PC Power supplies trip circuit breaker
PC power supplies (PSUs) have been a common source of hardware
failures in our experience. But in 2018 we experienced a new variant
of this problem: Power supplies that failed and tripped the circuit
breaker, resulting in downtimes for all machines on the same circuit.
The following PSUs were involved:
- Bequiet BQT S6-SYS-UA 550W (twice)
- We have two identical machines (with a Xeon E3-1220) from
2012. In 2018 first one of these failed, with the end result
being a dead PSU and a tripped circuit breaker. Half a year
later, the same happened with the other machine.
- Bequiet BQT-E6 400W
- On a machine from ~2005 (with an Athlon 64 X2 4600+), we
originally had a different PSU, which failed at some unknown time
without further ado. We replaced it with the BQT-E6 400W, which
we had in storage. In 2018, the machine failed; we found it with
the PSU off. When we attempted to turn the machine on, it tripped
the circuit breaker. The PSU was subsequently found to be dead.
From the looks of the PSU, it had been in use only for a short
time (but this model was first on sale in 2008, so we probably
bought it long ago).
You may wonder whether the exclusive mention of Bequiet PSUs above is
due to us having only Bequiet PSUs. The anser is "no". We have a
number of different PSU makes.
Anton Ertl