1 Big Loud Crackle from the PC?

Red_Owl

Commendable
Dec 28, 2016
12
0
1,510
As the title says it, i heard 1 big loud electric crackle from the PC and than the PC froze, NO BSOD , NO SELF SHUTDOWN, i had to shut it down by pressing the boot up button, so yeah i tried to boot it up and all it gave me was the beep sound like the one when there's no RAM in the mobo. i was like 'kay maybe one of the two sticks died, i got the first one out and booted up the pc with the second and than i've put the second one in the place where the first one was that i got out and it booted up normally again, than i got the first one in and it did the same like the first one, so i got them both inside and it booted up normally again and here i am writing this down, idk if it's something that i should be concerned about or not, but i care about electronics and i really dont want this pc to fail on me especially when im about to trade it for a LGA1156 with i3 it! Any idea what might the crackle be? :??:
 
Solution
Replace this PSU as soon as possible, it is inadequate for the job. Being labelled as a 600W model, it actually only provides 2x18A on +12V rail, which equals only 432W available for your GPU, CPU and most other components. It also has quite low efficiency (70%) and generates much heat, especially under high loads. It is also old, and with age components lose their performance, so it is likely below 400W on +12V rail (which matters the most today) at this point.

R9 280x can use up to 250W under full load (gaming). Add CPU (even without OC, it can surpass 100W), and a few drives and mobo, and you are extremely close to the limits of this PSU. And even if you do not surpass this limit, it puts so much stress on the PSU that it can simply...

Kenton82

Reputable
How old is the system? The power supply you have is a pretty bad one, and i would be concerned that this may have come from that. Did you smell anything after the 'crackle' you heard? i.e an electrical smell? If you sniff the PSU from the rear exhaust (with the PC off!) can you get anything from that?
 

Red_Owl

Commendable
Dec 28, 2016
12
0
1,510


This system that i have rn is like 3-4 years old i just upgraded the gpu from hd 3870 to gt 610 and now to r9 280x vapor-x and the psu was my cousins he bought a new one 750w and gave me this 600w to me so long story short this psu was used from 2013 till now i got this psu from him like a month or so from him and for the smell nada, i couldn't smell anything from it, p.s. i've read online that these PSUs had problems with the capacitators and the coils.. btw i ran a game tomb raider 2013 and it went fine no crackles, no buzzing, no problems, no frame drops at all strangely :/
 

Kenton82

Reputable
Ok, so its not that old, but the loud crackle would smack to me of a capacitor popping. I would have expected a smell though! Personally, i would for sure swap this PSU out for something of decent quality. IF this is a PSU issue, you have been very lucky so far. As i'm sure you know, it could do horrendous - and possibly fatal - damage to other components connected to it, as it may end up over-volting due to the regulation side of the PSU burning out.

As i say, this is only a possibility that the PSU is the cause, but i would make further checks, and ideally replace it ASAP. It is not worth trusting it.
 
Replace this PSU as soon as possible, it is inadequate for the job. Being labelled as a 600W model, it actually only provides 2x18A on +12V rail, which equals only 432W available for your GPU, CPU and most other components. It also has quite low efficiency (70%) and generates much heat, especially under high loads. It is also old, and with age components lose their performance, so it is likely below 400W on +12V rail (which matters the most today) at this point.

R9 280x can use up to 250W under full load (gaming). Add CPU (even without OC, it can surpass 100W), and a few drives and mobo, and you are extremely close to the limits of this PSU. And even if you do not surpass this limit, it puts so much stress on the PSU that it can simply fail.

Sounds like you got lucky, but don't push that luck too far and wait for something else to blow. Replace ASAP.

Preferably from a tier 1 or 2 unit (even 3 is OK if you don't overclock) from this list, any 550W+ model from those tiers will do:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

BTW, there are still no guarantees that nothing else died except the PSU, or at least one part of it, but you cannot know for sure until you replace it first. Do not use the rig until you do.
 
Solution

Red_Owl

Commendable
Dec 28, 2016
12
0
1,510
Thanks for your answers and help guys i will change it asap and probably get a new silver or gold tier psu cause i wanna get a xeon x3460 and oc it abit :)