SOLVED Supermicro and Seasonic - diagnosing bad power supply?

[paredaks]

New build (and builder) here. Put together a Supermicro X11SSM-F and Seasonic X-750. With just the power supply, board, 2 fans, cpu and memory things went fine. POST'ed, BIOS fine, memtest fine. Was able to install Freenas without a problem.

Plugged in 6 WD Red drives - nothing. I hear a 'click', the 2 Case and CPU fans get a quick turn and then nothing. IPMI is still ok - after a 45 second or so timeout error 'Performing power action failed. Please check The [sic] feature connector cables.'

Debug testing included:

A: Fewer hard drives connected
B: Zero hard drives connected
C: Zero case fans connected (Motherboard and CPU power only)
D: Swapping for known good power supply (Corsair RMX1000)

A and B continued fail. C intermittent success and fail. D success.

It does appear to be getting worse. I can no longer get the board to boot with any peripherals attached - not even getting the 'click'. With just the motherboard and cpu power it is successful. The substitute power supply is always successful.

Does this mean bad power supply? Am I missing something in the BIOS that I should be checking? RMA and return/replace is, as we all know, a hassle.

Thanks all.
-thomas

 

[Nick2253]

If you can swap your questionable PSU with a good PSU, and the system boots as expected with a full load, then I'd say the only conclusion is a bad PSU.

 

[ChriZ]

Your motherboard is inside a case, or on a test bench?[sic]
If it is inside a case, I would first make an attempt on a test bench before jumping to conclusions about a bad PSU.

 

[wblock]

Test case D seems pretty conclusive. Worth trying different modular cables if you have extras, just mark them before swapping and only swap one at a time.

 

[paredaks]

I don't have a test bench, unfortunately. I did swap out cables from the alternate power supply. Talked to Supermicro, for what they can deduce over the phone and based on my experience they point the finger at the PSU as well.

Sending it back today, getting an alternate choice. Fingers crossed it's not some newbie mistake on my part and they declare it a-ok. We're not talking a lot of money, but if nothing else would like the confidence of my 'skills' in building a solid and reliable machine.

 

[Ericloewe]

If it is inside a case, I would first make an attempt on a test bench before jumping to conclusions about a bad PSU.

Agreed.

 

[Ericloewe]

I don't have a test bench, unfortunately. I did swap out cables from the alternate power supply. Talked to Supermicro, for what they can deduce over the phone and based on my experience they point the finger at the PSU as well.

Sending it back today, getting an alternate choice. Fingers crossed it's not some newbie mistake on my part and they declare it a-ok. We're not talking a lot of money, but if nothing else would like the confidence of my 'skills' in building a solid and reliable machine.

Just put it on some surface, on top of the static shield bag.

 

[paredaks]

Just put it on some surface, on top of the static shield bag.

Hmmmm, it's boxed up but won't make it to ship it out till after the kid's nap. I'll break it out and give that a shot. What am I considering - that the case might be shorting something out? How might being in a case cause issues of this sort?

 

[Ericloewe]

that the case might be shorting something out?

Yeah.

How might being in a case cause issues of this sort?

It's not beyond the realm of possibility. It could be something like the PCH deactivating the SATA controller if the PHY doesn't detect any drives, masking a short circuit until it's activated.

Or, more simply, the physical insertion of the drives/drive cables may have nudged something just enough to short out.

Basically, it's an easy thing to check that can save significant future pain.

 

[paredaks]

Ok, set up outside the case - same problem. Boots with just motherboard+cpu, anything else fails. Replacement PSU is already here, installed, and works just fine. RMA it is.

Thanks for the advice everyone.
-thomas

 

[Jurgen Segaert]

Just put it on some surface, on top of the static shield bag.

Actually, many of the anti-static bags have a conductive coating on the outside. Putting you MB on top of such a bag may short it out, so I would not recommend to do so. Just put on or in the cardboard box instead.

 

[paredaks]

Ok, the fun continues. 2 drives are not firing up - no power. Possible that whatever happened with the PSU knocked them out too? Other 5 drives are fine.

 

[Stux]

Ok, the fun continues. 2 drives are not firing up - no power. Possible that whatever happened with the PSU knocked them out too? Other 5 drives are fine.

Possible. Have you tried each of the drives by themselves on a known good connection? with a known good sata cable to a known good sata port etc?

 

[paredaks]

Stux I did test them out with proven good connections, no good. So RMA them, right?

<sigh>

Turns out the drives were sold by jet.com were OEM, and thus were not under warranty. After some back and forth (about delivering false goods) they refunded my money and I have new drives.

 

[Stux]

Glad it worked out :)

 

[LulaNord]

Hi..i am a new user here. I just assembled a new gaming rig. Runs great, except during Fallout 3 when it will randomly restart in the middle of gameplay. I've read that the PSU has caused this for others , but I'd like to make sure before I go through the RMA nightmare. Is there a way to diagnose this?