Corsair 1200w...smelling like burning plastic + GPU "power" light flashing

Domingo

Domingo

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Jul 30, 2004
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I think my PSU is on its way out. Everything is still working fine, but whenever I play anything intensive (like Baldur's Gate 3), my PSU starts to smell like burning plastic. This just started yesterday, Temps are fine and it's not powering down or anything like that, but the power light on my 4090 starts blinking like mad (my case window actually came in handy!) and that smell kicks in. I looked all over my other equipment and everything else seems fine. Plus, that smell seems to be coming straight from the PSU itself. The light started blinking about a week ago (I assumed it was an RGB thing), but that smell is new.

What's the RMA process like? I know Corsair is good for this sort of thing, but I can't exactly do without a PC for a month.
 
At this point I'm gonna need something ASAP, so I'm heading to Microcenter once they open. I'm not expecting miracles, but I figure I'll see if Corsair is willing to comp me or something.
 
Can it be that melting GPU power plug thing that was all the rage?

Or was that remedied/recalled/whatever?
 
pendragon1 said:
if the gpu end looks ok it could be the psu end is loose. if thats where the smell is coming from...
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Tried that. Unplugged and re-plugged both sides repeatedly. Looked for all the telltale 4090 melting cable stuff and nada. The cables don't seem to have that odor (or any damage) necessarily, either. The smell seems to be coming from the guts of the PSU, but I do feel pretty confident all of this is related to the GPU. That smell only fires up in games that push the GPU pretty hard.
 
Stinky plastic on one particular hi-current lead but maintaining stability and no abnormal GPU temps tell me its probably a silly QA issue with the lead, but inside the PSU casing.
Dayum shame, because it might be totally fixable.
Pushing more air through it might slow the inevitable failure down, or cause a fire.
I never thought I'd recommend this, but you might need to downclock your GPU (via power limit) ASAP.
 
New PSU acquired. No more burning plastic smell or GPU lights. There are some clear plastic shield pieces on the interior of the PSU that have a brownish tint to 'em.
I hit up Corsair with the full details and I'll see what they have to say. I mentioned that I planned to replace it with one of their newer "shift" PSU's, so if they can send me a replacement, I'll just return that to Microcenter and call it good.

EDIT: I was using one of the single-cable 4090 cables that Corsair sells for their older PSU's. The damn thing won't come out of the PSU. It's tough to tell, but I think it might have melted a little and it's wedged in there permanently.
 
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Domingo said:
New PSU acquired. No more burning plastic smell or GPU lights. There are some clear plastic shield pieces on the interior of the PSU that have a brownish tint to 'em.
I hit up Corsair with the full details and I'll see what they have to say. I mentioned that I planned to replace it with one of their newer "shift" PSU's, so if they can send me a replacement, I'll just return that to Microcenter and call it good.

EDIT: I was using one of the single-cable 4090 cables that Corsair sells for their older PSU's. The damn thing won't come out of the PSU. It's tough to tell, but I think it might have melted a little and it's wedged in there permanently.
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There used to be a Corsair representative [H]ere, Redbeard IIRC, but I don't see his name pop up when I do @
 
michalrz said:
There used to be a Corsair representative [H]ere, Redbeard IIRC, but I don't see his name pop up when I do @
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I've generally had good experiences with their support team, hence why I bought another Corsair PSU. Thing is, I haven't actually had any issues from anything from them in a while. Hopefully they're still pretty solid. I have receipts for everything, photos, all the stuff in the packaging, etc. I still can't get that 12V cable to budge out of my old PSU. It's either lodged in there deep via a plastic barb or it melted and is part of that PSU from now on.
 
Domingo said:
I still can't get that 12V cable to budge out of my old PSU. It's either lodged in there deep via a plastic barb or it melted and is part of that PSU from now on.
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I think it would be better if you just left it in.
That way, they can do some forensics on WTF happened exactly, and you won't get accused of breaking something if things go South.
 
Welp, it has been 4 days and I've heard absolutely nothing from Corsair. :rolleyes: Glad I didn't wait around for a reply and that PSU prices aren't too bad.
 
Welp, everything has been resolved. Corsair ended up shipping me an RM1200X Shift PSU fully in the original packaging, which I returned to Microcenter. The whole ordeal took about 3 weeks, but I essentially got what I needed. I kinda like the Shift PSU for what it's worth, too.

Their RMA team was slow to respond initially (it took about a week before the replies started coming), but once they were on it, things happened pretty quickly. They sent me shipping labels almost immediately and agreed to send me the Shift PSU as a replacement almost immediately. While the delivery of my PSU to their facility in Georgia took almost a full week, the replacement showed up at my house in 3 days.
 
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