Post your bad experiences with Antec power supplies here!

[Newbie2]

Hi,

I have been reading the threads here and I have found tons of bad experiences with Antec power supplies. I have an Antec power supply and right now that's running fine because it's only a month old.

Here you can post all your bad experiences with Antec power supplies.

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Haven't had any bad experiences with Antec branded PSU's, but the company that makes most of them for Antec is another story:

Channel Well CWT420-ATX12 (aka Antec pp412x): one year into service the one and only fan failed and it overheated. No immediate damage noticed, so I ran it with the lid off and a 92mm fan pointed down into it. Six months later during a routine dust-out, I spotted 3 bulging Fuhjyyu 1650uf caps. PSU was pulled from service immediately, 5v rail having risen to 5.2v. CWT contacted, they said I could use higher value caps as replacement but I never got around to it.

Channel Well CWT375-ATX12: my best friend's PSU and little brother to the above, has one 80mm and one 92mm fan. One bulging Fuhjyyu cap. Still in service despite my warning to my friend to replace that cap. Not used that often thankfully.

That's about it for them... the others are all doing fine including the 12 year old 235W CWT and 350W Antec Smartpower (OEM CWT350-BD). The ones having Fuhjyyu troubles are 4 and 3.5 years old respectively.

[Cprossu]

I have too many failed Antecs to take pics of / keep track of-

=(

btw, I just am curious if this is a common thing- on every single PSU carrying fuhjjyo caps which has gone bad on me, the telltale sign before looking at the supply has been hearing "chirping" and noise during any kind of cpu usage through the sound card followed by increased system instability.

[AK0R]

Probably due to increased ripple on one or more outputs. 3.3V and/or 5V go directly to PCI slots, so the sound card could be picking it up that way. 12V is usually used for CPU (via VRM and filter caps), so that could indicate bad caps on the motherboard as well. Excess ripple on the power supply outputs places additional strain on motherboard regulators.

[dood]

Originally Posted by Cprossu

I have too many failed Antecs to take pics of / keep track of-

=(

btw, I just am curious if this is a common thing- on every single PSU carrying fuhjjyo caps which has gone bad on me, the telltale sign before looking at the supply has been hearing "chirping" and noise during any kind of cpu usage through the sound card followed by increased system instability.

:O

I have this on my PC at home right now. Using an Antec 350w PSU, and onboard sound. I'll have to check the PSU and see what the status is. I suppose that if I open it, the warranty is void, but it came with the case, so I guess I can't complain too much. I'll just have to get a higher quality PSU soon.

Oh, and I've had two Antec TruePower 350watt PSU's taken out when the Leadtek k7ncr18-d motherboards failed. Scorched the one pin on the ATX connector, both times. Seems like it should've protected itself better, no?

The thread with a pic of the toasted power connector: http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=132

[Rainbow]

It almost looks like the CPU is powered from 12V line but there's no ATX12V connector on the board. If that's true, then it's really bad board design.

[dood]

Can't tell you for sure, but I think the K7NCR18-D has a ATX12v connector on the board. All I can tell you is that I lost two power supplies that way, and both times the board also had rampant bad caps. I figured the board died, and took the PSU with it, but the PSU should've saved itself before it went that far.

Anyway, I decided to check my PSU when I got home, and was disappointed by what I found. First of all, the model of my PSU is the Antec SL300S, so it's the 300W, not 350 as I thought. Opened it up to find the two large Fuhjyyu 680uf caps still intact. "Whew," I thought, as I looked the rest of the PSU over. But alas, my relief was shortlived. Found one Fuhjyyu 4700uf 10v domed and leaking from the top, as well as a smaller Fuhjyyu 820uf cap doing the same thing. This PSU had exhibited no symptoms, except that I notice the other day that I could hear the processor through my headphones when I had the volume turned up. The post above is what made me decide to check it, and I'm glad I did!

So, I replaced it with a Sparkle supply that I had laying around... the only other ATX supply that I have that has the ATX12v connector that I need for my board. Pics to come in the next post...

