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Tofucube
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is it my psu or battery back up?

Sun Dec 08, 2013 5:59 pm

I came home last night and my desktop was on a bios screen saying that the computer had shut down because my motherboard had detected unusual surges from the psu and shut down to protect itself. I restarted the computer and things seemed to run fine so I shut it down and went to bed.

This morning while using the computer it shut down on me and said the same thing as the night before. I started I turned the computer on a 3rd time to try and test a few things and this time my battery backup that the computer is plugged into shut down because of a overload.

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if there is any reason I should suspect my battery backup as being the problem rather than my internal psu. It's been making some noise recently but I don't know if that would have been because of a psu that was slowly dying. Just want to rule that out before I purchase a new psu.

Psu is a corsair hx620. Warranty expired literally two weeks ago. I hate it when that happens.

Thanks in advance.
 
EJ257
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Sun Dec 08, 2013 6:36 pm

Did you try plugging the PC directly into the wall, bypass the battery backup? If it still shuts down then I say it's the PSU.

What noise was the battery backup making? Beeping? Buzzing?
Beeping could mean the battery is due for replacement. Battery lasts about 3-5 years. If it can no longer hold a charge the unit will beep to notify you to change it.

Also was there any lighting activity in the area recently? Maybe it did it's job but something inside got fried?
 
keltor
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Sun Dec 08, 2013 6:39 pm

Depending on the PSU, it's probably the PSU as most will handle a range of input voltages. Most wide swings would cause the PSU to shutdown.
 
Kougar
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Sun Dec 08, 2013 6:50 pm

What EJ257 said, plug the system into the wall directly and see if the problems continue or not. Should tell you pretty quickly whether it is the PSU or the UPS.

As for the UPS, I've had a similar issue with one of mine and it turned out the battery pack inside had begun cracking, it was just 3 years old. Ya should check the battery on yours for any bulging or cracks every year, the quality on name brand UPS's / batteries isn't what it used to be.
 
just brew it!
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Sun Dec 08, 2013 7:10 pm

In descending order of probability, I'd say:

1. PSU
2. Motherboard (as in, the power surge detection circuit is mis-behaving)
3. UPS
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
Tofucube
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Sun Dec 08, 2013 7:26 pm

The apc was making a clicking noise which it does when it's self checking itself for issues. But it was happening a lot more often which made me think that it might be the apc. I have replaced the battery in the apc before and I know that's not the issue here. The apc won't shut up when the battery is dead.

I hadn't plugged the psu directly into the wall yet. Guess I was just feeling a little paranoid about a faulty psu frying my motherboard or other components. I'll test it out and see what happens.

Thanks for the responses
 
vargis14
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Sun Dec 08, 2013 10:00 pm

I am just curious of what kind of hardware that Corsair HX-620 was powering? CPU 4 or 6 core "OverClocked?", how many sticks of memory 4 or 8 GPUor GPU's "OverClocked?", HDD's, fans and any other items that draw power on top of your Big socket 2011 CPU ?

Just wondering if you were running the PSU over 80% of its rated power output.

Not one of the many custom PC's I have built for me and my friends over the last 8 years have ever blew out a PSU since I always get a PSU that is 150- 200 watts or more then the systems need so they do not ever get really pushed anywhere near there limits.
2600k@4848mhz @1.4v CM Nepton40XL 16gb Ram 2x EVGA GTX770 4gb Classified cards in SLI@1280mhz Stock boost on a GAP67-UD4-B3, SBlaster Z powered by TX-850 PSU pushing a 34" LG 21/9 3440-1440 IPS panel. Pieced together 2.1 sound system
 
Tofucube
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Sun Dec 08, 2013 11:43 pm

Well wonders will never cease. seems like the issue really is my UPS and not the Power Supply. I ran the computer for awhile plugged into the wall, no issues, switch it back to the ups and after about a hour it happens again. plugged the computer back into the wall and i've had one instance where the rest of my computer components shut down for a second because they were still plugged into the UPS. i'll run the computer like this a few more days to see if it shuts down while plugged into the wall but barring any issues i'll just replace my UPS. Anyone know anything about the cyberpower brand?

Vargis14
well seeing as it doesn't seem like i broke my psu my specs wont surprise you much. No overclocking. i5-3470, 2 dimms of ram for 8 gigs total. GTX 260 video card.
 
jihadjoe
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Mon Dec 09, 2013 12:35 am

Failure rate on UPS is much higher than PSUs.

Over the life of my old Q6600 system I went through two UPSs (a cheap "Giant" unit and later on an APC Back-up Power). After the second one failed I decided **** it and have been going direct to wall instead.

The higher-end, full-online UPSs are much more durable than the consumer-level stuff, but then again they are also hella expensive. Like "IT guys spending company money" expensive.
 
Kougar
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Mon Dec 09, 2013 1:46 am

Tofucube wrote:
The apc was making a clicking noise which it does when it's self checking itself for issues. But it was happening a lot more often which made me think that it might be the apc. I have replaced the battery in the apc before and I know that's not the issue here. The apc won't shut up when the battery is dead.


My unit was also an APC, and it also performs the same self-test (the clicking ya hear) when it loads the battery. The APC in question passed the battery multiple times the day I removed it, even though it was bulging so badly that it was pretty tightly wedged into the UPS. The inner seals were exposed on multiple sides of the battery casing and I was frankly amazed it wasn't yet giving off a sulfuric smell. It also resulted in stuff randomly powering off that was connected to the unit, which was the ONLY warning sign I had something was amiss.

The first APC I bought in 2002 was a much better UPS even though it cost less and had a lower VA rating than the newer one. As far as Cyberpower goes, I haven't yet had anything to report with mine but it's only a year old. I'll know better by year three... I don't expect it to be better than APC units to be honest.
 
Tofucube
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Wed Dec 11, 2013 1:41 am

Kougar wrote:

My unit was also an APC, and it also performs the same self-test (the clicking ya hear) when it loads the battery. The APC in question passed the battery multiple times the day I removed it, even though it was bulging so badly that it was pretty tightly wedged into the UPS. The inner seals were exposed on multiple sides of the battery casing and I was frankly amazed it wasn't yet giving off a sulfuric smell. It also resulted in stuff randomly powering off that was connected to the unit, which was the ONLY warning sign I had something was amiss.

The first APC I bought in 2002 was a much better UPS even though it cost less and had a lower VA rating than the newer one. As far as Cyberpower goes, I haven't yet had anything to report with mine but it's only a year old. I'll know better by year three... I don't expect it to be better than APC units to be honest.


I checked my battery and there was nothing obviously wrong with it. I've had my UPS for over a decade now. Is it worthwhile to try and just change the battery or does it make more sense to just get a new UPS? I know some said the systems aren't necessary but for the low coast i appreciate the additional protection.
 
Kougar
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Wed Dec 11, 2013 5:52 pm

I prefer mine just because I've lived in areas (and one certain apartment complex) where power would frequently die for non-storm related events. Too many ACs going would blow transformers, etc. And the line conditioning is good for the system anyway.

In regards to your question, not quite a year ago I had to trash my 2003 1100VA APC UPS because the unit itself began having problems. It wouldn't charge 2-year old batteries correctly, so thinking the batts had failed prematurely I bought another set. But those also failed to charge fully, and began bulging after a week of use in the UPS. Opinions on UPS life expectancy do differ greatly, but based off what JonnyGurus's say about PSU component life expectancy I wouldn't keep a UPS past a decade anymore. I ended up wasting $50 in batteries on my decade-old unit that I won't get back, and that's a good chunk of the cost of just outright buying a new UPS.

For clarity, I bought the first APC in 2003, a second APC with LCD monitoring, then bought a Cyberpower to replace the first APC. The bulging batteries I mention in my previous posts were from the second APC unit which I still am using.
 
Starfalcon
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Re: is it my psu or battery back up?

Wed Dec 11, 2013 7:44 pm

I have an APC 1000VA UPS that I just finally had to replace the batteries on myself, got it back in 2003 also been completely trouble free besides the battery light coming on a couple of weeks ago. I also run my UPS through a decent surge protector too, just in case anything bad comes down the line, and I can toss that instead of my UPS. Replacement batteries were expensive as heck though through several places I looked online, but after some googling I was able to get higher capacity batteries that nearly doubled my uptime in an outage for a much more reasonable price. Just had to switch the old batteries out of their holder and plug in the new ones.

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