Coolermaster RS-550-ACLY "working" w/clicking sound.
PSU has been running perfect for like 5 years then today when i turned ON my PC it started to make this clicking noise, i quickly push the PSU switch to OFF position as i don't want to put components at risk, it sounded (to me) like a small electric arc so i pulled PSU out of the case to check what happened.
I opened the PSU and turned it on, the clicking starts immediately, and it's coming from or near the "Transformer" labeled API 21639, i tried to record the sound with my cellphone but don't know why the clicking is inaudible in the recording, i'll try later with a camera, already checked 3.3v, 5v and 12v outputs all of them get correct readings in multimeter, i put some light load on PSU by ataching and old PIII motherboard, CPU and RAM, readings stayed the same, i carefully inspected the unit looking for signs of arcing in the area from where the noise comes but everything seems to be ok, so i darken the room as much as i could and turned it on again to see if there was a visible "arc" but i didn't see anything even with the PCB topside down.
The trasnformer-like must be a PFC coil because there is just one winding and this PSU it's suposedly an Active PFC unit, i ended up removing the PFC coil and all componentes near to it: two film capacitors, the bridge rectifier, primary capacitors and the primary heatsink along with all the "transistors" atached to it, inspected them but no visible signs of spark, burn or arcing were seen.
I removed the "ground shield"?? (i mean the thin copper sheet around the winding conected to ground in PCB) from the PFC coil but again there where no signs that the winding was arcing to the ground shield.
So i was forced to do a fast recap to this PSU and put it into my PC
recap was done using recycled Sanyo, Rubycon,Chemicon and Panasonic units ...I've unplugged 2 of my 3 HDDs, DVD-RW and pulled out my VGA card to use the IGP to minimize the load ...now that i think about it i'm not sure if it is safer to use K-Mex crap or to put back the coolermaster unit even with that noise.
Oh by the way it turned out that the coolermaster PSU is really an AC-Bel ATX-400C-A2SNN PSU
rated at 400W!! 
(see last image) i'm not sure if all the "silicons" are the same but the rest of the components sure are) i get the schematic so if needed i could upload it.
I don't know where it comes or what's causing the clicking noise, so any help, ideas, suggestions or advices are welcome and really apreciated.
I opened the PSU and turned it on, the clicking starts immediately, and it's coming from or near the "Transformer" labeled API 21639, i tried to record the sound with my cellphone but don't know why the clicking is inaudible in the recording, i'll try later with a camera, already checked 3.3v, 5v and 12v outputs all of them get correct readings in multimeter, i put some light load on PSU by ataching and old PIII motherboard, CPU and RAM, readings stayed the same, i carefully inspected the unit looking for signs of arcing in the area from where the noise comes but everything seems to be ok, so i darken the room as much as i could and turned it on again to see if there was a visible "arc" but i didn't see anything even with the PCB topside down.
The trasnformer-like must be a PFC coil because there is just one winding and this PSU it's suposedly an Active PFC unit, i ended up removing the PFC coil and all componentes near to it: two film capacitors, the bridge rectifier, primary capacitors and the primary heatsink along with all the "transistors" atached to it, inspected them but no visible signs of spark, burn or arcing were seen.
I removed the "ground shield"?? (i mean the thin copper sheet around the winding conected to ground in PCB) from the PFC coil but again there where no signs that the winding was arcing to the ground shield.
So i was forced to do a fast recap to this PSU and put it into my PC
recap was done using recycled Sanyo, Rubycon,Chemicon and Panasonic units ...I've unplugged 2 of my 3 HDDs, DVD-RW and pulled out my VGA card to use the IGP to minimize the load ...now that i think about it i'm not sure if it is safer to use K-Mex crap or to put back the coolermaster unit even with that noise.Oh by the way it turned out that the coolermaster PSU is really an AC-Bel ATX-400C-A2SNN PSU
rated at 400W!! (see last image) i'm not sure if all the "silicons" are the same but the rest of the components sure are) i get the schematic so if needed i could upload it.I don't know where it comes or what's causing the clicking noise, so any help, ideas, suggestions or advices are welcome and really apreciated.
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