Enermax Modu82+ 625W died on me; a question.

[Celoth]

Last night during a memtest86 run, I woke up because the power went out. I changed the fuse and found out I couldn't restart my PC. It turns out my Enermax Modu82+ died on me and took a fuse with it in the HFI-relay on the 10A circuit. I took it completely out of the case and tried to run it with a little PSU tester thingy I bought for that very purpose. No go. Not a sound or hickup or anything, just dead.

I've only had it since tuesday, so it's only been running for three days. The memtest had been running for several hours when it died. I just hope it didn't fry the mobo or other parts, but I don't have a spare PSU to check.

Anyway, my question:

Is there any chance it could have died because of voltage settings in the bios? The Rampage Formula mobo was overvolting the CPU PLL, FSB Termination and NB pretty heavily at Auto settings when I had the E8400 at 4.2GHz at 1.393 Vcore in the bios and the RAM at 1121 MHz at the rated 2.1V. So I manually lowered those voltages and everything seemed stable, but I wanted to make sure, hence the memtest running overnight.

The reason I ask is also partly that the voltages I manually set didn't correspond with the voltages the bios hardware monitor reported back. For example, when I set the CPU PLL to 1.50V, the bios reported it as 1.55V. The FSB Termination voltage I set to 1.3V and it reported 1.2V. It reported 1.11V when I set it to 1.20V. That just strikes me as weird it would report them so differently, so could that have anything to do with the PSU dying? Or was it simply a bad PSU? I don't want a repeat once I get the sucker replaced.

[[Spectre]]

What caused the house fuse to blow? And you have a fuse not a breaker?

[Celoth]

What caused the house fuse to blow? And you have a fuse not a breaker?

Both. Almost positive it was the PSU that died and took the fuse with it. The breaker kicked in too of course, but I was able to turn it right back on and change the fuse. What you call breaker is probably what I call a HFI-relay. The landlord said the fuse most likely went because of a faulty eletrical device, and the PSU was also the only thing that died on me. From what I understood, the breaker takes care of the power coming from the outside and the fuse protects from faulty electrical devices inside, but I am not certain about that. I am not super technical when it comes to electrical stuff as you've probably gathered.

I don't see why any of the components would cause the PSU to actually die after running for 3 days, so I assume it was simply a bad PSU, but I just want to be sure for when I get a new PSU in.

[[Spectre]]

Both. Almost positive it was the PSU that died and took the fuse with it. The breaker kicked in too of course, but I was able to turn it right back on and change the fuse. What you call breaker is probably what I call a HFI-relay. The landlord said the fuse most likely went because of a faulty eletrical device, and the PSU was also the only thing that died on me. From what I understood, the breaker takes care of the power coming from the outside and the fuse protects from faulty electrical devices inside, but I am not certain about that. I am not super technical when it comes to electrical stuff as you've probably gathered.

I don't see why any of the components would cause the PSU to actually die after running for 3 days, so I assume it was simply a bad PSU, but I just want to be sure for when I get a new PSU in.

I don't really care what you call it I was asking if you have a fuse or a circuit breaker. You won't have both a fuse and a circuit breaker in the panel in residential applications unless some did some half ass half upgrade.

Now if you have a fuse it could be possible that the PSU died and blew the fuse. However, it is unlikely as in order to do that you would have had to have a massive primary side failure. Every primary side failure I have had that has been big enough to come close tripping a breaker (that would be a circuit breaker) it has been loud enough that you would not sleep through it occurring in your vicinity. However, none have been big enough and I kill lots of power supplies and have had lots of primary side failures. As such, I would think the likelihood of the PSU dieing on the primary side is possible but I think the possibility that your electrical is crap is pretty good too and therein lies your problem.

[dengyong]

Enermax has no quality control.

Just be glad it didn't burn your house down, and don't get another enermax.

[adamsleath]

bottom line: psu is dead.

have you had problems with other psu's where you are at? ie is your gpo power constant? get a cheap "mains power meter" and see what power is being drawn by your (new, when you get one) psu; it might show you any fluctuations...say test at idle for eg.

whatelse can you do? apart from getting another psu; you have a warranty; use it.
if the psu was designed and or built properly it should have triggered an auto shutdown - i've had an old model ocz psu that once it reaches some sort of overload, it just shuts itself off...and i would think that this SHOULD have occured with a properly designed psu. - obviously you have/had a faulty psu.

i would be wary of using the gpo/wall socket that you had your broken psu plugged into when you get your new psu... im getting one of those 'mains power meter' thingies(kill-a-watt?) asap cos i'm curious to know roughly what power is being drawn.


your point about your motherboard overvolting, well; i reckon that's better than undervolting for oc...

but, how stable/constant is the voltage regulated by the motherboard i dont know; do motherboards kill psu's? something got overloaded inside the psu, and it's farked; shouldnt have happened. get a bigger psu

you should be able to monitor your motherboard voltages with what ever mobo monitor comes with the board or third party program...under load etc.

