Seasonic s12 500w makes clicking noises

[Koudelka]

Hello.

Has anyone experienced this before? I just bought one off newegg and installed it. I've been using it for maybe 3 days now and one night after i booted up my computer.. 30 min later it started making very rapid clicking noises like a card through tire spokes. Sometimes it will click on and off for lengthy periods of time. Other times.. it will not stop clicking.

Is my product defective?

I bought it from Newegg as well, will they exchange it for a new one? Or is this something i got screwed on and will have to RMA to manufacturer and wait weeks on?

EDIT: My computer works fine while the clicking noises pursue. I dont know enough about PSU's to be familiar with problems like this.

Not sure if i should attempt to call Newegg and exchange it or RMA it, or ride it out and see if the clicking stops. Or if it will forever randomly start clicking every other week.

 

[Matthias99]

That certainly doesn't sound good. Loud clicking noises could mean a defective fan. I'd see if you can exchange it with Newegg.

It's not listed as a "warranty provided through manufacturer only" product, so you should be able to exchange it right with Newegg.

 

[ribbon13]

From what I've heard on the grapevine, Newegg isn't being very honest. They're still selling off old revision A1 b-stock. which is why I i keep saying buy from case-mod.com like a broken record. But this obviously didn't work.

Apparently, Seasonic changed the fan because there were too many rejects on the production line, and Newegg scooped up on all the old stock for cheap.

 

[Koudelka]

On the sticker, it says Rev. A2

 

[ribbon13]

Really? Well that sucks. I hope thier QC isn't slipping up. There have been quite a few reports of problems with the S12 series on the forum lately. I wonder if winter has anything to do with it? Weird.

Let us know how the RMA goes. Or you could replace the fan yourself if you're technically inclined and don't want to bother with the RMA wait, but that will void your remaining warranty.

 

[raildogg]

oh great, I just ordered the Seasonic 500W today along with my rig

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I've got two Seasonic on my machine, and I'm happy with em.

 

[allies]

Well that makes my choice of a TPII 550 over the S12 a little more satisfying I have never heard of any other instances of this though, hope it turns out alright.

 

[smthmlk]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
I hope thier QC isn't slipping up. There have been quite a few reports of problems with the S12 series on the forum lately.

Really? I've seen just 1 other person with an issue, and it was DOA. Links to these other reports? Thanks.

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: smthmlk
Really? I've seen just 1 other person with an issue, and it was DOA. Links to these other reports? Thanks.

One was a low 12v rail voltage issue, which turned out to not be the PSU, and the other was a electrolytic cap failing, and making smoke.

Originally posted by: allies
Well that makes my choice of a TPII 550 over the S12 a little more satisfying I have never heard of any other instances of this though, hope it turns out alright.

I've still heard an exponentially (compared to market share) larger amount of complaints about Antec over Seasonic.

Oh, and for the record, Seasonic has been making PSUs for over 25 years. Antec has only been around for 19 years, only 15 of which did they make PSUs.

 

[brbdc]

I started having this problem also. It happened for a short while last night and then stopped. Then about an hour later it started up again and I havent been able to stop it. I checked to see if it was the main 120mm fan by stopping that fan manually but the clicking was persistent. I guess RMA time. Seasonic S12 Series 500W has been installed for 20 days.

 

[raildogg]

I have had the Seasonic 500W for over 2 weeks and so far, its been great. It seems like Seasonic has some quality control issues.

<crosses fingers and taps on wood>

 

[Vegito]

haha.. every company has quality issues.. its just how many they sold..

in the beginning only a few people had seasonic.. you almost dont hear about the bad units because not enough people had them... once you add the hot deals, everyone started to buy them, use them. Now the problem uncovers...

 

[GamerExpress]

It sounds like the first thing I would check would be the fan.

 

[brbdc]

Checked the fan of all the parts of the PC. Then checked the big fan on the PSU. With all of those stopped it was still making the noise. Is there more than one fan in a PSU?

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: brbdc
Checked the fan of all the parts of the PC. Then checked the big fan on the PSU. With all of those stopped it was still making the noise. Is there more than one fan in a PSU?

no

how did you stop the PSU fan?

