the follow up post!

The reason we recommended such actions was because we have never seen reputable brands die is such a flimsy way.

To be frank, we had more reason to believe some faulty wiring was at fault, but I guess you really did receive a dud.

I’ve seen cheap dell Optiplex’s used in a warehouse, covered in saw dust and god knows what else, still work just fine after 10+ years.

Those things were utterly abused.

Seeing a PSU die like OP’s is downright unheard of.

I might move in the near future, so the socket tester will still be useful.

But yeah, it is unusual. I would love to open up the dead PSU, but I have no idea how to know if the capacitors in it are discharged - surely they lose charge over time? I mean, thermodynamics must apply.