faulty power supply?

[gonzo0815]

Re: faulty power supply?

Duno, what you mean with cheap, but i would recomend the new Bequiet Straight Power series. I can get those for abouth 50€ for a 400w version. They have A-PFC and should be of good overal quality. If that is to exoensive, i would look for some FSP OEM units, mostly sold at ebay. Any Delta OEM units should be fine too.

[stevo1210]

Re: faulty power supply?

Thanks Per Hansson and gonzo0815 for the advice,

I was wondering if Dell power supply units are good.

I can get them here for about $10 - $15 second hand from some people i know.... they come from damaged computers with dead mainboards etc.

I have used a few of them before and they are very very quiet noise wise.... im just guessing the quality is quite OK since it is a Dell OEM.

Anyone got any opinions on Dell products?

Thanks.

[linuxguru]

Re: faulty power supply?

If they're Hipro OEM, they'll be OK after recapping - most of these will have vented Asiacon and Arcon caps on the secondary rails.

[stevo1210]

Re: faulty power supply?

Thanks linuxguru for the quick response,

Is there some way i can tell if they are Hipro OEM etc.?

I was wondering since I bought a Dell one for another PC a while back and it had small Ltec caps in it and two big Nichicon caps, as i could see through the vents, but it is still running fine and i havent bothered to recap it since the caps will probably cost more than the $10 the PSU itself cost.

Thanks.

[linuxguru]

Re: faulty power supply?

I haven't seen an LTEC failure yet, and they're used even by Tier 1 OEMs like AcBel, so I guess the PSU will be OK. However, for added insurance, I generally recap a used PSU before use, except Delta OEM PSUs.

Delta and AcBel OEM PSUs will be badged accordingly. Hipro is sometimes not badged, but will have a FRU number beginning with HPxx. Sometimes, there will be a custom analog ASIC PWM controller inside Hipro PSUs, with a part number like HP1001 or similar.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: faulty power supply?

Dell is one of Delta's biggest customers, or at least was '98-01 when I was with Delta. Delta had an office - marketing and tech support - near Dell just to service that account.

[Galvanized]

Re: faulty power supply?

Here is a list of UL numbers that indicate the PSU's OEM. It might be of some help.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/SMPS_UL.htm

[stevo1210]

Re: faulty power supply?

I gave up on that Deer power supply.... it's probably too crap to even fix up.

Instead i purchased a second hand Dell 250W power supply. It's been running flawlessly so far and best of all i cant even hear the fan running.... i can see it spin but i can't hear it, which is great....


Thank You everyone for the tips so far.

[stevo1210]

Re: faulty power supply?

Hello Everyone,

I've been using this Dell PSU for the past month on my Pentium III system, then the other day I upgraded the motherboard, CPU and RAM.... only to find that the PC will not start up. I decided to open up the PSU since all this equipment worked when I used my Deer rebranded PSU.

If they're Hipro OEM, they'll be OK after recapping - most of these will have vented Asiacon and Arcon caps on the secondary rails.

You're right, linuxguru, it is a Hipro OEM unit.... and I actually found bulging and leaking Arcon caps in the PSU.... they were 3300uf 10V 12.5mm caps. I have some Hitano EXR series 3300uf 10V caps ready here for recapping but the only problem are the two Panasonic 250V 470uf caps.... Does anyone have any ideas to discharge these caps so I can work safely when recapping this PSU??

Thanks.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: faulty power supply?

Chances are that, if you unplugged the P/S before opening it, the caps were discharged before you got it open. If you see two 1W or 2W resistors near those two 250V lytics, those are what discharged the caps, and if you want to be really careful, you can measure the voltage across them. It should be ~0V within a minute or two after the P/S is unplugged.

[linuxguru]

Re: faulty power supply?

>it is a Hipro OEM unit.... and I actually found bulging and leaking Arcon caps in the PSU.... they were 3300uf 10V 12.5mm caps. I have some Hitano EXR series 3300uf 10V caps ready here for recapping

Nichicon PW(M) or NCC LXZ 3300uF/10v/12.5mm are near perfect lifetime replacements for the +5v and +3.3v rails. I found Nichicon PW(M) 3300uF/16v/12.5mm and NCC LXF 2200uF/16v/12.5mm for the +12v rail. In a pinch, you can use the Panasonic FF 2200uF/16v/12.5mm for the +12v rail. You can also use a Panasonic FJ 1800uF/16v/10mm or an NCC 1500uF/16v/10mm for the +12v rail in one of the locations which has a 10mm footprint.

>but the only problem are the two Panasonic 250V 470uf caps.... Does anyone have any ideas to discharge these caps so I can work safely when recapping this PSU??

They should discharge in-circuit in a minute or less, provided the discharge resistors next to them are intact. You can use a 10k, 5W wirewound resistor with the leads bent suitably to discharge each cap in turn, if you're not sure. The RC time constant is ~5 secs, so about 30 secs should be enough to discharge it to a safe voltage.

[stevo1210]

Re: faulty power supply?

Thanks linuxguru and PeteS in CA for the cap discharge advice, now I know that it will be safe for me to poke around in there. Next to the two 250V caps I can see two resistors.... they probably discharge the caps maybe.

Here are some images of the Arcon caps if that helps at all.


Thanks.

[stevo1210]

Re: faulty power supply?

I have another PSU, also a DEER "P4 400W" one. This one on the other hand has only a 20 pin ATX connection.
Only problem is that it has all badcaps inside it. The badcaps are 1500uf 10V 8mm caps with a saturn logo on them.
The rest of the caps in there are Jun-Fu and Canicon, The Jun Fu is a 2200uf 16V cap and is also bulging and leaking too.
Due to badcaps, this PSU also took out an Intel ICH5 southbridge on a Gigabyte GA-8i848P motherboard.

