Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

[Muskiehunter]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

I wrote Antec Global Support to tell them about my PS.

Thank you for submitting your trouble report or request for information to Antec.

Your Trouble Ticket Number is included in the automatic email response that has been sent to the address you provided. If you would like to log in to the system to review your incident history, please follow the directions provided in that email.

Antec Customer Support will contact you regarding this report as soon as circumstances permit, generally by email. Again, thank you for giving us the chance to assist you.


Your Trouble Ticket has been submitted with the following information:
-------------------------------------------------------
Trouble Ticket ID: xxxxxx
User: xxxxxx
Date and Time Submitted: 03-22-2007 @ 09:32:17AM
Trouble Type: Power Supplies
Trouble Priority: RMA Needed
-------------------------------------------------------
Short Description: Bad capacitors, leaking and swollen.


The power supply was included with the Antec Sonata case that I purchased new. The board (ASUS P4P800) has been shipped to Topcat for replacement caps since I did get a response from ASUS on an RMA.

Lets see if Antec will respond to my request.

[wedfighter]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

my OCZ Powerstream 520w also used a Fuhjyyu caps
but nothing wrong with it...:?:

[jolynnb1234]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

I recapped my Antec 380S A few weeks ago. It began to fail after about 2 years of service, but it was at about 3 years that I realized it was probably the power supply. This may explain why there aren't many RMAs. Recapping was cheaper than shipping a power supply anyway, and it was still limping along at 3.5 years when I repaired it.
Initial symptom: wouldn't wake up after going into suspend to ram mode, otherwise, no problems.
2nd symptom: after unplugging for a while, it had to be plugged in for a while before it would boot (optical mouse light would blink when first plugged in).
3rd symptom: wouldn't boot with too many USB devices plugged in, or with both network cards at 100-base T.
4th symptom: had to warm up after cold booting, or it would fail to make it into windows. BIOS voltage showed 5 V line as low when cold, but once it made it to 4.9 Volts it would make it into windows every time. Also network card going into gigabit mode would cause the computer to power off.

All other voltages were fine, and the 5 V line was still within ATX specs when the problems started (I didn't check the 5 Vsb).
Recapping solved all of these problems. 5 volt line is not 4.999 to 5.026 according to motherboard.

You can see 2 of the capacitors I replaced were probably not damaged (some of the brown stuff is glue).
Here's what I found (autopsy photos attached)

[wedfighter]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

what caps do you use to recapped it?

[fabricator]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

I have a dead Antec Neo HE 380W here which is full of OST and Teapo caps. The 5V rail still doesn't work properly despite the new caps, but at least it doesn't smell funny now.

It also has multiple dry joints and leads almost touching on the underside.

Perhaps the Antec Rep would like to explain the very long wait time getting replacement units under warrenty in Australia at the moment. The store says its due to Antec not having ANY replacements in this country, and on the phone today they said they are sick of it and will be supply a replacement at their expense.

I predict it wont take long for some stores to refuse to stock Antec PSUs, or to use them in OEM PCs. As for not going broke, I dunno about that, the 3 year warranty when they last 1 year would take a bite of of profits.

[RoadKill]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

I would have put good money on my shiny Antec TruePower 380w being the cause of one of my machine's stability, so much so that - warranty be damned, the top is coming off.

I just took cover off, what do I see? oh shock horror, vented Fuhjyyu caps, what a goddamn surprise.

I am frankly appalled by Antec, and seeing as all of my power supplies are Antec (I only wish this wasn't true) I will simply never recommend anything Antec again.

It's a shame, seeing as you make fantastic cases (I have 3 antec cases, 4 antec power supplies, and 2 antec drive coolers) but unless I get a favourable response from Antec customer service about this particular power supply, that's just how it's going to be.

[RoadKill]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

Just to confirm I'm not making some shit up (as AntecRep would clearly have us believe)...





Also, there is never a question of overheating or overloading, haha, this thing was running a Pentium III 667 with a handful of hard drives, Antec SLK-3000B case, 120mm fans front and back, the fans on the psu were always spinning at the lowest rate

[RoadKill]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

Oh another edit to confirm the age of the power supply, I can confirm it was purchased in July 2005.

[RoadKill]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

I sent in trouble ticket to Antec EU and got an instant canned response saying to fill out an RMA form and such.

Clearly no real person read my email. I'm not sure where AntecRep gets the idea that we might have got a real response...

[RoadKill]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

Okay well clearly the policy is to do nothing if you breach the warranty by opening it - I guess Antec are happy with selling shit that isn't fit for purpose and disowning you when you prove just this

[japlytic]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

Still wondering why Antec did not know about the problem with Fuhjyyu capacitors...
Should I be a devil and change the OST units in a new AU$80 Earthwatts unit?

[Kaine]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

Just come over to weigh in with another SmartPower 2.0 550W with a bulging Fuhjyyu cap and a blown diode. I've always been an Antec fan, all of my cases are Antecs and i've been running a 400W SmartPower 2.0 that has been rock solid for a while but after looking inside this 550W unit, i can't help but feel somewhat disappointed. I bought the non working unit for $20 and within minutes of receiving it i had spotted a bulging Fuhjyyu through the rear grille. I appreciate a representative of Antec posting here but you really are pushing a broken barrow here. We're not asking for anything other than for Antec to accept that there is a problem and make positive moves to prevent such problems arising in future production lines.


Burn mark from blown diode.


Bulging capacitor.

[RoadKill]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

Still wondering why Antec did not know about the problem with Fuhjyyu capacitors...
Should I be a devil and change the OST units in a new AU$80 Earthwatts unit?

To be honest OST now seems better than they used to be - I'm still disappointed when I see them though, also, as for pricing, the particular failed TruePower 380 pictured cost me 40 quid excluding vat, which is about AU$97 >(

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

While one might assume after reading some of these posts that Antec has a 100% failure rate, ,,,,,,,,,

It's not an assumption Mr Antec, it's direct experience.
A picture is worth 1000 words.

A REPUTABLE company having put out a faulty product would initiate a recall of that product.

Noted, you have not. - Nuff said.

.

[kc8adu]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

It's not an assumption Mr Antec, it's direct experience.
A picture is worth 1000 words.

A REPUTABLE company having put out a faulty product would initiate a recall of that product.

Noted, you have not. - Nuff said.

.

i had to look twice at that first pic.
only way that could have happened is it died and was returned.
some pfy stuck an elcheapo tester on it that said ok and then neatly repackaged it and reshrinkwrapped it.
chumpusa was good for that.maybe thats one reason they are circling the drain?
that not to say crapcaps dont die on the shelf.
i bought several gigabyte high end server boards new in box at a small store on closeout $5 ea.
the stink was bad from the leaking choyo caps.
but they did not bulge.
the bungs leaked.
to bulge needs voltage to produce gas.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

>> died and was returned <<
No way. Not on this one.
Not even a tiny TINY bit of dust anywhere inside.
Warranty seal was intact.
It was on the shelf a long time before it was opened but still....

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

>> to bulge needs voltage to produce gas <<
That depends on what kind of crap they are putting inside them.
Obviously from their failure rate Fuhjyyu isn't using what the others do.
There's a post of some G-Luxon (I think it was) somewhere in the forums here that bloated in the box on an unused motherboard.

[severach]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

I got all my Antecs cheaper than the shipping cost and hassle so I just opened them up. I'd rather prevent self destruction than send these things in regularly. Out of 5, 2 had the 1000uf caps in the middle already going. None of the output caps were bad but being Fuhjyyu early death is certain. I can't very well sell such unreliable junk to anyone else so I just keep them in my machines and check them every so often.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

I was able to save my Antec from an early death months back an easy way to tell if trouble is looming.

If you have the TP 2.0 like I did is to shine a flashlight through the back fan while its running you should see 2 1000uf caps if they are bulged you need to recap.

Those 2 1000 uf caps while I didn't trace them I believe they are the filters for the standby supply.

Those caps were right in the airflow path of the rear fan so I highly doubt ambient heat was an issue.

They were the first to show signs when I opened my supply after little over a year of use 2 of the secondary Fukyuu caps showed signs of bulging as well.

I used Panasonic FCs while they were a little bigger I was able to coax them in place they weren't flush with the board but only by a few mms. Fang Suing the wires around the caps to get the cover on was the real fun part .

However I'm running strong now.

The RMA Antecs have OST caps in them OST isn't such a good brand either but they're way better then Fukyuu.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Yet another victim of Antec! Q about cap replacement or RMA

chumpusa was good for that.maybe thats one reason they are circling the drain?

I heard a rumor that Chumpusa is going out of business in January.

I bought my Antec there in 2004 with the cheap Fukyuu caps inside.

And in their true style they ripped me off.

So irregardless I will never buy anything from there again.