Did Windows 8 just kill my PSU?

Either it did or this is the worst case of bad timing ever.

This computer has been running without issues for quite a long time (a few years). There were no indications whatsoever that anything was wrong. Everything was fine and 100% stable, no weird noises, no crashes, nothing to indicate any problems.

Yesterday, I installed Windows 8. Today, just now, I was playing some Mass Effect 3, and boom, computer shuts off. No warning, no BSOD, just sudden loss of power. At first I thought it was a short blackout or something, but if that were the case, the PC should come back on after power's been restored (it's configured to turn back on automatically after power loss; also, it's connected via a UPS, so that really shouldn't happen).

But it didn't come back on. Pressing the power button did nothing. I checked all the plugs, moved it to a different power socket for good measure, still nothing.

Opening the PC, I see that switching on the PSU has two effects: the motherboard power LED comes on, and all the fans (CPU, GPU, case, and PSU fans) spin for about 1 second (actually, only the CPU fan spins briefly, the others just sort of judder). Then, nothing.

Fortunately, I still have my old PSU (which is an underpowered piece of * that could never run this system reliably, and that was before I upgraded my video card). When hooking up only the primary motherboard power connection, the fans work but nothing else happens. When hooking up the entire system, it now works fine. I just don't think I should play any games since I doubt this old PSU could handle the draw. So, despite not having any money, it looks like I'm going to need a new PSU.

So, is it possible for something Windows 8 did to fry the PSU? Or was this just a horrible coincidence?

Any recommendations for a new, not too expensive but high quality PSU? My current one is an Antec, I was very satisfied with it, never gave me any issues up to the moment it died ten minutes ago. I'll probably get a similar one unless anyone has a better idea.

It gets better. I just found my proof of purchase. It was bought on July 22nd, 2009. Antec offers three year warranty. So it's been out of warranty for less than a month.

Ooh - Sounds like Black and Decker power tools!

Seems it's not always me that these things happen to - Sorry to hear it Sven!

Incidentally, it's likely that between the DVD/HDD drawing down power yesterday, and the GPU drawing today, it's decided that enough is enough. I've had this happen to me before, during an expensive hand of poker on PKR.com - Very GPU hungry application, that one!

/ Crit

Windows 8 can't kill the power supply.  The power supply is supposed to be rated for the maximum draw of all the components at 100% plus some fudge.  Even if Windows 8 did something to peg every component at 100% it wouldn't have toasted the power supply.

Now dust buildup or prior overheating is a different story.  Windows 8 was just a coincidence.

So it sounds like a Sven PSU contribution fund needs to be established.

10 minutes ago, davewill wrote

So it sounds like a Sven PSU contribution fund needs to be established.

Donations welcome. 

That's my paypal donations link for my YouTube channel; total revenue so far: €5. Apparently the other 2847 subscribers are all cheapskates (or just haven't noticed the link).

I hope you don't resort to putting the link all over the video - Does my head in! *Facepalm*!

11 minutes ago, Critical​Point wrote

I hope you don't resort to putting the link all over the video - Does my head in! *Facepalm*!

I did put a discreet 10 second annotation on today's video. I told myself I wasn't going to do something like that, but that was before my PSU died.

Like you I also hate it when videos are plastered with donate, subscribe, like, share, etc. requests.

I think it was just a coincidence. I'm also wondering about the LED and fans coming on for a bit. It almost sounds like the motherboard is shorting out on the case. Maybe too much dust got in there, or a loose screw is underneath?

11 minutes ago, spivonious wrote

I think it was just a coincidence. I'm also wondering about the LED and fans coming on for a bit. It almost sounds like the motherboard is shorting out on the case. Maybe too much dust got in there, or a loose screw is underneath?

Considering it works with the older PSU (which is fine temporarily but I wouldn't want to rely on because it was a piece of crap that caused the system to become very unstable at times), I don't think it was the motherboard.

If I didn't have that older PSU to test with, I would've been reluctant to pin the blame on the PSU, but since I do, I know that has to be it.

@Sven Groot: It'll be fine, just don't type too fast or you'll stress it ...

Herbie

1 hour ago, Sven Groot wrote

*snip*

Donations welcome. 

That's my paypal donations link for my YouTube channel; total revenue so far: €5. Apparently the other 2847 subscribers are all cheapskates (or just haven't noticed the link).

It's amazing how expensive fancy PSU's have become these days. I'm sure donations will come, but since you no longer have a warranty to void, did you consider trying to fix it? The PSU does light up your motherboard, and that's a good sign; the fact that it shuts down can be a glitching component and that may be relatively easy to spot. If you aren't much into DIY electronics and don't know anybody who is, you can always use the "diaper technique" (as in: sniff every component and replace those that smell funny); passive components are literally a dime a dozen and it doesn't take a genius to use a soldering iron. Success is far from guaranteed, but it's fun nonetheless and adds a +5 to your charisma when it works.

@Sven Groot:

I believe if win8 is evil, it will fry your components first because your PSU should be able to provide enough power to fry your components for a long while.

the quality of PSU is not as good as it used to, so, I am more concerned with quality when i read the review on newegg. before that, I didn't pay any attention.

@Sven Groot: I think it was more that your power supply was just out of warranty.  That seems to kill more components than anything else.  I swear that they add kill switches to products to make them fail right after the warranty runs out.  That happened to my fridge.  Warranty runs out and the motherboard magically dies (why a fridge has a motherboard I cannot guess). 

I highly doubt that Win 8 has the ability to fry a PSU.  The BIOS firmware probably could if it tried real hard but not Windows.  I have been running my older home machine that I built on Win 8 for a while now and haven't noticed anything unusual.

The solution is to run W8 without those pesky PSUs... Only tablets can run W8

@JeremyJ:

Which brand was that? I will avoid it.

@magicalclick: I believe it is a GE.  Honestly I have had the fridge for 10 years and it has worked fine.  That motherboard incident was the only problem I had.  Once the repair man replaced it I never had a problem again.

Do they sell piezo-electric keyboards? We'll solve the world's energy crisis.