Faulty PSU / Case?

[pandabear24]

Just bought a Coolermaster 430 case & Coolermaster 500W PSU from Scan. They've been bought to house my old components and give them to my cousin as a working gaming setup.

The other components are a new Seagate HDD, ATi 4870 1GB, 4GB 1066MHz Kingston HyperX RAM, E8500 CPU and Asus P5Q Pro (the GFX, CPU, RAM and Mobo have all been working flawlessly in my case and with my PSU for 2 & 1/2 years prior to this).

Cut a long story short, once I fitted everything the fans and everything would tick over nicely for a few seconds then cut out... And then 'spark' back on for a brief moment periodically so long as the PSU was left on. I had to take the power lead out of the PSU to stop this continuing.

I took component after component out and the problem still persisted, even down the when I only connected the front power / reset connector etc from the case up to the motherboard, put the motherboard on my bench (no static, no standoffs etc) and connected the 24 Pin + 4 Pin cables from my power supply up to my P5Q Pro and it still did the same - green light comes on the motherboard, go to power it all up, fails after a few seconds and the PSU fan 'sparks' into very brief life every few seconds.

Is this indicating a PSU / case fault? Because if so, I can send them back for a refund. If it's not, and I send them back, they'll charge me £20 + VAT for carriage and testing costs...

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Can you test the Mobo with another psu? I.E. yours
if that gets you running I'd say the psu is at fault, if not then the Mobo could have been damaged
but my moneys on the psu at this stage
Moto

 

[pandabear24]

I've been really trying to avoid doing that as my current PSU has been carefully linked in my current case (Antec 182) to provide the best airflow and as little cable showing as possible. It would be a massive hassle to undo all that and re-do it all again.

The only thing I have to go on is that, like I said, everything was working in my system for 2 and a half years prior to this, even up to the day when I put these components in this new case.

One thing I have done is tried the new PSU in my current rig and it did exactly the same thing. Powered for a few seconds then stopped and sparked up every now and then.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Feeling the cable management man, its what I do hehe
looking like the psu is the culprit there then, and I wouldn't have risked my new rig on the potentially bad psu myself but kudos to you man
I've never had to send anything back to scan, but I've always had fast responses from queries, usually under 3 hours on email
Moto

 

[pandabear24]

Hah, rather you than me!

I know, afterwards I fretted because my PC was doing the same with the working PSU - thought I'd shot it then! Turns out, to my relief, looked like one of my DIMMs got dislodged and was casuing it. The PC has worked fine since *touches wood*.

Triple checking then before I go ahead and return, the evidence here is that it's almost certainly a bad PSU?

 

[Motopsychojdn]

As far as I can make out without having 'hands on' time yes, its the psu at fault here, so its mailing scan on monday for you
Moto

 

[pandabear24]

Much appreciated man, I'll get on that

Hopfeully they won't BS me or make a fuss and they'll ust replace it with an identical bundle or let me choose another one and pay the difference. I've spent enough with them in the past couple of weeks to warrant a bit of service I reckon!

 

[Motopsychojdn]

Cool, let us know how it pans out for you man,
Moto