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Seasonic X650 --passed away???

jimmyj68

Senior member
I'm about to RMA my Seasonic X650 purchased in October - Dead in December. Because Seasonic will charge me $25 bucks if I RMA a unit that proves to be perferctly functional by their tests - I want to run this by the power supply experts to see if I have properly diagnosed the problem.

My system was set to go to sleep after a time and usually a tap on the keyboard woke everything up and turned the power back on the CPU etc. and all things worked as normally. One evening last week I came back upstairs and tapped the keyboard (usually the space key) and nothing happened. I tried recycling the power supply by turning it off and removing power to it. Plugged in power supply and set switch to on - computer would not start. No half start like boot and lock - nothing.

Pulled the side off the box and checked for any signs of malfunction anywhere - all connectors tight and proper. Nothing looking burnt or overheated. Nothing. Motherboard power on light lit as it should be (Intel DP55SB). Tried cycling the on off switch of the computer and those of my fans connected directly to 12V spun for a second and stopped. The fans running from motherboard fan points never moved.

Now either my motherboard has given up the ghost or the power supply has. Had another power supply handy in a partial rebuild for my wife (the power supply that the seasonic replaced) so I pulled the 24 pin and 8 pin from the motherboard and substituted the 24 pin and 8 pin from the second power supply, put power to that unit and turned it on. When I hit the computer on/off switch the system came alive and booted up - of course I was missing my hard drives and optical drive. Based on this I figured my Seasonic had gone kaput.

Switched out the power supplies and everything was hunky-dory.

Seasonic's RMA application pages asks for some basic questions to be answered before it issues an RMA. I answered those and gave a brief explanation of what had occured. The page also recommended the usual power supply function test of a paper clip between the green and black wires on the 20/24 pin plug. I did this and the power supply fan twitched and nothing else. I thought that should be the final determinator. But this power supply hardly ever runs the fan anyway, and that twitch could have just been the fan conrol circuitry kinking in.

My vote is the power supply gave up the ghost. What do you all think?
 
There is only the one combination of a green and a black wire to the motherboard power plug ---- tried that ---- se OP
 
^ heh must of missed that then. Plug a fan in and see if the fan powers on since the psu load is nill its fan might not spin.


If it fails this test its most likely dead
 
i say if you run a burn-in test on another computer that draws as much power or more power, and it does the same sh!t, then take advantage of your warranty.

don't take chances with DOA products in the long run with mission critical projects, of course my motto is: "run it 'till it does". -lol
 
It hasn't made a peep - so to speak - since I discovered my "asleep" computer wasn't going to wake up. The machine it was in snapped to attention as soon as the substitute PS was connected.

My money ($25) is still on it had a stroke or heart attack. I'm shipping it off tomorrow.
 
You need to measure each output voltage with a voltage meter, as the paper clip test itself only shows the +12V condition, not the +3.3V or +5V.
 
what about trying that seasonic in the partial build? that would pretty much verify a bad PSU if the system worked with the other power supply.
 
A couple of weeks ago I posted about a sick Seasonic X650. I RMAed it off to Seasonic. Never received any notice that they had received it. Last week got e-mail from Seasonic that a power supply had shipped through UPS.

Tuesday of this week the box arrived with a pristine looking power supply unit well packed and with zero (0)! paperwork. Thought that odd but shrugged it off as probably the way Seasonic does things.

Tore my puter down and performed a power supply transplant and - - - -are you ready????
Nothing - NADA - as one would expect a new (or refurbished, they don't give out new ones)power supply to behave. Cycled the power switch and the system powered up for about 15 seconds and quit - a few seconds later it powered up again and imediately quit again - all by itself. Fiddled with this nonsense for awhile - and tore my system down again and reinstalled my "old" Be Quiet brand 650 power supply I ordered from Germany because they are hard to find in the states. That was at least two years ago and it has run 24/7 practically until I removed it for the Seasonic. Of course my puter started right up and has purred like a kitten ever since.

What's going on here? I did not keep a record of serial numbers so I don't know if they simply returned my old unit because they could find anything wrong with it or mistakenly shipped me a bad unit. But if they returned my old unit they didn't ask for the $25 bucks.