I haven't got any proper ATX 2.0 PSUs around here so I am going to have to recap this DEER PSU. $10AUD of caps will be needed to do this recap job.

If I recap this PSU, will it be safe to use again?? or could there be something else in there that could be damaged by badcaps??

Thanks.

[kc8adu]

Re: faulty power supply?

i would toss that deer.
or take it with me to the range as a rifle target.

[linuxguru]

Re: faulty power supply?

In a pinch, you can recap a Deer, but as has been stated before, it's going to cost more, both in effort and material, than it's worth. That said, I have done it a few times, mainly as a learning exercise. In decreasing order of priority:

1) Replace the secondary caps, don't forget the caps on +5Vsb rail.
2) Replace the 3A rectifier pair on +12v rail with a 10A or 20A, 100-200V TO-220 rectifier.
3) Replace the fan with a ball-bearing fan.
4) Inspect (and if necessary replace) the small cap(s) on the primary side of the Aux flyback converter. This is usually 22uF/50v, but some PSUs have different circuits without this cap.
5) Populate the missing RFI/EMI compliance components if you have the patience.
6) Replace primary caps.
7) Populate the primary current-limiting thermistor if it's missing
8) Populate MOVs next to the primary caps.
9) Populate the inductors on the secondary pi-filters.
10) Replace the primary-side bridge rectifier components with 3A parts like 1N5407.
11) Replace the primary-side switching transistors with higher-spec transistors (e.g. 13007A
instead of 13007, etc.)

I may have actually missed out a few items above (yeah, it's that bad).

[kc8adu]

Re: faulty power supply?

good for practice only.
as many of these i have seen that failed in a ball of fire i wont rebuild one.
hate to burn down someones home to save a few bucks.
no thanks.

In a pinch, you can recap a Deer, but as has been stated before, it's going to cost more, both in effort and material, than it's worth. That said, I have done it a few times, mainly as a learning exercise. In decreasing order of priority:

1) Replace the secondary caps, don't forget the caps on +5Vsb rail.
2) Replace the 3A rectifier pair on +12v rail with a 10A or 20A, 100-200V TO-220 rectifier.
3) Replace the fan with a ball-bearing fan.
4) Inspect (and if necessary replace) the small cap(s) on the primary side of the Aux flyback converter. This is usually 22uF/50v, but some PSUs have different circuits without this cap.
5) Populate the missing RFI/EMI compliance components if you have the patience.
6) Replace primary caps.
7) Populate the primary current-limiting thermistor if it's missing
8) Populate MOVs next to the primary caps.
9) Populate the inductors on the secondary pi-filters.
10) Replace the primary-side bridge rectifier components with 3A parts like 1N5407.
11) Replace the primary-side switching transistors with higher-spec transistors (e.g. 13007A
instead of 13007, etc.)

I may have actually missed out a few items above (yeah, it's that bad).

[stevo1210]

Re: faulty power supply?

I've finished recapping all of the secondary caps. For the +5Vsb section that had bulging caps, I replaced it with 1500uf 10V Hitano EXR series caps. The original caps were 100uf 10V Saturn brand caps. Will 1500uf 10V caps be OK there?? or should they be removed and replaced with 1000uf 10V caps?? I don't want to blow my motherboard because of using the wrong capacitances....

I also replaced the Rulian science brand fan in the Deer PSU with a proper Sunon one.

For this "Deer PSU revival" project, I'm currently stripping a 250W ATX 1.1 series PSU made by Seventeam (most parts in there have Delta electronics printed on them). The Seventeam PSU is faulty and has blown every fuse that I've replaced. It's been in the computer spares pile for at least 4 years now.... It's about time I could do something useful with it....
Another PSU which will also be the parts doner is a Delta Electronics PSU in a HP Pavillion 6305 that is faulty (no boot, fuse is OK.... not worth it to fix because there's toxic dust and fumes in there because it was used in a high chemical area.... it stinks too), it's filled with good KZG and LXJ caps.

Thanks.

[Newbie2]

Re: faulty power supply?

I run a recapped L&C LC-B450E PSU in an Athlon XP 2200+ system and so far no problems.

If you want to see the thread is called "My partially-recapped L&C 450W PSU". I started out partially recapping it, then I decided to replace the last of the HERMEI and G-LUXON caps.

In linuxguru's L&C/DEER recapping guide, I only did steps 1, 3, 4, and 6.

[stevo1210]

Re: faulty power supply?

The original caps were 100uf 10V Saturn brand caps. Will 1500uf 10V caps be OK there?? or should they be removed and replaced with 1000uf 10V caps?? I don't want to blow my motherboard because of using the wrong capacitances....

After I looked everywhere around here in Sydney for a bunch of 1000uf 10V caps that were 8mm, I came up with absolutely no luck, only size was 10mm diameter.
I tried my last hope, the internet and found a store that sold 1000uf 10V caps in an 8mm barrel.
The caps that they are selling are Rubycon MBZ and MCZ series caps. Are Rubycon MBZ and MCZ suited for PSU's?? I know they are low ESR but that's about all I know about them.
I've only seen Rubycon caps used in a PSU once and that was a Compaq PSU. I'm only afraid that the Rubycon caps may not like heat and get damaged by heat.


Thanks.

[Newbie2]

Re: faulty power supply?

I've only seen Rubycon caps used in a PSU once and that was a Compaq PSU. I'm only afraid that the Rubycon caps may not like heat and get damaged by heat.

I used one old Rubycon YXB 1000uf 16V cap to replace a G-LUXON equivalent in my recapped L&C, and it still has not failed yet. The system with my L&C inside has gone into temporary decommission, so I've got no worries.

Rubycon caps are solid reliable caps, I would have no worries using them in a PSU.