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AX860i Issue - has this been fixed


Erinon

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I inquired and Corsair has indicated that a new PSU will be shipped early next week to me and I should see it in hand a week later.

 

I have used Corsair for quite some time, I have generally been happy but sadly a dud does pop up one in a while. At least Corsair has excellent customer service.

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  • Corsair Employee
I inquired and Corsair has indicated that a new PSU will be shipped early next week to me and I should see it in hand a week later.

 

I have used Corsair for quite some time, I have generally been happy but sadly a dud does pop up one in a while. At least Corsair has excellent customer service.

 

We're happy to help! Glad to hear you're being taken care of! :):

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as expected an HX1000i but it is not being recognized by iCue or Link

 

the existing link cable did not work but there was a USB cable in the bundle that allowed the PSU to be monitored

 

now with 1000W the level of overkill is even worse as power consumption falls

Edited by Vegan
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Hi NMD,

There are two parts to this. The base case for the issue stems from how much pressure is applied to the connections on the modular cable PCB on the PSU, whether that’s when the connectors are being plugged/unplugged or how tightly they’re being tied together for cable management. Essentially, if enough pressure is applied, it can cause the PCB to flex, which leads to the second part of the issue. In some situations, the flex can cause a surface mount ceramic capacitor (MLCC) solder joint to come undone. This means that if the PCB is not physically strained causing it to flex, the capacitor makes contact and works exactly as intended, which is the vast majority of units. But if there is excessive thermal buildup AND the capacitor is flexed off the solder joint due to physical pressure, the issue may present itself as intermittent reboots and/or shutdowns. This intermittent scenario makes it difficult to reproduce or narrow the issue down. However, because some folks are experiencing this issue with the PSU, we want to rectify it, no pun intended. This is also why there are many, many AX860i units out in the wild that work without issue.

 

I wonder if the small case length was in part responsible for the screw damage in addition to the strength of the cable assemble board.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just to add my little stone.

I had 2 860i units replaced by Corsair since they had the (shut)down syndrome.

 

of these two replaced units,

One sits in a X79 system now (with an SLI) that draws about 650w and it is the happy part of my story : all works well.

 

The other one sat on a shelf for a while and I recently installed it in an all new system (Z370) and it has given me a shut down out of nowhere already.

That is about 1 week after first use.

The system is not overheating at all, cpu, gpu and VRMS are at about 50% of their tmax under full load. MAX!

 

I was watching youtube (not a big deal for a 8600k and a gtx980ti) and Poof, it shut down.

I tried to push the power button but nothing worked.

I had to shut down the psu (rear on/off), wait about 15secs and then power it up again for the system to power back up.

 

I will probably send this unit back again.

My question is : is the problem now solved with this black/white 860i's?

 

I have to say the Corsair service is excellent, but I'm tired missing my top notch psus, shipping them and paying for it :)

Regards,

H.

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  • Corsair Employee
Hi,

mine are red and black.

I think I saw that now the range is all black and white, like all other ranges.

previously, HX was blue, AX red, CX green, etc.

 

Ah.. I See...

 

The AXi didn't get a "refresh" like the other lines. There's only the "red and black". If you saw a "black and white" AX, it was a "non i".

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  • 3 weeks later...
Hi NMD,

There are two parts to this. The base case for the issue stems from how much pressure is applied to the connections on the modular cable PCB on the PSU, whether that’s when the connectors are being plugged/unplugged or how tightly they’re being tied together for cable management. Essentially, if enough pressure is applied, it can cause the PCB to flex, which leads to the second part of the issue. In some situations, the flex can cause a surface mount ceramic capacitor (MLCC) solder joint to come undone. This means that if the PCB is not physically strained causing it to flex, the capacitor makes contact and works exactly as intended, which is the vast majority of units. But if there is excessive thermal buildup AND the capacitor is flexed off the solder joint due to physical pressure, the issue may present itself as intermittent reboots and/or shutdowns. This intermittent scenario makes it difficult to reproduce or narrow the issue down. However, because some folks are experiencing this issue with the PSU, we want to rectify it, no pun intended. This is also why there are many, many AX860i units out in the wild that work without issue.

 

Hello,

I was wondering...