[Celoth]

I don't really care what you call it I was asking if you have a fuse or a circuit breaker. You won't have both a fuse and a circuit breaker in the panel in residential applications unless some did some half ass half upgrade.

Now if you have a fuse it could be possible that the PSU died and blew the fuse. However, it is unlikely as in order to do that you would have had to have a massive primary side failure. Every primary side failure I have had that has been big enough to come close tripping a breaker (that would be a circuit breaker) it has been loud enough that you would not sleep through it occurring in your vicinity. However, none have been big enough and I kill lots of power supplies and have had lots of primary side failures. As such, I would think the likelihood of the PSU dieing on the primary side is possible but I think the possibility that your electrical is crap is pretty good too and therein lies your problem.

Thanks for the reply all.

I looked into it some more and do have both a circuit breaker and fuses. The circuit breaker is required by law in all Danish households. Here's a picture of one similar to mine (different brand). Danish text, but the breaker is in the middle and 10A and 16A fuses on either side for the different groups. The fuses act as a backup protection to ensure that they blow before the power line gets over-stressed and hot and cause a fire. That's probably what happened with the PSU. I probably did wake up to the sound of the breaker turning off.

I have very stable power, so that's unlikely to be the problem. In fact, this is the first time ever that I have had any problems like this. I have had the other computer running on the same circuit np for a long time now, as well as the TV, and both turned on just fine after, although the TV and other PC weren't actually on at the time.

Anyway, so it looks like it the problem was with the PSU then. The motherboard showed something like 12.12V in the bios on the 12V line. The 3V and 5V were reported as slightly over too in the bios, but from what I understand that is pretty normal?

I am gonna give the replacement Enermax a try first, but if that fails too I am certainly gonna switch brand to a Corsair or some such.

[[Spectre]]

Ok so you are not in the US running 120v. That would have been helpful. Either way to blow a 10A or 16A fuse at 220v would require a very unusual event from your PSU to occur as at 120v I can't get them to trip/blow 20A breakers (I have dimmed the lights with units blowing back on the AC side but never actually gotten one to trip the breaker.....and I have drawn over 2000w from one 20A circuit for an hour with a power supply and not tripped one). Your power being stable also really doesn't mean it wasn't a rare electrical event that came down stream.

This is what a standard household wiring lor 120v looks like:



You'll notice there are no fuses as they are unneccesary since the breaker trips before the line gets "over stressed and hot" (continuous trip is 80% of rated value) since that is the job of the breaker.

[adamsleath]

we got 240V in aus, as you probly know.

my house has no fuses either; just breakers.

the house across from me (until its recent renovation and resale) also had it's original fuses, but i dont think new houses use fuses much anymore(here); i guess it's up to the sparky...

hey; i just picked up an "energy meter" from Jaycar electronics (D I C K smith probly has them too - i havent checked)
@ idle it reads 184W (obviously this is power from the wall socket) -i guesstimate 150W actual supply @ 80% efficient...
my stuff:
P5K with e4300@ 3.0GHz
8800gt@690MHz
2x74 raptors 1 x 250G seagate
2 x dvdrw
5x120mm fans plus a controller.
onboard sound only.

dual orthos running: 232W readout from the wall. oo massive power drain

i'll try 3dmark 06 to get some sort of graphics stress reading...
@ default settings:
proxycon: 255W
forest: 260W
CPu tests: 220W
zeppelin: 256W
deep freeze: 260W
3dmark06 score: 12K

[Celoth]

Ok so you are not in the US running 120v. That would have been helpful.

Yeah sorry should have specified that earlier I guess.

Anyway, I'll hopefully get the replacement by next week, and unless it happens again I'll just call it a fluke.

Edit: Since it was within 14 days I opted for a full refund, so gonna get me a Corsair 620HX instead.
Edit2: Got the Corsair HX620 installed and everything is working fine.

[tam2]

Your breakers is sufficient im sure, but how about your cable size? Amperage capacities should be like this; peak current draw < cb capacity < cable capacity.
But in your case, im pretty sure its just a bad psu.
Sorry 4 my bad english.

-tam2-