Amazon Part Killed My PC!

Jenni_D

interstellaflyer said:

I've bought and installed 3 of these with no issues
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FK28BXX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

[Deleted User]

steveroebuck said:

 The damage is now the system is unsable - it will not remain powered on - sometimes it will be 5 mins others it will be several hours it performs a nonegraceful shutdown no BSOD just like its totally lost power. The expert tested the computer as is and stated that some form of short has occured since the introduction on the PCIe card which has caused internal damage to the PSU with the SATA power connectord and  then onto the PCI Bus and devices conntected to it, especially those sensitive to voltage surges, my gpu survived as it a more higher end one and has the tollerance for these higher voltages.

Oh and I wore an ESD wriststrap crocadile clipped to the bare metal of my case (not painted parts).

TLDR: I'd just swap the PSU and see how it goes from there, less time, cost and stress than trying to make a claim against the manufacturer.

When you said it "failed on the 5v" rail under testing, what do you mean by fail?  What exactly are "these higher voltages" - eg 4.75v - 5.25v is normal, what was the actual voltage reading on the tester as quoted on the expert report? Was the PSU under load when tested or disconnected from the MB?

Also the CPU/RAM/Motherboard that you say have been damaged all use the 12V or 3.3v rail via voltage regulators on the motherboard, these don't use the 5v rail. The 5v rail just feeds peripherals such as fans, HDD's, USB output (in your case via the SATA connector). There is no 5v rail present on the PCI slots - just 3.3v/12v so nothing linking the two. Your expert should have known that.

However a motherboard can command an instant shut down if any of the power rails move significantly out of tolerance, eg if the 5V rail moves significantly above / below the above tolerances.

To be honest it just sounds like your PSU has developed a fault, I can't see how you can say the CPU, RAM and motherboard are damaged when the PC will run for a few hours then suffers a total power outage - that is the classic sign of a PSU problem. 

Was the PSU rated for enough power output to supply everything plus the new PCIe card as well and all the devices plugged into it?

I do wonder if your expert knows what they are talking about. How does the expert know there is a short circuit? Most PC PSU's have short circuit protection and will power down immediately, if not, a short circuit on a power rail that is bad enough to damage a PSU will generate a lot of heat / smoke so is there evidence of that anywhere on the new card that you installed? 

Finally, have all power cables been checked and re-seated? In my experience the most common problem when people open up a PC to install new components is disturbing an existing connection somewhere else in the system.

Neil_Jones

I'd go so far as to suggest that if the system would cost £900 to fix/replace, it should have had a decent power supply in it in the first place, and then this issue (which as the above suggests is probably power related) probably wouldn't have occurred. 

interstellaflyer

Jenni_D said:

interstellaflyer said:

I've bought and installed 3 of these with no issues
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FK28BXX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Currently unavailable.

We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

The point was cheap Chinese product, not current availability 

Jenni_D

interstellaflyer said:

Jenni_D said:

interstellaflyer said:

I've bought and installed 3 of these with no issues
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FK28BXX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Currently unavailable.

We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

The point was cheap Chinese product, not current availability 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SupaGeek-Expansion-Expanding-Internal-Connector/dp/B07FK1TMZ5/

Very similar device to your recommendation - same brand. Also a Chinese company, so how is anyone supposed to differentiate between the "good" and "bad" Chinese companies?

forgotmyname

Jenni_D said:

Very similar device to your recommendation - same brand. Also a Chinese company, so how is anyone supposed to differentiate between the "good" and "bad" Chinese companies?

Not exactly a bad company its a seller than probably sources from several outlets so its pot luck on what you actually receive.

I order quite a few small electronic items from China and they can vary even in the same batch.  One batch of voltage dropper
where some had LEDs and some did not. This was a single order from supposedly the same item. No issues for my uses but
for some items buyers would need to take more care.

Its its an important item then buying a proper branded item from a large company is the way to go, often you pay a substantial
premium for that though.