After all these years this is (i think) my first. Decided to pull one of my spare rigs out of storage to test it. First it powered on/off and refused to power on again. The RGB on the mobo was still lit, so i just suspected some mobo/bios issue and decided to do full cold-reboot. Turned PSU off and drained all the power until RGB on mobo turned off completelly.
After i flipped the PSU switch back on and turned the rest of the PC on i was awarded with nice stream of smoke from the PSU area. For about 0.5s i was amazed what i see then turned off the PSU via its switch and pulled the cable.
At first i suspect there may be a bug or spider or something, that got cooked inside it as i turned it on, but looks like it had few caps leaking and after i turned it on after a few months of being off, it decided it doesnt like me anymore
I could probably order new caps and fix it, but not im not 100% sure leaking caps were the cause or if some weird short could cause caps to blow up like that, but i guess i could try
I would not unless you are 100% confident in your skills. My thinking is why risk blowing up your system, and specifically your RAM, over a $90 USD PSU? You’re RAM alone is probably worth 3-4 PSUs.
ye, im using it in spare pc tho and would probably move it to some even older/cheaper rig if i did repair, but looking at it more i would probably need to pull the 240V connector to get the PCB out.
Good news is, the PC it was hooked into lives. So at least a small plus point for seasonic killing only itself
You could certainly try it for fun, but touching a psu board without having basic electrical knowledge can be fatal. The main capacitors can store power for some time and will zap you.
That said we are not in the capacitor plague era anymore, where the caps just immolate on their own.
if the caps blow up like that there is something that failed and overloaded them imho.
probably not, Seasonics website says 5 years and i cant even find a recipe with its name in my mailbox
I may harvest it for parts (cables, connectors, fan) and get rid of it… cuz just went through my storage and i still have bunch of extra PSUs… at least we have red container for electronics right in front of our building, so it will get properly recycled
Seasonic BC12 series was launched in early 2021. Looking at your unit, I bet it’s still under the 5-year warranty. Losing your receipt is unfortunate though.
Worth the effort to replace the caps yourself. Take all necessary precautions as usual.
The payoff is very rewarding. A few bucks save a piece of e-Waste from the landfill.
hmmm. Opened the unit again and to get the PCB out i would have to desolder the 240V connector then solder it back in….
So even tho id be able to fix the capacitors, i dont feel like playing with the mains side and probably gonna throw it into the recycling container after i at least harvest some components…
How did it get so funky so fast? Was it stored in a utility shed or covered with a tarp under a carport? I have a lot of hardware in storage I’m suddenly concerned about.
Safety First You can discharge the caps with some big resistors and alligator clip jumpers or do not as I’ve done, short the terminals with a screw driver blade… fun fact: a soda can sized capacitor might loudly and blindingly brightly blow the tip off the screw driver. Ask me how I know…
You could probably replace the caps if you can find the right ones.
However there might be a deeper underlying reason why those caps failed.
It might be due to bad quality or age of course.
But there could also be a problem in the circuit like a bad transistor or whatnot.
idk if i would personally still trust the psu with your expensive pc parts,
because from i can tell it´s already a pretty old unit.
so replacing might not be a bad idea anyway.
Ye i may try to replace them, then put big sticker on it “experiments only” and dont have it inside any serious rig and use it for stuff like fan testing or similar stuff
I used to replace caps for a living more or less, if you are cautious and respect the ambient danger, it’s not too bad, and in my experience usually results in a new life for the affected machine. But that first if is doing a lot of work and n that statement. It is critical that you are not careless because it can be quite dangerous if you are not.
