the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

[kevin!]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Now, it's time to present, a beautiful high-quality PSU from the PCCASE brand xD .
Although it has at least one inductor on the line of 12v xD compared to L-LINK.
Although this PSU is very dangerous, it has no overvoltage protection in the 5v line, I put a cable in the 5v line and the wire got incandescent .

[momaka]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

That 5V line is almost out of spec too, at 5.21V (5.25V is max for ATX spec).

I'm surprised this unit doesn't have a functioning short-circuit protection. SD6109 PWM chips usually offer OVP and UVP on the three major rails, as well as possibility to implement OPP into the PSU. Perhaps the cables on this PSU are too thin for the short-circuit protection to kick in. I had a Deer / L&C LC-B300ATX that burned out on me like that: it never detected the short-circuit, and one of its drive cables started glowing, lol.

Also, I like the label on that PSU above - particularly how they come up with the total power rating. Apparently, 46.2 Watts (from 3.3V rail) + 100 Watts (from 5V rail) + 192 Watts (12V rail), + 9.6 Watts (-12V rail) + 10 Watts (5VSB rail) is = to 500 Watts?!?

[kevin!]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

That 5V line is almost out of spec too, at 5.21V (5.25V is max for ATX spec).

I'm surprised this unit doesn't have a functioning short-circuit protection. SD6109 PWM chips usually offer OVP and UVP on the three major rails, as well as possibility to implement OPP into the PSU. Perhaps the cables on this PSU are too thin for the short-circuit protection to kick in. I had a Deer / L&C LC-B300ATX that burned out on me like that: it never detected the short-circuit, and one of its drive cables started glowing, lol.

Also, I like the label on that PSU above - particularly how they come up with the total power rating. Apparently, 46.2 Watts (from 3.3V rail) + 100 Watts (from 5V rail) + 192 Watts (12V rail), + 9.6 Watts (-12V rail) + 10 Watts (5VSB rail) is = to 500 Watts?!?

The cables are bad, they are super thin. Surely it's because of that.
it does not make sense the sticker xD.
I do not understand how they can sell PSU with false specifications, it can even be dangerous.
The deer at least the specifications are more realistic, and that what is a junk PSU.

[Sparkey55]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

That 5V line is almost out of spec too, at 5.21V (5.25V is max for ATX spec).

I'm surprised this unit doesn't have a functioning short-circuit protection. SD6109 PWM chips usually offer OVP and UVP on the three major rails, as well as possibility to implement OPP into the PSU. Perhaps the cables on this PSU are too thin for the short-circuit protection to kick in. I had a Deer / L&C LC-B300ATX that burned out on me like that: it never detected the short-circuit, and one of its drive cables started glowing, lol.

Also, I like the label on that PSU above - particularly how they come up with the total power rating. Apparently, 46.2 Watts (from 3.3V rail) + 100 Watts (from 5V rail) + 192 Watts (12V rail), + 9.6 Watts (-12V rail) + 10 Watts (5VSB rail) is = to 500 Watts?!?

Nowhere on that label does it state that it can do 500 "Watts". Even if they meant Peak Power that would still be around 140% of what you calculated; not a true peak rating. That thing was designed to burn your house down.

[Dan81]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

That 5V line is almost out of spec too, at 5.21V (5.25V is max for ATX spec).

I'm surprised this unit doesn't have a functioning short-circuit protection. SD6109 PWM chips usually offer OVP and UVP on the three major rails, as well as possibility to implement OPP into the PSU. Perhaps the cables on this PSU are too thin for the short-circuit protection to kick in. I had a Deer / L&C LC-B300ATX that burned out on me like that: it never detected the short-circuit, and one of its drive cables started glowing, lol.

Also, I like the label on that PSU above - particularly how they come up with the total power rating. Apparently, 46.2 Watts (from 3.3V rail) + 100 Watts (from 5V rail) + 192 Watts (12V rail), + 9.6 Watts (-12V rail) + 10 Watts (5VSB rail) is = to 500 Watts?!?

I know Codegen was making crap units but that's just sad.

[kevin!]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

I know Codegen was making crap units but that's just sad.

I did not know it was a codegen, now I understand why it is so horrible.

I have another PCCASE that has the typical label of codegen (blue color), 600w mark, this PSU is put some load, and explodes directly .

bye

[Dan81]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

I did not know it was a codegen, now I understand why it is so horrible.

I have another PCCASE that has the typical label of codegen (blue color), 600w mark, this PSU is put some load, and explodes directly .

bye

Well, there's an good side though, you can reuse the casing for other good PSUs with rusty cases. (happened to me once - had a very rusty but quite packed Sun Pro unit that I moved in a empty 120mm casing I had from a Linkworld - still works to this day although I should install a thermistor on the fan - will come up with sth eventually hehe)

[kevin!]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Well, there's an good side though, you can reuse the casing for other good PSUs with rusty cases. (happened to me once - had a very rusty but quite packed Sun Pro unit that I moved in a empty 120mm casing I had from a Linkworld - still works to this day although I should install a thermistor on the fan - will come up with sth eventually hehe)

Good idea, I will reuse the housing of the deer, which is in very good condition. The others, I do not think that reuses them, is made of a steel of poor quality, the only one that is saved is the deer.
Thanks for the idea .

[PeteS in CA]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

That 5V line is almost out of spec too, at 5.21V (5.25V is max for ATX spec).

