Codegen - Dying primaries OR just gutless?

[tazwegion]

Quite a while ago I purchased a Codegen 550w PSU, it powered my then Barton/nForceII system quite well, after stumbling across this site I replaced all the secondary capacitors in it with BP's SamXon low ESR series.

Recently, the newer system built around the PSU has been having (what I'd call) 'classic' PSU issues, those being inability to reboot from a 'hot' system & having to allow time (to cool/discharge) before being able to successfully POST the system

System Configuration

1. San deigo 3700+
2. MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
3. 1Gb Geil Ultra-X DDR400
4. LG DVD/CD-ROM
5. Seagate SATA drive
6. Western Digital IDE drive
7. Radeon 9600xt

This leads me to query, would replacing the dubiously labeled HEC 1000uF 200v (twin) primaries potentially rectify this PSU's unfriendly behaviour? or is it just getting too long in the tooth for this type of platform?

[gonzo0815]

Re: Codegen - Dying primaries OR just gutless?

Hm i think those Codegen ar a bit overrated, but i have only experience with some older 300w models (wich are not mutch better than Deer).

If the CPU is runing at stockspeed, this Codegen should be sufficient, if not i would consider to buy a Seasonic S12 430.

Any way, your troublemakers are probably those 5v Sb caps, if you haven`t replaced those already.
Usually there is an seperate 3 pin topswitcher and a small transformer with two 1000uF 10v caps.

Furthermore there are some smaler caps, wich smoth the supply for the SMPS kontroler.
I would replace all of those, before i would touch the primary side caps.
Even if HEC is not on of my preffered brands, i doubth that you will gain mutch by replacing them.

[tazwegion]

Re: Codegen - Dying primaries OR just gutless?

Yeah I replaced all of the secondary capacitors, all that's original is the primaries plus the odd small value cap's

I really should just delegate the PSU down the line to a Palomino system, the POST issues can be a real PITA when you're in a hurry or busy

Thanks for the heads up

[hardwareguy]

Re: Codegen - Dying primaries OR just gutless?

I'd just get that old PSU out of there.... I've seen to many good PCs destroyed by marginal PSUs that finally decide to go out with a bang.

Codegen isn't known for making good PSUs. A Fortron 400W will do nicely, and it's cheap. Just watch out for the lower end units with the bad caps. The ones with the 120mm fans have served me well, I have sold about 30 of them, none have come back in the last two years.

[tazwegion]

Re: Codegen - Dying primaries OR just gutless?

Unfotunately I'm still saving the cash to get the replacement, I've narrowed it down to a pre-loved 550w Antec, similarly spec'd ThermalTake (also used), a Silverstone Strider 560w or Hiper Type-M 580w

I'll likely go with a pre-loved PSU to keep my overheads down, as any nasty capacitors can be easily replaced

[kc8adu]

Re: Codegen - Dying primaries OR just gutless?

the antec and thermaltake will need an immediate recap.
i would inspect the others and act according to what i see.
btw the codegen i saw was a deer.lots of chips inside with dr numbers.crap.

[tazwegion]

Re: Codegen - Dying primaries OR just gutless?

Yes the Codegen is a POS, barely better than a lowend generic

I'd really like to have the Silverstone ($130.00 AUD) as I've heard nothing but good about their products, I'll just have to see how I fair in landing a reasonably priced s/h unit first