 

[Research]

I just wanted to chime in regarding Seasonic S12 600W that I bought after weeks of research((See my Thread). Everybody pretty much convinced me about it's reliability and quietness (ribbon13 you are the bigest culprit ).

It worked beautifully for the first two days (all voltages in really tight tolerances .. as displayed by Intel Active Monitor). But all of a sudden nothing is working at all. I shut down the computer yesterday night, and now it's completely dead. The MOBO green light lights up as well as the start button light .. but that's it! Nothing else .. not even the fans turn on. Spend the whole morning doing tons of permutation combinations ... but to no awail. A huge waste of time and effort (maybe money .. let's see how ewiz customer service is) ... By the way, I'll be starting a new thread to solicit yur suggestions on some more alternate ways of testing/repairing the PSU ..

 

[brbdc]

With a pencil or your finger. If the fan is making a noise cause its hitting something or loose and you stop the fan, the noise should stop too.

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: brbdc
With a pencil or your finger. If the fan is making a noise cause its hitting something or loose and you stop the fan, the noise should stop too.

Which by your logic, concludes the one-120mm-fanned Seasonic is not the culprit. *sigh of relief*

I will be very angry if they sent me a cherry-picked S12-600w because I ordered a bunch of them for my old employer (for building Quadro SLI rigs).

 

[Diasper]

I suffered a similiar problem with my Zalman 400W a while back - it drove me nuts.

But i found out whenever I opened the case the clicking suddenly stopped. Turns out it was due to negative pressure in my case putting pressure on PSu and its fan. I just undervolted the fan at the back of my case some more and upped the RPM of the one at the front and it's all dandy - never had a problem since.

Try that and report back - first see if it goes away when you open up the side of the case when it's have one of it's 'clicking fits'.

 

[forumposter32]

Originally posted by: Diasper
I suffered a similiar problem with my Zalman 400W a while back - it drove me nuts.

But i found out whenever I opened the case the clicking suddenly stopped. Turns out it was due to negative pressure in my case putting pressure on PSu and its fan. I just undervolted the fan at the back of my case some more and upped the RPM of the one at the front and it's all dandy - never had a problem since.

Try that and report back - first see if it goes away when you open up the side of the case when it's have one of it's 'clicking fits'.

How did you determine it was negative pressure? I hear an odd noise when I turn on my machine but it doesn't seem to occur when the case is open.

 

[Diasper]

Well after being driven nuts by it I went looking into my case as to what it was - as soon as I did that it stopped. The next time it had one of it's clicking fits I ended up trying to located where the sound was coming from before I opened my case - it was from the PSU.

Thereafter, whenever I opened my case the clicking noise always went away immediately. Eventually it got to the stage where I just left my case open but just a bit to stop the noise coming up - it never came back when I had my case door slided off a bit.

At that point I wasn't sure whether it was being caused by heat or by pressure - initially I assumed it must be heat. However, eventually I just decided to see if it was about the negative pressure in my case - I undervolted my fans to 5V at the back (Antec case fan) and stuck a Papst 120mm at 10V at the front and thereafter I've never had a problem.

I can say it isn't heat for sure, because my temps are now quite a bit higher - but at least the damn noise has stopped so I'm happy!


I guess if changing the fan RPMs isn't an option or you don't want to cause extra heat in the case (matybe causing a lower OC) you might wanna try equalising the pressure by some modding eg say cut a hole out at the top of the case near the PSU fan and have some sorta duct upto it. You'd always prob wanna create some top shround which faces backwards (like the one on the P180 but without holes) so the noise is sent backwards away from you. Ideas anyway.

 

[Diasper]

btw I could image Seasonic's with their 120mm fans at the bottom having issues drawing enough air in cases like the P180 - given the relatively restricted airflow to it creating a seemingly greater negative pressure for the fans...

What cases are you guys using?

 

[Diasper]

btw it could also be worth shifting this topic into the cases and cooling forum as being more suitable and to get more replies etc