I'm surprised this unit doesn't have a functioning short-circuit protection. SD6109 PWM chips usually offer OVP and UVP on the three major rails, as well as possibility to implement OPP into the PSU. Perhaps the cables on this PSU are too thin for the short-circuit protection to kick in. I had a Deer / L&C LC-B300ATX that burned out on me like that: it never detected the short-circuit, and one of its drive cables started glowing, lol.

Also, I like the label on that PSU above - particularly how they come up with the total power rating. Apparently, 46.2 Watts (from 3.3V rail) + 100 Watts (from 5V rail) + 192 Watts (12V rail), + 9.6 Watts (-12V rail) + 10 Watts (5VSB rail) is = to 500 Watts?!?

It's not even a question of what would limit the realist output power to maybe 200W but how many things. There's the main transformer core, the wimpy input rectifiers, the MJE13007-clone switch transistors, the 330uF electrolytics, the beefless heatsinks, the diminutive output inductor ...

And then there's the wonders those input lytics and insubstantial output filtering would do to the output ripple ...

Even if it were honestly rated for 200W Clara Peller would ask, "Where's the beef?!"

[endreu]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

hello all, look what i found in a pc from 2002 year. old granny gived to me for reapers. problems was that pc won't start. The psu was dead, but it was to late.. he took the video card AND all 5v rail caps on mobo too..

[momaka]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Oh Deer!
I'm surprised it even lasted this long, especially with those crappy caps. 16 years is no joke. That said, it's also possible the motherboard caps went bad by themselves too and not from the PSU, especially if they are a crap-cap brand... which most were back in the days with the exception of very few motherboard manufacturers.

[endreu]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

well im thinked too about it, but there is one BUT. mobo don't have the P4 power..(its the via p4x266e-8233a mobo,celeron 1.7ghz and 512mb ram :S ) all cpu power comes from 5v rail in main 20pin atx connector

[momaka]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Yes, I have old motherboards like that too, and many of them came with very low-quality capacitor brands.
Of course, I'm sure the bad caps in your PSU probably helped those bad caps on the motherboard go bad just a little quicker than they would have otherwise. But still, after 15+ years, that's not uncommon at all for cheap/low-quality cap brands at all.

[endreu]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

and here is the fried one(even when he's burnt it was worked.. but the cap on 5vsb fled off) as the ex owner told it was a lightning, but i du no. one coil,13007(!) and some low v caps went for parts

[Stefan Payne]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Could that even be a CWT unit??

[momaka]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Could that even be a CWT unit??

I don't know, but it does look close with those green transformers and Fuhjyyu caps. Only the PWM controller doesn't seem right, as most cheap/old CWT units usually have a TL494. But everything else looks like a possible match.

As for the above PSU itself, I also don't think a lightning strike destroyed it, because that yellowing in the 5VSB area can't appear from one shot of lightning. Most likely, the 5VSB caps have been bad for a while, but due to the inefficient 2-transistor 5VSB circuit keeping them warm they kept going. Once the power went down and then back up (from the lightning strike), the 5VSB caps were too marginal to work and so the 5VBS over-shot and killed the PWM controller (some burned components near the PWM chip, as can be seen). As the PWM controller was dying, it's possible it took out one or both transistors on the primary side if it output some garbage drive signal.
... well, all a theory, anyways
But I've seen many other units like that go down with similar description.

[endreu]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

maybe it was the problem, but who knows now ))
AND look at that main trafo..

[momaka]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Yeah, it's pretty small indeed - probably 28 or 33 mm wide core, and quite short too. Not surprised though, given the rest of the build quality.

[Dannyx]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Good day once again folks. Today's blunder in attempted TV repairs was so monumental that I actually had to stop mid-repair to quickly post this, since it's just SO bad....have a look at this - I'm sure it will be an enriching experience of how NOT to do it

So the chap came in with his LG telly saying that it no longer tunes any channels and upon taking it over to his house (it was his parents'), the breakers popped when he tried plugging it in the wall...fair enough I said, we'll take it in logical order and obviously start with the power issue, since the thing has to turn on first before we can investigate the channel issue. I plugged it in myself in the shop and sure enough the MCB for my test bench outlets went down immediately. Good thing I have backup UPSs and MCBs all over the shop, otherwise I would've been in quite a pickle with a recovery to/from an external HDD plugged into the wall as well

AAAAANYWAY I took the back cover off to investigate and I noticed the main fuse had been lifted - obviously this has happened before and someone tried replacing it. Put my meter probes across it and funnily enough it was fine - I got continuity. I removed the board to dig further, flipped it over and I found this.....can anyone tell what the problem is ? Of course: the bloody mains inlet is tied directly to chassis ground ! UNBELIEVABLE YES, they took a piece of wire and soldered it between one of the legs of the inlet and the chassis ! WHA' ? I'm sorry ? WHY ? What's the reasoning for this ? OOOOOHH so that's why it worked over at his folk's house: the earth terminals are not connected or simply don't exist....boutiful . I was....shocked Who does that ? Sersiously...I can't get over this...YOU ARE FIRED FROM EXISTING, whoever did that ! But wait: there's more...

I then had a look at the tuner tin and I saw THIS #2...geez, I wonder why it's not getting any reception....must be those cable gremlins hogging the line again I imagine that even when it DID work with no earth prong, you had mains on the friggin' tuner casing and it just suffered like that until it eventually corroded and ate away at that case and the components. There was a permanent short there, possibly taking out whatever FTTH box was connected to that BNC input....WHAT THE ACTUAL ?

Sorry guys, I just had to get that out of my system - there it is, breathe it in, absorb it and never do that as well....I swear I'll find you and there will be hell to pay

[Behemot]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame