Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

[More2Cap]

Hi,

since a few days my PC freezes in load situations (benchmarking CPU & GPU, games, other GPU intensive applications). During normal office work there wasn't ONE freeze. Watching movies isn't a problem either.

So I looked inside my hx520w from 2007 and I found a leaked cap on the secondary side.

The plastic shield on the upper side of the primary cap seems a bit discolored even "charred" and at the bottom of the cap there is possibly leaked electrolyte? Or is that RTV silicone like on the other spots?

I can post ESR values tomorrow. If more photos are needed, I'll post more of them too.

Looking forward to your feedback!
Thanks

[R_J]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

You might also check the caps around the cpu on the motherboard, and it might be time for new cpu and gpu heatsink grease, I was having some problems with a motherboard locking up and it was due to dried cpu to heatsink grease, I reapplied it and no further problems

[More2Cap]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

Sorry, I forgot to mention that my Board, CPU and RAM are roughly one year old. I can rule out any temperature related problems.

[CapLeaker]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

I see 2 bad caps. One that you identified and the other one is below it. I can tell they ran hot, as the sleeve shrunk. Change that one too.

[dmill89]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

I see 2 bad caps. One that you identified and the other one is below it. I can tell they ran hot, as the sleeve shrunk. Change that one too.

^This, and they look like UCC caps which rarely fail (at least the series used in PSUs) unless severely abused, you may have cooling issues with that PSU and/or may be overloading it.

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

These are Kze series I believe never seen one of them drop but guess no cap is immune to high heat and stress.

[Stefan Payne]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

Sure it's KZE and not KY??

AFAIR those oldish PC PSUs didn't have low impedance caps wich are needed for modern Components...

[More2Cap]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

I could not do a thing on the PSU the last days. Sorry! Let's see what the week end brings (more time I hope).

Edit: Johnnyguru did a test on this PSU back in 2006: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...=Story&reid=18

[momaka]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

Am I the only one that doesn't see anything wrong with the caps in this PSU?

The "crud' next to the large brown cap is glue. I can't see the caps on the secondary too well, but from what I could tell, some of them have more of this same glue on top.
That said, this glue does appear to be the tan glue that goes brown and eventually conductive. If that is the case, remove as much of it as possible. Though I think we need more shots of the PSU to see what is going on.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

I agree but I was too lazy to respond

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

Caps are visibly fine. (unless you find one where it's visibly heated on the sleeve) It's more likely to be the glue or a loose connector, even though you said that it never randomly crashed at a light load...

It could be a dried out cap, but dunno, because it's not a known-to-be-problematic series...

[More2Cap]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

First of all, thank you all for your input and answers!

The suspected cap is in a pristine condition... that was really just some fixing glue on top, which got brown with age and heat like momaka said. All of the caps are in fact okay. The PSU is not the problem. The GPU is.

Does someone have a clue, where to start diagnosing GPU power related problems? Under normal Windows operation like surfing and even hardware accelerated video playing, there are no crashes, NOT ONE. If I stress the GPU with an heavy load it's a freeze OR the display driver crashes and gets restored (baloon notification). Could this be a possible VRM defect?

I posted more pictures of the PSU and some of the GPU.

[stj]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

it could still be the psu not able to supply enough power.

[More2Cap]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

FYI these components are running together for more than a year now.

Yesterday, I tested another PSU, and the same freezes happen. Today, I got a graphics card from a friend for testing purposes, and the GPU is 100% the culprit here.

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

Probably Bga solder issue on the gpu Ic.

[More2Cap]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

So I have to reball for another few months of lifetime and then thats it?

[stj]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

what is on the gpu in the foto?
not silicon grease i hope - it needs better than that.
MX4 or AS5 for example.

[nick122]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

what is on the gpu in the foto?
not silicon grease i hope - it needs better than that.
MX4 or AS5 for example.

Looks like a 280(x)/7970/7950 I've seen dozens of them fail. Some of them had artifacts, some of them didn't even post. I've fixed 10+ 280xs with a reflow, but the problem usually comes back after about 2 years.

[More2Cap]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

what is on the gpu in the foto?
not silicon grease i hope - it needs better than that.
MX4 or AS5 for example.

Thats a picture right after I lifted the cooler off the pcb. So its the factory TIM. I applied some Noctua NT-H1.

Yes, it is a R9 280.

[hikaruichijo]

Re: Is my PSU responsible for freezes? Possible bad caps?

I have a 7970 since the 2012 and is still working great with an 150mhz overclock on air but never got over 70cº
Did that gpu work past 75-80 degrees celsius for a long period of time?
No mather what people says the can't substain that temps for long periords of time, the chip fails because the of thermal stress.