[jarobi]

I seldom use Antec PSUs, so I reckon I can't relate any horror stories. I had one fail (a 300 watt, forget the model) in a friend's PC in 2001. My dealings with Antec's support were pleasant. I usually use FSP/Sparkle or PC Power&Cooling units.

[dood]

Pictures of the dead caps are down here- http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthr...=7608#post7608

[Newbie2]

Are you planning to replace that Antec SL300S power supply?

I'm currently using an Antec SmartPower SL450 450W PSU, it's very heavy, and when I opened the box I looked through the air vents in the back of it. Darn, Fuhjyyu caps as usual. It's only a month old, so it shouldn't give me any problems now.

[dood]

I am replacing it with a different brand, have a Sparkle in there now, and may stick with Sparkle, but I want a higher wattage.

[Newbie2]

Originally Posted by dood

I am replacing it with a different brand, have a Sparkle in there now, and may stick with Sparkle, but I want a higher wattage.

What is the model and wattage of the Sparkle you have in there right now?

[dood]

It's an ATX-300GT, 300w, obviously. In my system, I have an athlon 2200+, 1gb RAM, 200gb 7200rpm drive, 2x optical drives, geforce 6600GT (requires one 4-pin power connection) AGP, a USB expansion card, and a TV tuner. I'd rather go a bit higher on the wattage for safety margins

[Newbie2]

That Sparkle is also a 300W unit I see, but your system needs more power. What country do you live in?

If you're in the USA, this one looks nice.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817101516


That Sparkle ATX-300GT just looks like a standard average 300W power supply but looks a bit better than that Antec.

[dood]

Tee hee... I am in the US, and that does look like a nice PSU, but the $90 pricetag is a real shocker. I'm thinking something more along the lines of a max of $50... any other suggestions?

Edit- what's that transformer stuck to the lid of the Sparkle in that pic? Mine doesn't have that... Otherwise, it looks about the same, even has the thermal chip mounted to the one heatsink. I do believe that Sparkle makes a good PSU for cheap!

[AK0R]

The transformer is for passive power factor correction (PFC). The purpose is to try to clean up the noise on the incoming AC signal, so that the power supply sees more of a sinusoidal input, and also prevent switching noise from the power supply being imposed on the AC mains. The technology has progressed from unfiltered input, to filtered input (line filter), to passive PFC, and now to active PFC. This seems to be being pushed more in Europe than here in the US, although the utility companies wish more customers would use PFC. There are significant monetary incentives for large commercial customers to use PFC.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by Newbie2

If you're in the USA, this one looks nice.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817101516

Saw a pic of this at a modders forum, well designed but full of those those damn fuhjyuu caps .
I had 4 Antecs running until recently when 2 blew up (all 4 units had fuhyuu's). 1 was repairable and the other used for parts. I replaced caps in the remaining 3 units and they're stable as a rock now. I have 3 other pc's with an allied, aspire and a seasonic (b4 improved caps). All 3 also had fuhjyuu caps. All caps replaced and all stable as a rock.

It's really a crapshoot buying a PSU unit these days as most will have questionable components inside (with the exception of Zippy). Best solution is buy a well designed PSU, rip off the warantee sticker, recap it and let it do what it was meant to do for the next 5 years or more

[Newbie2]

That photo of the ATX-300GT came from a Russian website.

It's true, you won't find nice caps in power supplies unless they are Zippy power supplies.

My old Enermax EG301P-V 300W PSU doesn't have a warranty sticker at all!

That means I can take off the lid, and it's still covered by the warranty!

[Newbie2]

Originally Posted by dood

Tee hee... I am in the US, and that does look like a nice PSU, but the $90 pricetag is a real shocker. I'm thinking something more along the lines of a max of $50... any other suggestions?

Here's a 450W within your budget. That's the only high-wattage power supply with a price lower than $50 U.S. on Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817181107

[Newbie2]

That wasn't the only high-wattage power supply to have a price lower than $50 US. The others were shoddy Powmax power supplies with LED fans and a 400-500W sticker and 300W-350W power supplies.