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Question Seasonic M12 Bronze 620 Watt bad? Thoughts

justatrucker56

justatrucker56

Junior Member
I have had this power supply for about 10yrs.. Lately out of know where while on the computer it would randomly just just down. No warning, no error messages no nothing.. Today it just would shut down each time I powered up to the desktop. Either Win11 or Linux Mint. Now I can get to the bios no issues and look at mb, cpu temps and everything is fine. But once I try to power back to the desktop it would just shut down.. I assume it is the power supply doing this to protect the rest of the computer. What are you thoughts? My multi meter is dead, so I can't test just figure the way it is acting most likely the power supply itself.
 
Are Windows and Linux on the same drive or different drives? Try running Linux from a flash drive and see if it will run. Let's rule out a drive failing since you can get into the BIOS. Also, try replacing the CMOS battery if it hasn't been replaced in a while.
 
justatrucker56 said:
I have had this power supply for about 10yrs.. Lately out of know where while on the computer it would randomly just just down. No warning, no error messages no nothing.. Today it just would shut down each time I powered up to the desktop. Either Win11 or Linux Mint. Now I can get to the bios no issues and look at mb, cpu temps and everything is fine. But once I try to power back to the desktop it would just shut down.. I assume it is the power supply doing this to protect the rest of the computer. What are you thoughts? My multi meter is dead, so I can't test just figure the way it is acting most likely the power supply itself.
Click to expand...
Have you tried swapping out the power supply? 10 years is a long time to use a PSU. Yes, power supplies may last more than 10 years. But you have this value line PSU that has a 5-year warranty. I believe I had maybe three M12 units that almost all died around the end of the warranty (5-years). You got your moneys worth.
 
bigboxes said:
Have you tried swapping out the power supply? 10 years is a long time to use a PSU. Yes, power supplies may last more than 10 years. But you have this value line PSU that has a 5-year warranty. I believe I had maybe three M12 units that almost all died around the end of the warranty (5-years). You got your moneys worth.
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I'll second that observation. It has been long established that the warranty period for a particular make and model PSU is indicative of what you're getting for the money. If you can afford a 10 or 12 year warranty, then you should buy a PSU with the highest warranty period.

Another "old" criterion: "Does it feel heavy?"

Can I solicit insights and recommendations? I discovered this Seasonic "New" for $125:

Seasonic FOCUS PX-750 | 750W | 80+ Platinum | Full Modular | ATX Form Factor | Low Noise | Premium Japanese Capacitor | 10 Year Warranty | Nvidia RTX 30/40 Super & AMD GPU Compatible (Ref. SSR-750PX) ​

After shipping and tax, more like $150.
 
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BonzaiDuck said:
I'll second that observation. It has been long established that the warranty period for a particular make and model PSU is indicative of what you're getting for the money. If you can afford a 10 or 12 year warranty, then you should buy a PSU with the highest warranty period.

Another "old" criterion: "Does it feel heavy?"

Can I solicit insights and recommendations? I discovered this Seasonic "New" for $125:

Seasonic FOCUS PX-750 | 750W | 80+ Platinum | Full Modular | ATX Form Factor | Low Noise | Premium Japanese Capacitor | 10 Year Warranty | Nvidia RTX 30/40 Super & AMD GPU Compatible (Ref. SSR-750PX)​

Click to expand...
Check the PSU Tier list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...Gkz8zTEvYfLDcaSpZRB6Xt6JWkc/edit?usp=drivesdk

The PX-750 is Tier A.
 
bigboxes said:
Have you tried swapping out the power supply? 10 years is a long time to use a PSU. Yes, power supplies may last more than 10 years. But you have this value line PSU that has a 5-year warranty. I believe I had maybe three M12 units that almost all died around the end of the warranty (5-years). You got your moneys worth.
Click to expand...
I did not have any spares.. I got rid of a lot of my extra pc parts years ago, because they were just taking up to much space... 10 years is long and I'm glade it lasted that long.. It was recommend to me from the old pcmech.com forum that no longer exist. Right now, I have my 32 inch monitor, mouse, and speaker system connected to my laptop.
 
IIRC, those PSUs were decent (not great) when they first came out…but as has been mentioned, 10 years is probably about 5 years past its life expectancy.
 
Well I did some research. I purchased this psu from Micro Center here in Dallas TX 6.5 years ago, not 10 like I thought. So today I purchased another Seasonic Core ATX3 GX-750 750Watts for $108 total with tax.. When I went there it dawned on me that most of my current system came from there, so I looked at my account and bingo yup 2019 is when it was purchased. So here shortly I will being cleaning my pc and installing this new unit. I will add full specs of my system when it is up and running again.
 
In2Photos said:
Check the PSU Tier list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...Gkz8zTEvYfLDcaSpZRB6Xt6JWkc/edit?usp=drivesdk

The PX-750 is Tier A.
Click to expand...
Thank you for that. I went forward and pulled the checkout string for that Seasonic Focus we're discussing.

Hoping for relevance to the current discussion, I've been buying Seasonic PSUs with 10 year warranties since before 2017. I don't try to harvest my used PSUs to recycle into new computer builds. With those Seasonics, maybe it's possible, maybe they have that much more stable life in them, but when I retire the motherboard and CPU, I also send the PSU to the recyclers. I think there are probably many people who try to sell "pre-owned" PSUs on EBay, but I just think it's careless to use one.

The other thing I've noticed is a growing prevalence of PSUs rated at 1,000W or better. If this power limit far exceeds your hardware under one of the standard online PSU power calculators, getting a less powerful PSU is probably the better option. I think this derives from the point of best efficiency for different PSUs, so that a better match can be achieved for the accumulated hardware you want to power.

One more thing. There is a prevalent culture among the tech-vets here to save money if you aren't building a machine to meet a serious high-performance standard. But if I'm going to build my own computer for my personal use, I'm going to spend more for higher-end parts if the difference in dollars is still chump-change. It's just something I do.
 
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