Power supply malfunction

[joshuamays]

i have an Antec 500 watt ATX 12V v2.2

ive already had one go bad on me before. when i turn the power on on the back of the pc i can see that theres a light on the mobo that turns on. When powering it on fully from the front my fans will turn on briefly and a second light on the mobo which indicates that the pc has been powered to boot flashes on for a sec and then everything shuts off. After this happens i still have the one power indicator light that is still on. what should i do to trouble shoot this? i have a second pc with identical parts, so substituting any parts will be no prob.

 

[raybay]

Start by telling us why the power supply needed replacing twice...
Please describe your machine...motherboard, DVD drive, memory installed, optical drive, cooling fans, CPU - CPU fan, and thermal paste... Operating System... Hard drive brand and model, as well as what is on it?

 

[joshuamays]

RE: PC Specs to resolve power issue

Mobo - DFI Lanparty UT nF3 250GB

Optical - Gigabyte Radeon 9250

HD Primary - Western Digital WD Caviar 20GB IDE

HD Slave - Hitachi Deskstar 250GB 7200RPM ATA/IDE

DVD - DVD-RW Model# SW-9585-C

Mem - Kingston 1GB DDR SDRAM Desktop Memory

Mem - Kingston 512MB PC3200 DDR RAM

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ 2.21GHz

CPU Fan - AMD Model# AFB0712HHB DC12V 0.10A

Cooling Fan (Qty. 5) - Raidmax D80SL-12 DC12V 0.45A

OS - Microsoft MS WIN XP HE

 

[joshuamays]

power supply just shorted out. could smell the hard stinch of an electrical burn. i actually took it apart to see exactly what happen. blew 2 transistors and a resistor.

 

[raybay]

Twice? This happened twice?

 

[joshuamays]

yes twice. i have replaced it once already. not entirely sure what going on internally on the new power supply. will void if i pop it open to determine the prob. still have a good 3yr manufacturer warranty.

 

[raybay]

Were the two that failed different brands or the same brand and model...
Hope you have got it whipped now.

 

[joshuamays]

ive actually pulled all components from the tower and cleaned everything just to kill time.

as for the power supply, yes, i have already returned one to best buy.

is this more than a coincidence that im having supposed power related problems with this particular power supply? are antecs not reliable?

i have a volt meter at home. what wires do i test on? what voltage and amps should i be reading?

 

[joshuamays]

my power supply is equipped with over voltageprotection and short circuit protection. i thought i might have been shorting it out, so i disconnected all 5 fans.. with the exception of the cpu that is. Still not sure whats going on.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

i have an Antec 500 watt ATX 12V v2.2

Is it an antec Bq basiq or AE Antec Earth watts?
The Bq line isn't very good, but the earth watts it good. I would suspect something wrong with your computer rather than the powersupply if it has already happened twice. How long were the intervals between?

 

[joshuamays]

to make it official when i built my pc i originally started with a Raidmax ATX12V (450 Watt). that power supply is toast. Thats when i bought an Antec 500 Watt (ATX12V v2.2). Not sure what happend with it. I just returned it and got a new. Yes, i am currently on power supply number 3, and it appears that it is failing as well.

I have a second pc with similar components, which is running off its original Raidmax ATX12V (450 Watt) power supply. im gonna swap out the power supply to see if thats the prob lol.

The pc that is failing has 2 HD and the specs have been listed above in previous thread. the one thats working has 1 HD. For a basis of better comparison here are the specs of the pc that is working.

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor

Mobo - Gigabyte nForce3 250

DVD - no portable drives atm

Mem - (Qty. 2) Kingston 512MB PC3200 DDR

Cooling Fan - (Qty. 5) Raidmax D80SL-12

CPU Fan - AMD Model # AFB0712HHB

HD - Maxtor 6L12OPO 120GB

Optical - Gigabyte Radeon 9200

 

[joshuamays]

yeah, its an earthwatts power supply

 

[dmill89]

How long did these replacement PSUs last before failing? The antec earthwatts series are generally verry good PSUs and the likelyhood of getting two bad ones is very slim so you are either extreamly unlucky or there is some other bad component in your system (possibly the motherboard). A bad component could cause the problems by itself or damage a perfectly good PSU causeing problems. The old raidmax you had was a total piece of junk with limited to non-existent protection circuitry so it could have easily damaged the motherboard or other components when it failed. First check for obvious physical damage (burm marks, leaking/buldgeing caps, etc.) again focus on the mother board since they tend to be the cause of problems such as these. You could try swapping in a new PSU but if you keep haveing these "failed" PSUs you need to look elseware for the source of the problem.

 

[raybay]

Yes, Antec power supplies can be problems.
Out of all the "name" power supplies, we see more failures with Antec than all other brands together here in the Southwest... But we stopped buying Antec power supplies over two years ago. The suppliers in nearby cities no longer carry the Basiq or Earthwatts, but still carry their TruePower. If there is a problem, nobody is talking.

 

[joshuamays]

The PSUs that have had issues in the past have all failed within a year and a half. Well, feel free to recommend another psu. My faith in Antec grows thin.

 

[joshuamays]

yes, i have completely removed all components from the tower. visually, everything appears to be in excellent condition. as far as any component being damaged from the failing PSUs, nothing is obvious.

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

I agree, I think AntecEarthwatts series powersupplies are great, I think the problem may lie in something else since you have gotten so many dead power supplies.

 

[raybay]

Please do not misunderstand... We were not the ones who had "...gotten so many dead power supplies..." PC's with failed Earthwatts and Basiq They were brought to us, or found by our visiting techs over a three county area... by clients requiring repair or consultation on problems....
We performed 14,172 desktop PC repairs last year... of course not all were Earthwatts, and we only see the failed ones, not the good ones.
How many Earthwatts have you seen? How do you define "great"? what sorts of failures have you seend.

 

[dmill89]

Well the Earthwatts series is made by either seasonic or delta depending on weather or not it is a "D" model ex: EA500 is seasonic, EA500D is a delta. The Basiq series is made by FSP. These are all verry repuitable manufactures with low failure rates. Antec in general is relatively reliable with the exception of their hot running Smartpower 2.0 series and their less than heat tolerent fuhyyu capacitors but those have been discontinued and Antec no longer uses the oem that made them (channelwell). their current oems are all verry respectible companies:
FSP: Basiq
Seasonic: Earthwatts 500w and lower without the "D" suffix in the model #, True Power New
Delta: Earthwatts larger then 500w and 430 & 500w with the "D" suffix, Signature series, CP-850w
Enhance: True Power Quattro (TPQ)

(You may not have heard of Delta or Enhance but that is because they do mostley OEM work for other companies. Their products are generally of good quality and well rated)

This being said while Antec has a low failure rate it would make sense for a computer teh to see alot of failed antecs since they are one of the most popular PSU brands. therefore while the precentage of failures may be low the large numbers of antec PSUs sold is why they may be seen somewhat often. Also things loke power surges and cheap motherboards can lead to early PSU failure.

My personal expreience with antec is good I have used many antec PSUs in both my own PCs and those I repaired for others In all that time I have only had one failure and that was a Smartpower 2.0 that came out of a server running 24/7 for 3 years.