 

I was experiencing random reboots with my brand new rig, trying to find where the issue came from, testing my ram, processor, testing all that could be with OCCT, un-pluging and re-pluging everything, re-formating.... And, finaly, i discovered this thread.

 

The joy i feel to finaly discover that the issue come from the PSU is a bit tempered by the explanation given...

 

How is it possible that the "cable management" ( as stated ) could bend the PCB ?????

 

Does 0.5g of pressure from cable management could be sufficient to make such a high-end PSU to malfunction ???

 

I really don't understand how it is, physically speaking, possible...

 

For the record, i didn't do any cable management on my rig btw.

 

Thanks in advance for your answer, i'm just asking because i'm trying and want to understand.:idea:

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...

Seferio,

I can confirm that the brand new 860i that Corsair sent me has failed again after less than a year o f light use. (I play Dota2 and not much else)

The pbroblem is still there and exactly the same : shutdown and then power cycle indefinitely.

I will re-send the unit of Corsair is OK, or loose more than 200€ if not...

DO NOT BUY 860i under any circumstances, I have had 5 units and they ALL failed. The rest is commercial BS.

And I'm not blaming Corsair because I have got about 20 psus from them ranging from 450 to 1200 watts and from SFF to Atx and they work fine. Some are noisy though.

KR

H.

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  • 11 months later...

I stumbled across this issue even in 2021. I recently purchased a AX860i from a dealer in germany. Wich seem to be a refurbished one with some corsair netherland check ok stickers on it. The issue arrise quickly like after 30minutes of use it reboots. As it gets hotter it enter a infinite reboot loop.

 

Just looked through the internet and found out that the issue seem to be "normal" for the AX860i. Wich is sad as i thought after RM , RMI, HXI i now get the top of the line. Funny that this is the first Corsair PSU wich failed on me.

 

I read that it could be too much stress on the connector PCB and a failed mlcc capacitor. Also i read it could be a missing 470k ohm resistor on the PCB wich was added on later revisions.

 

Now the decision should i just return it and look for another PSU type , should i try to fix the MLCC, 470k Issue myself or is it possible to RMA this PSU ?

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  • Corsair Employee
I stumbled across this issue even in 2021. I recently purchased a AX860i from a dealer in germany. Wich seem to be a refurbished one with some corsair netherland check ok stickers on it. The issue arrise quickly like after 30minutes of use it reboots. As it gets hotter it enter a infinite reboot loop.

 

Just looked through the internet and found out that the issue seem to be "normal" for the AX860i. Wich is sad as i thought after RM , RMI, HXI i now get the top of the line. Funny that this is the first Corsair PSU wich failed on me.

 

I read that it could be too much stress on the connector PCB and a failed mlcc capacitor. Also i read it could be a missing 470k ohm resistor on the PCB wich was added on later revisions.

 

Now the decision should i just return it and look for another PSU type , should i try to fix the MLCC, 470k Issue myself or is it possible to RMA this PSU ?

 

If you just purchased it in 2021 then you would have purchased a used unit which does not have a warranty as they are not being produced or refurbished for sale anymore and have been discontinued. I would advise that you process an immediate return of the product with whoever you purchased it from if you are able to.

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If you just purchased it in 2021 then you would have purchased a used unit which does not have a warranty as they are not being produced or refurbished for sale anymore and have been discontinued. I would advise that you process an immediate return of the product with whoever you purchased it from if you are able to.

 

I am surprised as well that any AX860i are out there, Amazon and NewEgg sold out long ago along with every PSU model > 650W

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  • 7 months later...

I bought an AX860i from Ebay and I am NOT looking for a warranty claim - so don't go all defensive 'Corsair Employee' (which you will regardless of what I say) - what I would like to have is an honest answer from Corsair as to what the actual problem(s) were with the 860i in the first place which causes the sudden 'red light' shut downs - I am no stranger to a soldering iron and would be quite happy to solder some better replacement parts into the PSU if only we knew what the problem with these was. Believe me I have looked on the internet a lot in connection with this and the usual answer (from many years ago) was 'RMA' it - well that is not an option here. I have to say my opinion of Corsair products was very good until I bought this PSU but at the moment I would not look twice at them - and I have bought a replacement XFX PSU also from Ebay as the other XFX PSU I own has worked flawlessly for years. Just for pity sake be honest and publish all of the reasons these PSU's failed and had to be returned to you.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • Corsair Employee
On 9/24/2021 at 12:27 PM, Milkydrink said:

I bought an AX860i from Ebay and I am NOT looking for a warranty claim - so don't go all defensive 'Corsair Employee' (which you will regardless of what I say) 

LOL!  "Edgy".  😄  I don't see the point of your first and only post so far to be so aggro.