Is it possible one of the cables is bad? But the power supply worked fine for a couple of months - since last October up until early January.

Am I doing something wrong here? I don't get it. Has this kind of thing happened to anyone else out there?

I'll be on the phone early Monday to see if I can make heads or tails of this.
 
Here is an update----
A couple of weeks ago I posted about a sick Seasonic X650. I RMAed it off to Seasonic. Never received any notice that they had received it. Last week got e-mail from Seasonic that a power supply had shipped through UPS.

Tuesday of this week the box arrived with a pristine looking power supply unit well packed and with zero (0)! paperwork. Thought that odd but shrugged it off as probably the way Seasonic does things.

Tore my puter down and performed a power supply transplant and - - - -are you ready????
Nothing - NADA - as one would expect a new (or refurbished, they don't give out new ones)power supply to behave. Cycled the power switch and the system powered up for about 15 seconds and quit - a few seconds later it powered up again and imediately quit again - all by itself. Fiddled with this nonsense for awhile - and tore my system down again and reinstalled my "old" Be Quiet brand 650 power supply I ordered from Germany because they are hard to find in the states. That was at least two years ago and it has run 24/7 practically until I removed it for the Seasonic. Of course my puter started right up and has purred like a kitten ever since.

What's going on here? I did not keep a record of serial numbers so I don't know if they simply returned my old unit because they could find anything wrong with it or mistakenly shipped me a bad unit. But if they returned my old unit they didn't ask for the $25 bucks.

Is it possible one of the cables is bad? But the power supply worked fine for a couple of months - since last October up until early January.

Am I doing something wrong here? I don't get it. Has this kind of thing happened to anyone else out there?

I'll be on the phone early Monday to see if I can make heads or tails of this.
 
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The update doesn't seem to be much of an update; just a repost of an update that has already been posted 😉
 
No one gave any feedback as to such a thing happening to them - or what remedies were available to them - so I thought I would try and move it up in the OP list and see if this kind of thing happens often - you RMA an item and get back a non-functioning replacement.

So have you encountered this? A critics hat can come down over your eyes and you miss the issue at hand.

p.s.- the duplication stems from my messed up efforts to copy my update into a new posting
 
You need to test things one at a time.

First, remove EVERYTHING non-essential from the computer. Leave in the motherboard, processor, 1 stick of memory, CPU heatsink, and power supply. Disconnect all hard drives, DVD drives, fans, extra memory, sound cards, etc.

Try connecting the Seasonic as usual and starting the computer up. If it doesn't work, try disconnecting the Seasonic from the computer, and jumping the main connector to try to start it by itself (remember, the fan on these things does not start until it gets hot, so use a DMM or attach a fan to a molex connector to verify whether or not the thing is running).

If it STILL will not turn on, you probably have (another?) bad PSU.
 
you RMA an item and get back a non-functioning replacement.

This happened to me with a PCP&C unit. I bumped my case, saw sparks and it shutdown. Wouldn't turn on, determined the PSU wasn't working so I did an RMA (not sure if the board fried). They sent it back (untouched), I hooked it up and got a stable boot. I gave the power supply a little whack, it sparked and the system shutdown. Turns out there was just a loose coil inside that was coming in and out of contact with something. As long as it was in the right place it would work. I told PCP&C about this, did another RMA, didn't want to wait another 2+ weeks so I ordered the 650TX, tested the returned unit and it seems fine. Now it sits in my closet as a backup.

The end.
 
ATX connector (560mm)
20+4 pin​
4 pin ATX12V connector (570mm)
1​
8 pin EPS12V connector (570mm)
2​
SATA (350mm+150mm)
2​
SATA (440mm+150mm+150mm)
3​
SATA (540mm+150mm+150mm)
3​
5.25" Drive (350mm+150mm)
2​
5.25" Drive (440mm+150mm+150mm)
3​
5.25" Drive (540mm+150mm+150mm)
3​
3.5" Drive (150mm 5.25-3.5" adaptor)
2​
6+2 PCIe (580mm)
4

 
You ought to just get one of these for testing:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PC-ATX-PSU-SA...170062&cguid=f79a86c912d0a47a2f36f356ffdcc985

It's better to have a full bench to test every component but is MUCH more expensive! 😉
Seriously though, how do you know another part of your pc is not broken?


