Delux ATX-450W P4 - rebuild

[Dan81]

Another PSU I have on the rebuild list.

This one I got along with a few other stuff (a Allied AL-8400BTX that I also need to fix, a ASRock K7VT4A with all the cables and a Matsonic MS8137C+) for cheap.

For start, there was dirt. I mean a ton of dirt. Then,there was a cheap seized fan that vibrated like hell. Input filtering? What's that? Output filtering? Nope.

Caps inside were NCD for the primaries and the secondary was full of BH.

Fast forward to today, I bought a pretty new system (G31,Pentium E5300,1GB RAM,160GB HDD, Intel iGPU) and it came with the exact same PSU,except that one wasn't working - for some reason it wouldn't provide 12v yet all the caps are fine.

Knowing that a E5300 isn't that tame (not surprised that the PCB inside the PSU from the case was darkened),I dug out the following:

-my trusty 60W soldering iron
-a cup of rosin core
-1mm thick solder wire
-some old Deer PCB that I scrapped due to peeling traces
-a pack of used caps that still tested good from my parts box
-an ERL-35 transformer I desoldered out of a burnt to kingdom come Kaisen

...and began work. For first, I replaced the main transformer (an sorry excuse of a EI-33 transformer) with the ERL-35 from the Kaisen. Thankfully, only one trace peeled a bit but I fixed that with quite a lot of solder (neatly laid so I don't short stuff). Then, I replaced the fan with a clear 80mm Raidmax fan (which is also pretty silent ). Then, I recapped the secondary. I used a few G-Luxons and one lone DON cap (that tested good) I had on hand from a Deer I recapped.

All in all, I turned what looked like a gutless wonder in something that could power a 12v system safely. There's still some stuff to do: replace the input transistors with 13009s ( I have some in TO247 package but need to test them for shorts), maybe balance the output rectifiers (20A for 3.3 and 5v, and 16A for 12v) and beef up the input caps.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Delux ATX-450W P4 - rebuild

Pulling bad caps to replace with more bad caps would not be what I would call a rebuild IMO.

[Dan81]

Re: Delux ATX-450W P4 - rebuild

Pulling bad caps to replace with more bad caps would not be what I would call a rebuild IMO.

The only choices I had would be either using Samwha RD (which is GP,and to top that they don't fit because of their huge diameter (12.5mm) or using polymer caps from motherboards,which isn't okay either. That's why I chose to reuse whatever caps I had on hand.

[momaka]

Re: Delux ATX-450W P4 - rebuild

All of that work and no pictures?

Pulling bad caps to replace with more bad caps would not be what I would call a rebuild IMO.

True. But then again, some PSUs aren't really worth to have quality components installed in them. So I can understand why Dan81 did it that way.

That said, when I rebuild something that I know will use heavily and wouldn't want to take apart again, I'd invest in better components. I re-use crappy caps only for testing - i.e. when I get a PSU or video card from eBay with completely bloated caps and just want to make sure the card works before I use good caps on it. Once I verify that it works and it is a worthwhile product, I'll use nothing less than Japanese caps on it.

[Dan81]

Re: Delux ATX-450W P4 - rebuild

Sure, here are some pics of both Delux units. The one with the original transformer was moved in a Spire/YueLin casing from an ultra gutless (more gutless than the lowest L&C ) YueLin that died (it didn't even have PI coils on the secondary,and the fuse was ridiculously tiny) so don't mind the 500W markings on it.

Excuse the mediocre (or even poor) quality of the pictures - for some reason my S3's rear camera won't work anymore and I have to use some crappy i-iNN phone full of viruses. (I turned off WiFi on it and uset Bluetooth to get the pictures on my S3 to then upload them here)

[momaka]

Re: Delux ATX-450W P4 - rebuild

Not that bad, considering how gutless some of these PSUs can be. The place where I work now use to use crappy HEC and AcBel PSUs for their in-house branded computers. These PSU were actually worse than what you posted above... and they often powered PCs with Core 2 Duo/Quad in them. I actually have two that I want to take pictures of, but keep forgetting. One has a well-cooked choke. The other has busted caps everywhere. And a third one had a seized fan and... well, no need to explain what happened to that one.

By the way, also remind me to look for a cheap P&S camera for you the next time I visit a thrift shop or eBay. An older gen digital camera like the Cannon PowerShot A55 can often be bought for less than $10 shipped. And a camera like that will take much better pictures. Heck, I'm using a 15-year old PowerShot A20 (2.1 MP), and it still takes good photos with a bit of patience.

[Dan81]

Re: Delux ATX-450W P4 - rebuild

Not that bad, considering how gutless some of these PSUs can be. The place where I work now use to use crappy HEC and AcBel PSUs for their in-house branded computers. These PSU were actually worse than what you posted above... and they often powered PCs with Core 2 Duo/Quad in them. I actually have two that I want to take pictures of, but keep forgetting. One has a well-cooked choke. The other has busted caps everywhere. And a third one had a seized fan and... well, no need to explain what happened to that one.

I should have taken a photo of the dead Kaisen's secondary choke. It was nearly pitch black from the burn.

Also,the casing it came with is corroded,though I have no idea why. Maybe spraying it black will make it look better.

Wish I'd be able to use the Kaisen's heatsinks though. They were twice as thick than the ones in this Delux.

By the way, also remind me to look for a cheap P&S camera for you the next time I visit a thrift shop or eBay. An older gen digital camera like the Cannon PowerShot A55 can often be bought for less than $10 shipped. And a camera like that will take much better pictures. Heck, I'm using a 15-year old PowerShot A20 (2.1 MP), and it still takes good photos with a bit of patience.

I'll actually try to fix my S3's camera. It's much better than that i-INN cheap camera (believe me, as much as I'd try to focus that thing it still comes out like crap.) and it's 8MP, so larger resolution pics.

I tracked down the problem to be software based,even though I run the stock firmware. I'll look into backing up most of my software (including system partitions like /data and /system, so I can restore my software and settings)then doing a factory reset and see if that fixes it.

If not, then back-to-noot (LTE port for the standard S3) it is

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Delux ATX-450W P4 - rebuild

Just a reminder, when an output inductor with a powdered iron core goes bad due to overheating, the core's magnetic properties have probably been damaged. Don't try to rewind the inductor on the old core.