Antec Earthwatts 650W

[Colt45ws]

Dead after exactly 3 months of service. Not even 5VSB. It was in my Mom's machine the whole time which isnt a screamer.
Just for reference:
AMD Athlon 64X2 6400+ 3.2GHz (Windsor)
Gigabyte MA770-UD3
4x 1GB GEIL Dragon DDR2-1066 (Running DDR2-800)
Diamond ATi HD3870 512MB
Pioneer DVD-/+(R)W[DL] SATA
WD Caviar Black 750GB
I installed my spare Cooler Master UCP 700W and its running again.

[370forlife]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

Warranty time. This is a delta, so even with lower grade Ltecs or taicon's I still wouldn't expect a failure to be cap related as I have lots of delta's with solid 10 years of constant service in poorly ventilated computers with ltecs and taicons that run great.

[c_hegge]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

IIRC Earthwatts are Seasonic OEM, full of OST.

[Colt45ws]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

No its a delta, like the JG review sample. Samxon primarys with a grab bag for the rest. I know its wild mass guessing but what would make it fail like this. Its like the fuse is blown.

[Rulycat]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

Earthwatts started off as Seasonic but later the OEM was changed to Delta.

[370forlife]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

I wouldn't crack it open, I would just put through an RMA. Sounds like an unusual failure, replacement should be fine.

[seanc]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

Not sure about the newer Earthwatts, but the EA-380 are full of OST (sometimes a few Teapo) and usually the reason for total failure.

I opened my 3 yr old Seasonic S12 500w the other week, the internal layout is identical to the EA-380s I've been repairing, but it's using much better caps, there's even a poly cap in there.

[370forlife]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...tory3&reid=110

Delta, and that review was over a year ago.

[seanc]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

Fair enough, they look well built.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

Wow I've been using mine since December cracked it open to check the caps they used Chemicons on the stressed rails and Ltecs on the others.

I also replaced the noisy Adda fan with a low speed Yate loon. Unfortunately the fan isn't speed controlled by temperature (doesn't use 3rd wire) so its running full speed all the time. Luckily for me the YL fan is quiet at full speed.

I'd RMA it sounds like infant mortality (manufacturing defect) to me either that or you got hit by a power surge.

[370forlife]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

There's a temperature sensor, the fan speed is controlled directly by temp. Most power supplies use this.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

So it's controlled by PWM and they don't use the 3rd RPM wire?

Guess the temperature is the only feedback.

[370forlife]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

No PWM, one of the monitoring IC's also monitors temperature and adjusts fan voltage accordingly.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

Ah linear regulation got it.

[seanc]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

Heads up, Antec has been playing with their OEMs. The EA-380 PSUs don't look like Seasonic builds any more.

Looking through the grill, primary cap is a single Samxon, cables are shorter and fewer, with different connectors all placed onto one cable, rather than having one for SATA, one for molex etc. Board isn't stamped ATX 400W rev 5, there's usually a 2200uf 16v cap visible through the back, it's not there. They're rated bronze in the 80+ certification - the old ones may be too, the boxes don't specify.

Also, the casing is now army green, they're coming pre-installed in Antec NSK3480 - which we've been buying for years.

I'll see if I can get any more details off of the labels tomorrow.

[370forlife]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

Probably delta. Antec seems to slowly be moving their low-medium range to delta now.

[seanc]

Re: Antec Earthwatts 650W

370 - Confirmed by Antec Europe.