Also, put yourself in the shoes of whomever you're addressing.  "I would not look twice at Corsair after buying this PSU."  Well shucks.  Looks like we already lost him and any incentive to help him.  😉

Ok... enough of that.  All joking aside.  I thought that the reason for the failures was already revealed, but I could be mistaken.  Maybe it just wasn't here in this forum or it got lost in our old Vb forums.

EDIT: It actually IS discussed above!   I guess you didn't read the whole thread.

The suspect component was (is?) an MLCC on the modular interface that cracks from cable insertion/removal and heat cycles.  Can't recall which MLCC it was because it's been a very long time and it would take a lot of digging to find it again.  You could easily pull the PCB out and look at it under a magnifying glass, though.  Or just replace them all.

It's unfortunate and recently I've found that cracked MLCCs are not an uncommon failure mode for any PSU. 

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There are SMD MLCCs with flexible solder tabs on the sides to alleviate the problem of thermal stress and PCB bowing that could be good replacements.

don't know how commonly available they are but it could be a solution for a home repair

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  • Corsair Employee
20 hours ago, LeDoyen said:

There are SMD MLCCs with flexible solder tabs on the sides to alleviate the problem of thermal stress and PCB bowing that could be good replacements.

don't know how commonly available they are but it could be a solution for a home repair

Yes!

 

In fact, we just put the following mandate in all of our PSU PRDs because of the issues with cracked MLCCs:

 

"MLCC’s located < 2mm from PCB edge or < 3mm from PCB screw hole must be of soft termination type.

 CT and Control Loop circuits must use NPO MLCCs to avoid thermal drift."

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oh i didn't know there were ceramic NP0, always heard about polystyrene.

It's nice to know you use these for voltage control. That explains a bit why they are so stable

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Hi,

I've just repaired one of these power supplies and if its not an issue with one of the output MLCC's failing short circuit on the modular interface then usually it is one of the minor rails which is not working/out of spec.

First check for shorts on all rails (3.3V, 5V, 12V,-12V). If they are ok, then you can usually back feed the PSU with a 12V current limited power supply thereby bypassing the protection. I used one of the 8pin connectors to inject the voltage into. Make sure you get the polarity right or you will blow one or all of the electrolytic caps up! Obviously dont have the PSU plugged in to the mains when you do this.

This will make the fan spin and will generate all the minor rails so you can test them with a multimeter and ensure they are present.

In my case the -12V rail was at fault- no voltage present. The 0.1uF bootstrap capacitor (an MLCC) connected to pin 1 of TPS54231 failed short circuit and took out the step down converter IC itself and also the 4mohm current sense resistor blew open circuit. Replaced these parts and all is good again.

Very rarely seen the primary side fail on these PSUs, usually it's always an MLCC causing the problems from my experience.

 

Hope that helps someone!

PS. Don't go opening PSU's up if you don't know what you're doing! Bulk caps can hold a lethal charge and need to be discharged safely with a resistor.

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  • 1 year later...

Well, resurrecting this from the dead..

Seems that I finally found the source of my issues.. I must have spent last year + troubleshooting this bugging problem. Unfortunately, it occurred so infrequently and whenever I tried something it went away to magically re-appear soon after I thought it was gone that I just lost hope.

Anyway, just sent my email to the support-AX860i@corsair.com hoping to get a decent resolution!

@Corsair Kevinhope you can assist to speed things up if possible, can provide the ticket id.

Ps. Interestingly enough, looking at potential reasons in my case, I don't believe use of too long screws is at all likely, as I have a Obsidian 650D which has a neat mounting bracket so I never used PSU screws at the back of the case as it was mounted so well and secure. Certainly threads look like new!

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