Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 2
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous 1 2 template Next
    #1

    Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

    Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU


    I picked up a used one of these units recently for my 24/7 Broadcastify streaming computer, voltages checked as well within spec and were stable so in it went only to find it failed within 2 months corrupting the Motherboard Bios as well, thankfully the the MSI Bios-USB trick saved the board and refitting the FSP PSU got the system back up and running.

    Inspection on disassembly indicated no obvious points of interested except for the domed 400v 330uF mains capacitor (this PSU is designed to utilize a single input capacitor) which if you look closely at the uploaded images below appears to have a wrinkle like surface as well.

    The filter capacitors all appear in good condition.

    Once removed I attempted to do a voltage leak test and noted it wouldn't even hold a charge, I'm guessing I've found my smoking gun...

    Any thoughts?
    Attached Files
    Viva LA Retro!
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

    the wrinkles and unsmooth finish are a sign of heat - lots of heat.
    it must have totally boiled internally.

    open it for a look!

    what make & series are they using in earthwatts btw?

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

      The primary capacitor that has died was a Nippon Chemi-con SMQ series (rated to 85c), whilst the remainder look to be Ost's, this board appears older than I originally thought with "ATX400w revision 5" clearly marked on the PCB along with the date 25/09/2006.
      Viva LA Retro!

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

        Still a possibility it had too much voltage go through it? I have a hard time imagining that cap getting that hot without something else burning first. Is it 270uF?
        Beware of the conductive glue.
        As a good measure if you want to keep using it, at least replace the OST on +5VSB and 12V. It's a good design so those OST can actually last quite a while but I don't trust them on the two mentioned rails

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

          No the primary capacitor is actually rated for 330uF, as for the OST's they would be replaced as a matter of course, I should still have sufficient SamXon's on hand...
          Viva LA Retro!

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

            I thought the EA-500 was a CWT design (Whereas the 500D was Delta)...
            "We have offered them (the Arabs) a sensible way for so many years. But no, they wanted to fight. Fine! We gave them technology, the latest, the kind even Vietnam didn't have. They had double superiority in tanks and aircraft, triple in artillery, and in air defense and anti-tank weapons they had absolute supremacy. And what? Once again they were beaten. Once again they scrammed [sic]. Once again they screamed for us to come save them. Sadat woke me up in the middle of the night twice over the phone, 'Save me!' He demanded to send Soviet troops, and immediately! No! We are not going to fight for them."

            -Leonid Brezhnev (On the Yom Kippur War)

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

              Picked up this "dead" Antec EA-500 from a computer shop. Had two bulging OST capacitors.....3300 uF/16 volt pi input filter cap on the +12v rail, and 1000uF/16 volt pi input filter cap on the -12v rail. Also a burned area on the pc board where fan control circuit is located. The fan control transistor was not shorted. With pc board out of the case and bulging capacitors replaced, the output voltages came up as: 12.14v, 4.87v, 3.174v, 5.01vsb. Voltage on the main capacitor was 167v off and 377v on.I am still tinkering with it, perhaps more later. I am including a drawing of the fan circuit....which seems to be a new idea.
              Attached Files
              Old proverb say.........If you shoot at nothing, you will hit nothing (George Henry 10-14-11)

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                a few more pictures........
                Attached Files
                Last edited by everell; 05-25-2014, 01:15 PM.
                Old proverb say.........If you shoot at nothing, you will hit nothing (George Henry 10-14-11)

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                  here is my prefered fan circuit.

                  +12v o-----------------------------------------o FAN
                  gnd o------------------------------------------o FAN


                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                    I had an EA-500 with exactly the same damage once before. My solution was to recap it, remove the transistor, and add the fan controller daughterboard from a dead FSP Power supply. And no, I never disable fan controllers. I do sometimes add them to PSUs that lack them, though.
                    I love putting bad caps and flat batteries in fire and watching them explode!!

