Power supply load balance?

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Em_Tasol

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Mar 28, 2017
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I have just had a new 600w CoolerMaster power supply fitted (not modular) that has 200w to spare and it keeps shutting down. The installer appears to have put all 6 HDDs and the 2DVDs all on the one wiring bundle and the other wiring bundle only has a few light loads - a cooling fan, a USB hub and a PCI card. I use the onboard graphics.
Could this uneven load be the cause of the shut downs?
Note I am in a hot climate 45C 90F being common.
 
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Ironsounds

Ironsounds

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Hello... Could you reference or type the exact MODEL of your power supply for us?

Typically you have to 'de-rate" the outputs in devices due to high ambient temperatures... as a "simple test" take a cover off your case to allow more cooler air into the case... the problem continue?

Typically you will see a wire insulator dis-color OR a PIn in a connector blacken as a "Visual inspection" of a wiring or ampacity problem.

Also High humidity will also decrease the cooling effectiveness of AIR... basically Air is one of the worst thing to use as a Cooling molecule... but it is free and abundant too use... Factories can experience higher temperature and humidity changes, and water cooling systems/pipes are routed above all areas for easy tap ins.

Having a multiple portable "air conditioners" installed on all electrical cabinets and a full time crew to maintain them is common.

Typically using that many HD's in one case will also increase the heat in a case... sometimes addition fans directed to them can help.
 
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Em_Tasol

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I just realized I did not give trouble shooting details for the shutdowns.
It almost seems to be a momentary power down, maybe of only one part of the power supply.
The computer suddenly goes dead and the cooling fans slow down but then the computer restarts without any user input - I do not need to press the power button for it to reboot.
It is more prevalent at higher temperatures but can happen at dawn when the temperature is below 20C / 68F
 
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Ironsounds

Ironsounds

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Hello... Well you could have a simple/common bad/cold solder joint in any device... low temperatures will trigger these... So lets just say a Low temperature and Hot temperature can cause intermittent operation of any electrical/electronic device... But for different reasons and syptoms B )

A Computer power supply have many different voltages in it... so it is possible to lose one voltage and still have the logic of the other voltage circuits still happy and running.

There is also "surge protection" in Power supplies... so if the "start-up" current is too high ( 6 Hardrive motors ) then it will shut-off and protect itself and the Consumer from a un-safe start up pre-set setting in it.

1) I would suggest trying the BIO's feature of "delayed start up" for the Non-OS drives... these electro-mechanical drives have high start up current... typical of any electrical motor. B /

2) As a "simple test" unplug all but the OS drive... Does the intermittent startup go away?
2b) start adding one drive at a time to compare and to determine which drive or number of drives brings the startup problem back B /
 
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Em_Tasol

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Hi Ironsounds and thanks for the detailed reply. In answer to your questions

exact MODEL of your power supply for us? RS-600-ACAB-B1

a "simple test" take a cover off your case to allow more cooler air into the case... the problem continue? YES

"Visual inspection" of a wiring or ampacity problem - nothing as far as I can see

Also High humidity will also decrease the cooling effectiveness - It is wet season so the humidity is high. We are averaging 50mm rain per day and 80%+ humidity at present but the problem is no worse than when drier and much less humid a couple of weeks ago

Typically using that many HD's in one case will also increase the heat in a case. I have a front case fan and rear case fan driven of the mother board plus an extra fan mounted in the side cover and connected to a molex. All are 120mm fans

Em
 
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Em_Tasol

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Hi again

Bad solder sounds a pig to find so hopefully that is not the issue

1) I would suggest trying the BIO's feature of "delayed start up" for the Non-OS drives... these electro-mechanical drives have high start up current. The reboots are never at initial power on. For example at present the computer has been running 2 hours without a problem

2) As a "simple test" unplug all but the OS drive... Does the intermittent startup go away?
2b) start adding one drive at a time to compare and to determine which drive or number of drives brings the startup problem back I will power off in a minute and disconnect the two DVDs and three HDDs and see what that produces. If the problem is still there I will drop one more and then change the disconnected one. I have nothing but the OS and software on C drive (120gb Kingston SSD). All my files are on the mechanical drives so the computer is just a desk ornament unless I have at least one other drive operating :( I will then follow your suggestion regarding adding load and if it starts rebooting again I will disconnect the last connected and add others. If the last connected causes the problem I will drop a couple of others and see if it remains or is just a total load problem. According to three different on line calculators there is over 200w spare capacity though.

Thanks again
 
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Em_Tasol

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Thanks Susquehannock

As I power up the drives again from Ironsounds suggestions I will definitely redistribute more evenly

Em



 
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Ironsounds

Ironsounds

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Hello... Yes I understand you use/need the DATA drives...

2c) WE are only doing some Tests... gather more information about your problem B )

Too see if one or more of the HD's starting up is the problem... that is one of the failure modes of any electric Motor dependent/installed device/HD... your HD's will wear out some day... maybe one of them has now? B /
 
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Em_Tasol

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I hope you are wrong about a possible disc failure because they are all under 18 months old.
Unfortunately MTBF is the average across all built so includes the low fruit as well as the unkillable.

Murphy's law strikes again. Todays high will only be 30C but I will leave it on overnight to maximise chance of a reboot.

 
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Em_Tasol

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Mar 28, 2017
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Hi Ironsounds

Well it looks like it may be that the main (new 4tb) data disc is the problem. This morning the computer is still running without a reboot but the main data disc is missing from windows explorer.:(

I will shut down in a minute and electrically disconnect that drive and reboot and see if it stays up for a couple of days. If so I will have to try and recover all the data from it that I was just about finished moving from all the smaller drives. I will keep you posted.

Em
 
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Em_Tasol

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I do not know what is happening here

Just before I shut down it suddenly popped up a message saying something like "Intel says a SATA disc has been disconnected"

I shut down and rebooted with the 2 data drives disconnected and it booted normally

I shut down and rebooted with dat disc two only added and it did checkdisc and appeared to delete a large number of index entries

Same when I booted up with data disc 3 (not the suspect primary data disc)

I started transferring data from two to three (a bigger disc) and then it disappeared from explorer

After reboot most of my files appear to be gone.

Anyone got any ideas about what the hell is happening here?

I went to print this and it tells me some printing functionality is disabled!!!!!!!!!!!


 
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Em_Tasol

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Mar 28, 2017
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I do not know what is happening here

Yesterday - Just before I shut down it suddenly popped up a message saying something like "Intel says a SATA disc has been disconnected"

I shut down and rebooted with the 2 data drives disconnected and it booted normally

I shut down and rebooted with dat disc two only added and it did checkdisc and appeared to delete a large number of index entries

Same when I booted up with data disc 3 (not the suspect primary data disc)

I started transferring data from two to three (a bigger disc) and then it disappeared from explorer

After reboot most of my files appear to be gone.

Anyone got any ideas about what the hell is happening here?

I went to print this and it tells me some printing functionality is disabled!!!!!!!!!!!

Today booted with C drive only just to check mail because I hope that the data discs are not fried and I want to keep them if at all possible

 
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