Facing a strange issue with Corsair CX550

[whitestar_999]

I am facing a strange issue with CX550 for past few days. First of all here is my setup/system:
Mains power-->pure sine wave inverter(1400VA) with battery backup(a few hours)-->simulated sine wave 600VA(360W) UPS-->Desktop(Pentium G620+1050Ti+4HDD+1 usb HDD).

Problem I am facing is that whenever I am playing a video file using madvr which loads gfx card to ~65% & if there is a power cut then system just shuts down along with long constant beep from UPS. This issue does not happen if system is not playing a video file using madvr(aka very low gfx card usage).This issue also does not happen if I remove UPS & directly connect the system to pure sine wave inverter.

I just want to know the reason behind this strange behavior before deciding to buy a new ups in future as pure sine wave ups are much costlier here compared to simulated sine wave ups.

Update: I tried manually turning off the inverter power supply to the UPS while system was playing a video file with madvr in full screen & system shuts down completely along with long constant UPS beep indicating my 600VA UPS is unable to provide required power to system.How can this be as 1050Ti is 75W TDP card & coupled with an ancient Pentium G620 processor even assuming 80% cpu load & 90% gfx card load,a 600VA ups should be able to provide necessary power(it is around 14 months old)?With this same setup I never had such issue while using an old FSP Saga II 400W psu.

[ashiekh]

Problem I am facing is that whenever I am playing a video file using madvr which loads gfx card to ~65% & if there is a power cut then system just shuts down along with long constant beep from UPS.

Seems to me the issue is with the low power UPS and not simulated/pure sine wave; the battery may be old (360W at 12V means 30A)

[whitestar_999]

Yes,I understand but this same setup was working perfectly for last 1 year & it even ran fine for a few days with CX550(earlier it was FSP Saga II 400W psu) so why so suddenly the power load has become a factor now. The total power load of my system with merely a Pentium G620 & 1050Ti should not even reach 300W under heavy usage.As I understand battery of a UPS gradually loses its capacity over time but just 3-4 days ago everything was fine. I suspect it has more to do with power draw of active PFC psu like CX550 during switchover irrespective of actual system power load(in which case buying a new 600VA UPS too will have same issue).

[ashiekh]

Yes, one wonders what a PFC circuit does on a rectangular wave input; either way lead acid batteries don't last long, especially if you are pulling 30A from a small unit. If your computer is 300W with an 80% efficiency power supply, it is drawing 375W, and even so that is an average, fluctuations could still trigger the UPS; a 360W unit is probably too small.

[whitestar_999]

But that's the point, my pc is not 300W.All the power consumption reviews of 1050Ti gave total system load of ~142W for a core i7 system with 1050Ti.I still find it hard to believe that my 600VA UPS batteries have deteriorated so much in 14months to not even able to provide 5sec backup(remember I have inverter battery backup for mains so in reality I only need a few milliseconds for successful changeover from UPS batteries to inverter backup power).

[ashiekh]

What are temperatures like out there?

http://www.power-thru.com/documents/...te%20Paper.pdf

"
An increase of 8.3°C (15°F) can reduce lead-acid battery life by 50% or more.
"

In hot climates car batteries can last 2 years
https://www.yelp.com/topic/phoenix-c...bout-two-years

[Jon Gerow]

I still find it hard to believe that my 600VA UPS batteries have deteriorated so much in 14months to not even able to provide 5sec backup(remember I have inverter battery backup for mains so in reality I only need a few milliseconds for successful changeover from UPS batteries to inverter backup power).

Believe it. When those batteries start to die, they do so at a spectacular rate.

The FSP worked. You put in the CX and it worked fine for a while. Now the PC shuts down with a UPS alarm. This doesn't happen when the PC is plugged directly into the wall.

Do you still have the FSP?

I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the UPS and/or it's batteries are dead/dying.

For the record: What kind of UPS is it?

[whitestar_999]

Believe it. When those batteries start to die, they do so at a spectacular rate.

The FSP worked. You put in the CX and it worked fine for a while. Now the PC shuts down with a UPS alarm. This doesn't happen when the PC is plugged directly into the wall.

Do you still have the FSP?

I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the UPS and/or it's batteries are dead/dying.

For the record: What kind of UPS is it?

I still have the FSP & UPS is a generic simulated sine wave ups with nothing worth mentioning(aka it is not APC/Cyberpower etc).

I reinstalled FPS saga II 400W psu & redid the testing & everything works fine with this psu.Same setup & same system playing same video file using same gfx card usage & I manually turned off the inverter/mains power to UPS results in no issues with UPS able to provide backup to system(I tested for around 30 seconds).Next I tried manually turning off/on the inverter/mains power to UPS within a second to simulate switchover & again no issues.Both these tests done with CX550 resulted in sudden shutdown of the system.

In light of above one thing is for certain,CX550 is drawing much more power than FSP 400W for same system with same setup under heavy usage of gfx card scenario while under low load scenario it behaves almost same as FSP 400W psu.

[Jon Gerow]

In light of above one thing is for certain,CX550 is drawing much more power than FSP 400W for same system with same setup under heavy usage...

How do you figure? Because of the UPS issue or do you actually have a meter measuring the power under load?

Another issue could be the PSU's hold up time. If it's a cheap UPS with a longer than one cycle switch over time, the CX550 PSU may not be able to hold up as long as the FSP, causing it to shur down during the switch over.

Certainly doesn't explain why it worked initially.

[whitestar_999]

How do you figure? Because of the UPS issue or do you actually have a meter measuring the power under load?

Another issue could be the PSU's hold up time. If it's a cheap UPS with a longer than one cycle switch over time, the CX550 PSU may not be able to hold up as long as the FSP, causing it to shur down during the switch over.

Certainly doesn't explain why it worked initially.

Just guessing based on UPS ability to provide backup for system with FPS psu.

If it is related to PSU hold up time then how come it works under low load condition,does hold up time varies with the load on psu. Also I have used this same system & setup with CX550 playing video on it during a power cut & subsequent switchover about a week back & there were no issues.

The thing is I don't want to spend on a new 600VA APC UPS only to find out that it too doesn't work with CX550.Is it possible that CX550 activePFC make it draw more power than actually required resulting in some "deterioration" of its holdup capacity during initial days of its working when it somehow managed with my 360W UPS but now its "deteriorated" holdup capacity is unable to keep up with UPS?

P.S. There are also some regular voltage fluctuations in my mains power supply but I assume pure sine wave inverter takes care of that. Still is it possible that these fluctuations might have damaged something inside CX550 to reduce its holdup capacity.