                    No wonder it doesn't work! You installed the jumper wires backwards

                    Main PC: Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz, Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H-MVP, 8GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600, 240GB Intel 335 Series SSD, 750GB WD HDD, Sony Optiarc DVD RW, Palit nVidia GTX660 Ti, CoolerMaster N200 Case, Delta DPS-600MB 600W PSU, Hauppauge TV Tuner, Windows 7 Home Premium

                    Office PC: HP ProLiant ML150 G3, 2x Xeon E5335 2GHz, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB Intel 530 SSD, 2x 250GB HDD, 2x 450GB 15K SAS HDD in RAID 1, 1x 2TB HDD, nVidia 8400GS, Delta DPS-650BB 650W PSU, Windows 7 Pro

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                      Looking at the schematic, the fan controller seems to be controlled by the amount of power delivered on the 12 volt rail. As more power is delivered on the +12 volt rail, the voltage will begin dropping a little under the load, and the fan will come on and deliver more cooling air. The problems on my power supply were......first, the capacitors that failed were NOT on the 12 volt rail (they were on the 3.3 volt rail and the -12 volt rail). Both were located next to each other.....does this indicate a hot spot location? Second.....the pc board under the fan controller transistor was burnt. Does this mean that the fan was on too much and too long........causing too much current for a small transistor like this? Since the transistor is still good, the burn must have occurred over a large period of time.

                      So what do you guys think of a fan controller that controls based on the loading of the +12 volt rail as opposed to controlling based on a heat sensor?
                      Old proverb say.........If you shoot at nothing, you will hit nothing (George Henry 10-14-11)

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                        you MUST use a heat sensor because it's got multiple heat sources and also you must remember that it doubles as an extractor for the hot air in the case.

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                          Originally posted by stj View Post
                          you MUST use a heat sensor because it's got multiple heat sources and also you must remember that it doubles as an extractor for the hot air in the case.
                          So where is the heat sensor on the EA-500???????????

                          Did I miss something in the schematic?
                          Old proverb say.........If you shoot at nothing, you will hit nothing (George Henry 10-14-11)

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                            it's a bad design probably - only about half the psu's i see use a temp-sensor.
                            and half of those mount it on the secondary heatsink instead of mounting it in the airflow.

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                              SMQ is only rated for 2000hrs at 85C, this one has a black sleeve so I don't suspect it is a fake, it looks like the vent is the proper shape also.
                              But, is it just me or do the PFC coils in some antec PSU models run really hot?!

                              It's possible that the capacitor failed because of normal wear, and then when the ESR increased, it made it heat up more and the plastic sleeve could have de-gassed and caused those bubbles. I guess the silly fan controlling scheme didn't help with the heating issue at all in both cases here...
                              Muh-soggy-knee

                              Comment

                                #16
                                Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                                they probably run hot given i'v seen a few with burned-out coils.

                                Comment

                                  #17
                                  Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                                  I know Behemot (and probably some others here) will throw a rock at me for saying this, but... APFC is nothing but trouble IMO. If you live in a country with 220/230/240 V AC, just take out the APFC and run the bridge rectifier output straight to the cap leads. I bet you even a stinking CapXon will hold up fine as the primary cap after this mod (not that I would recommend you ever use CapXon as a replacement cap ).

                                  Comment

                                    #18
                                    Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                                    ^ Mostly agree. If properly placed, I'd take a PPFC coil over APFC.

                                    Comment

                                      #19
                                      Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                                      Well the parts I needed arrived and I had some spare time so I got stuck in hoping to finish this little project off today however... life happens and an interruption lead me to experience a conundrum.

                                      I had 3 capacitors left to replace 2 2200uF and 1 3300uF 10v, using memory, old parts and the process of elimination I'm 99.9% sure I've got the correct locations sorted and using one of everell's pictures have illustrated their placement (the 3300uF appears larger than the 2200uF in the foreground).

                                      Could anyone confirm that these are indeed correct? TIA
                                      Attached Files
                                      Last edited by tazwegion; 07-20-2014, 06:43 AM.
                                      Viva LA Retro!

                                      Comment

                                        #20
                                        Re: Antec Earthwatts EA-500 500w PSU

                                        Everall says his 3300uf was 16v??
                                        Please upload pictures using attachment function when ask for help on the repair
                                        http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=39740

                                        Comment

                                        Previous 1 2 template Next
                                        Working...
                                        X