You need to test things one at a time.

First, remove EVERYTHING non-essential from the computer. Leave in the motherboard, processor, 1 stick of memory, CPU heatsink, and power supply. Disconnect all hard drives, DVD drives, fans, extra memory, sound cards, etc.

Try connecting the Seasonic as usual and starting the computer up. If it doesn't work, try disconnecting the Seasonic from the computer, and jumping the main connector to try to start it by itself (remember, the fan on these things does not start until it gets hot, so use a DMM or attach a fan to a molex connector to verify whether or not the thing is running). Get the right pins! :ninja: - Peter
If it STILL will not turn on, you probably have (another?) bad PSU.

Exactly.

mkxhy8.gif


Also check the fuse for the PSU supply cord.
 
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I e-mailed Seasonic about the failed RMA replacement and without a single question they popped another into shipping and sent me a UPS label to return the non-working replacement. Replacement #2 is scheduled for delivery on Monday or Tuesday.

Maybe they know something I don't but they sure are being good to me. I will soon have two of their PSU's and their faith that I will return the non-functioning one. Maybe someone in shipping /receiving discovered they had sent out a bad PSU by mistake and they didn't know who they sent it to. My e-mail answered that question and they promptly sent a good unit (I hope).

For the person asking about the cables - I have all of them and did not as Seasonic requested send them with the original RMA. I did for a few seconds ask myself if it were possible I had a bad cable - but the original unit worked with those cables for more than 3 months.

And - - - - the PSU exhibited the same bad behavior when popped into my wife's almost ready new unit.

Kudos for Seasonic. They sent the original replacement promptly and are taking the high road in getting a good unit to me.
 
Kudos for Seasonic. They sent the original replacement promptly and are taking the high road in getting a good unit to me.

Nice to know! 🙂
If it still doesn't work in another machine that's a pretty good hint too (as long as the other machine works!)
 
Installed the second seasonic RMA replacement (sent the original off by the UPS guy when he delivered second PSU). Everything working fine now for two or three days.

It seems odd to me that I haven't seen one piece of paperwork from Seasonic since filing for the original RMA on-line. The first RMA replacement came in a plain box the unit inside a UPS shipping envelope in the box with peanuts. No paperwork. E-mailed them about the replacement unit failure - they e-mailed sending a new unit and instructions for printing out their UPS mailing label to send back the failed unit's failed replacement. The second unit arrived just like the first - plain box, stuffed in a UPS mailing (padded) envelope with peanuts. No paperwork of any kind.

They never notified me they had received the first unit. Heard nothing until they advised me the replacement had been shipped and gave me a UPS tracking number. All be email and from UPS.

I imagine they are keeping records of units received and their status, what was shipped and to whom - but it just seems odd that they don't appear to give the customer any feedback at all as to unit and unit serial number etc.
 
i don't think i've gotten much paperwork when getting RMA parts back. certainly didn't get any from biostar when i RMA'd a motherboard a month or so ago. only paperwork i remember is an RMA on a seiko kinetic watch - it said that my watch was working 'within spec' (a complete fabrication) but they replaced the movement anyway 🙄

oh when my canon SLR went bad they sent papers saying they'd replaced the shutter and box, but then that was a paid repair.
 
The quality PSU brands take the units back quickly no questions ask. I know of Corsair. In their forums they ask the person to try one thing if it doesnt solve they issue they say straight return it and theyre fast to send out a new one. Great to see Seasonic keep their quality service up.
 
Forgot about this thread. Nice to see that Seasonic still has great service. They were probably the first to implement 120mm fans in PSU's years ago. I bought 6 of them and they all made a tick noise and would power down almost immediately. They acknowledged they had component supply issues (turned out to be some combination of fan/temp sensor) with my PSU revision and advanced replaced all 6 of them.
 
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