400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

[RukyCon]

Hello, i'm wondering if this 400w PSU is worth repairing...

Problem: randomly shuts off.

Now i don't want to repair it for two reasons.

One: It's a cheap PSU.
Two: It smells like cat piss [i'm not joking.]

The capacitors in it are...

Teapo
Jamicon
OST
Capxon

I'm going to post photos later.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

yes when crap caps fail, they smell like cat piss. thats what u are smelling, the leaking electrolyte smell from crap caps.

as for being worth repairing, it depends on whether there are spots on the pcb for pi filter coils, the rating of the rectifiers, size of the transformer for a certain decent wattage output rating etc. right now, its not really a 400w psu. just a psu with an unknown wattage rating.

[RukyCon]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

yes when crap caps fail, they smell like cat piss. thats what u are smelling, the leaking electrolyte smell from crap caps.

I did not know that!

But i do not see any failing capacitors.

[RukyCon]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

Here are some photos...

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

errr... junk caps can fail without bulging...

as for why there is a cat piss smell, i have no idea. probably a poor bung seal so as the electrolyte evaporates due to exposure to ripple current, u smell the electrolyte escaping from the cap as a cat piss smell. i could be wrong tho. wester547 could probably explain this in more detail.

on a lighter note, i wonder how a pet dog would react to a computer that smells like cat urine. it might be probably afraid to go near the computer as its "cat territory" or it might bark loudly at the computer everytime it comes near.

[RukyCon]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

errr... junk caps can fail without bulging...

I've heard of Teapo capacitors fail without any signs of failure.

as for why there is a cat piss smell, i have no idea. probably a poor bung seal so as the electrolyte evaporates due to exposure to ripple current, u smell the electrolyte escaping from the cap as a cat piss smell. i could be wrong tho. wester547 could probably explain this in more detail.

I killed a canicon capacitor and it smelled bad but not like cap piss.

on a lighter note, i wonder how a pet dog would react to a computer that smells like cat urine. it might be probably afraid to go near the computer as its "cat territory" or it might bark loudly at the computer everytime it comes near.

I wonder how a cat would react to a computer that smells like cat urine. it might just pee on it.

[RukyCon]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

Here's one last photo...

[Per Hansson]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

In the first photo it looks like the bung has been pushed out of the capacitor

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...5&d=1490076592

[Stefan Payne]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

Here are some photos...

Looks like a rather old FSP unit...
Could be decent, for +5V/3,3V heavy rigs...

[Stefan Payne]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

Here's one last photo...

loool

That looks like FSP delivered the units and Hercules put their label over the original label.
Anyway, I'd guess thats somewhat around 200-300W

Maybe ask FSP with that SN what unit that originally should have been.

[RukyCon]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

In the first photo it looks like the bung has been pushed out of the capacitor

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...5&d=1490076592

I removed it to see if it did vent from the bottom and it did not.

Someone glued a rubber ring on the bottom.

Note: the stuff on the capacitor is glue.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

Looking at the heatsinks, I'd guess it's good for 250W-300W.

10 years ago or so I received some cap samples to test that were so rank I could smell them before I opened the box. And when I did, the caps were inside a plastic bag! The rotten fish smell all but knocked me over! They performed as badly as they smelled.

[RukyCon]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

Looking at the heatsinks, I'd guess it's good for 250W-300W.

Are you trying to say that the 400W rating is BS?

[dmill89]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

Are you trying to say that the 400W rating is BS?

Yes/No/Maybe, the 2nd pic (in post #4) showing an add-in board notes FSP250, FSP300 indicating this platform was probably designed for a 250W-300W PSU (Though companies have built higher wattage units on older platforms originally designed for lower wattage before). The components definitely look beefy enough (from just a glance, we'd need specifics on the switchers, bridge, secondary diodes, etc. to know for sure) for a 400W though and if you add up all the amperage ratings for all rails it does come to 401.5W (though these ratings could be BS as well). I guess you'd probably have to load test it to know for sure.

Overall though with only 11A (132W) on the 12V rail it is only equivalent to most modern 200-250W PSUs in a modern(ish) 12V heavy system, but may be more useful on an older system that relies more on the 5V and 3.3V rails. Definitely a solid unit though, FSPs (especially older ones) tend to be well built aside from often using sub-par caps.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

is that the infamous yellow conductive glue i see again? might wanna scrape that off. it might be shorting the psu when power is applied thus it wont power on.

[RukyCon]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

The PSU started to smell so bad that it was stinking up the entire house so i decided to salvage some of the good components and toss the unit outside...

So you maybe able to tell that i just gave up.

[RukyCon]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

Welp, the Hercules PSU has come back despite the fact it was tossed out over a year ago and it has a new issue.

Problem: -12V rail is low (sits at -5v) and the 5V rail is a bit high (sits at 5.3V (ATX Tolerance says the max voltage on the 5V rail can be 5.25V), maybe i'm overreacting about the 5V rail).

Label.....

Top View............

The PSU appears to be made by FSP and it looks just like 2 other power supplies i have.
Most of the capacitors appear to be fine.
Bottom View..........................

The bottom confirms it's an FSP unit.
The soldering looks a bit messy.
Side view............................................


The capacitors are a mix of Teapo, OST, and Jamicon.
And unlike the other one, this one does not smell like cat piss.
And in case no one noticed yet, one of the capacitors for the 5v rail (Teapo SC 3300uf 10v) is bulging after one year of use (and no, it was not bulging when new).

One of the three power supplies looks almost identical to this one but it's rated for 235w while this one says it's rated for 400w use.

[Wester547]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

Between those heatsinks and the 470uF primaries, etc, I highly doubt that PSU could do 400W. More like 250W, or as the other supply expressly states, 235W. That Teapo definitely needs replacing, but according to the datecode on the transformer and on those OST primaries, the PSU and the caps are basically 15 years old now. Bulging after 15 years doesn't seem so bad, although it goes to show that just because crap caps haven't failed after a decade doesn't mean they never will (liquid electrolytics are only rated for 15 years max, but this is due to rubber seal deterioration rather than hydrogen gas production).

If the cap is located next to a hot resistor, it could have been a heat-related failure, or maybe the cap failed as a matter of course. I'd guess if -12V isn't linear regulated in this PSU that the cap on the -12V rail silently died too and may need replacing, or maybe when the cap died on the +5V rail, due to -12V being group regulated, it caused the -12V rail to sag too.

[RukyCon]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

I'm currently looking at recapping not only this power supply but the other two i mentioned, i already found capacitors that will work in most of the power supply but i'm still looking for something to replace the tiny OST RGU capacitors with.

I'm not going to put the power supply back into the PC it came out of due to it being badly underrated and the fact that it may have killed the motherboard twice now.

[stj]

Re: 400W PSU... is it worth trying to repair?

rubycon YXJ are what i use for small caps under 4.7uf, for everything else i use panasonic FR