PSU blown up...third time within a year (1 Viewer)

[Serius]

Ok my PSU has blown up 3 times now. Its an Antec 500w 'smart power 2.0'. Last two times it happened i took it back to where i bought it and got a new one as per warranty, which is basically what iam going to do this time. The annoying thing is iam usually waiting 2 weeks minimum to be able to get a new one, and thats alot of downtime to me.

If its a problem with that particular powersupply, i would much prefer to fix the problem or buy a psu where the problem wont occur rather than exchange for a new one that will only run ok for a handful of months before it shits itself.

So the PSU usually stops working when a blackout occurs at my house. It doesnt occur every blackout, but every time it has stopped working i noticed various items around the house reset, clocks etc.

The first time i put it down to bad luck, but third time unlucky? i doubt it. I dont think its a problem with my houses electricity, because the other 3 computers never had a problem. BTW there is a surge protector plugged into the outlet that the power supply is connected to.

I want to know what could possibly cause this so i can prevent it from happening again.

Did i fuck up the wiring inside the case/ installed wrong?
running too hot?
need a more powerful/less powerful psu?
power outlet broke?

this is fairly annoying so any suggestions would be ace. wont be able to get a new psu until next weekend anyways.

 

[STx]

I've actually heard bad things(like what you experienced) about the 'smart power' ones from antec. But what hardware are you running though?
btw, when you get a new one- look for these brands: Silverstone, Enermax,Zippy, PCP&C, Seasonic(Tier 1 Brands) and if you still want Antec get the Antec Neo HE(Tier 2 Brand).

 

[withoutaface]

Why bother with a fancy PSU? I've always just used the cheap ones that come with the $50 cases I buy and I've never had a PSU problem in the 10 odd years I've been building my own computers.

 

[Melbournien]

First of all you should ditch the 'smart power', and buy a dfifferent PSU. Even generics would do a better job then those shitboxes.
Antec seems to be degrading in quality day by day.
Regards to your problem, its likely it could be the Antec.
Check to see what the +5Voltage is in bios; it should be between 4.70-5.20.
The smart power is known to degrade over time and that voltage seems to decrease sometimes even as low as 4V.
Hence this could be the main issue.

There could be other factors, like a faulty socket
Have you tried using another socket?
It could be giving irregular voltages to the PSU.
If this is the case get a UPS to compensate for the voltage loss, it might not be a permanent fix, but temporarily it will fix the problem.

 

[STx]

Why bother with a fancy PSU? I've always just used the cheap ones that come with the $50 cases I buy and I've never had a PSU problem in the 10 odd years I've been building my own computers.

mm cos its probably the most important part of the system and it could take the rest of the PC components with it if it dies.

 

[Serius]

Why bother with a fancy PSU? I've always just used the cheap ones that come with the $50 cases I buy and I've never had a PSU problem in the 10 odd years I've been building my own computers.

because most psu's that come with cases are like 300w or less, this isnt some sort of office pc i built, it was designed for Xtr3me* gaming and needed 500w minimum[plus some other stats]
*budget
kinda hard to remember what iam running, its sort of like a scorptec stinger
athlon 4200+
2x 1G sticks of corsair
asus a8n prem mobo
2X 250GB seagates[pretty sure they were seagates, might have been WD]
geforce 7800GTX oc
and ofcourse my antec 500w dodgy psu

the voltage degrading thing might be the problem. I havent actually checked the socket, and i will re wire everything up when i get my new psu[if iam lucky i might actually be able to get it today]

iam not going to care this time around cause iam getting a free one, but if it happens again iam just going to ask for my money back and take my business to someone who can actually make decent power supplies that dont shit themselves 3 months into it.

 

[withoutaface]

I got a 550W supply with my $55 case that I bought 2 months ago...

 

[AntiHyper]

Wow what a coincidence, my cheap shaw 600w psu just stopped supplying power last night.

Lucky I still had an old 250w just running on it for now

 

[SashatheMan]

maybe hardware too powerhungry?

 

[BIGTYMA]

its probly ur connections with the hardware componets. check them 1st. if everything seems to be fine get new wires. if u getting another psu try a coolmaster.

 

[sladehk]

maybe your comp is drawing close to break point in resources

 

[S1M0]

Get a 500kw+ PSU.

In fact, mabye going nuts and getting a 1000kw PSU might help, that'll reduce the chances of your PSU blowing up to 0.000001%.

And don't get Antec, get an actual good one.

Oh, and make sure you check the connections, as BIGTYMA mentioned, that could cause the explosion via power surge. New decent quality cables is whats needed for the required maintenance.

 

[STx]

^lol 500kw+ ey, i think you meant 500W+ But anyway I reckon a 500W psu(a higher quality brand though) should be enough for that system the OP has. Only the 'Smart power' versions of Antec have had problems as i've heard but I think the 'True power' series are okay but get something like a Silverstone or Seasonic to be safe

 

[jumb]

Ok my PSU has blown up 3 times now. Its an Antec 500w 'smart power 2.0'...

Did i fuck up the wiring inside the case/ installed wrong?
running too hot?
need a more powerful/less powerful psu?
power outlet broke?

It wasn't you, it was the psu. I used to have the same sort of PSU, except mine was a lower wattage. Our house suffers pretty common black outs/power surges so I think that is what stuffed mine up. What happened was the computer wouldn't always power up properly when I pressed the on button. At first, I had to wait ~6mins for it to turn on, within a few months I'd have to wait for days. It wasn't really a problem at first cause the computer stays on, and it could restart by fine so I didnt need to turn it off. Also, when it didn't start up properly, it make this weird clicking sound like a capacitor was blown.

I did some research and found that there are many people with the same problem (link) so instead of stuffing around with the warranty, I bought this

 

[Serius]

thanks, i managed to grab a new one sunday [lucky i kept that damned recipt] but iam thinking iam just going to take this peice of shit out, buy a decent one and keep the antec as a backup.

Good to know it isnt me...fucking antec.

 

[bizadfar]

I've actually heard bad things(like what you experienced) about the 'smart power' ones from antec. But what hardware are you running though?
btw, when you get a new one- look for these brands: Silverstone, Enermax,Zippy, PCP&C, Seasonic(Tier 1 Brands) and if you still want Antec get the Antec Neo HE(Tier 2 Brand).

Please tell me where to buy a Zippy in Australia.

I got a 550W supply with my $55 case that I bought 2 months ago...

If you were deep in knowledge about electronic components you would know why.
Most of those PSU are rated in simply UNREAL environments (like 20C). What Power SUpply runs at 20C? They are for sure around 40+. This effects the efficeincy and general quality of the signal, not to mention the giant ripple along the 12v,5v lines you are going to get. Voltage and Current is similar to car engines. You keep a car engine at similar rpm (eg not jumping up and down between 3k-7k so much) it stays healthy. Same goes for V/I. A cheap unit is going to give you large droops between load and idle states.

Now onto Capacitors. Most of these cheap units use very low quality high capacitance, HV capacitors. This is just basically a ticking time bomb hehe.

My first computer had one of these units, and after less than a year it failed. Opened it up, saw a big bulged capacitor in there. That was 2001.
My dads computer had the same brand/model and that also failed after 3 years, although he was running a significantly weaker system than i was.

 

[STx]

Please tell me where to buy a Zippy in Australia.

http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=Zippy+PSU

 

[bizadfar]

http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=Zippy+PSU

LOL dude, I looked those up 1 year ago. Zippy have two lines including a "gaming" series. Those are the ones with the huge amperage on a single 12V. Now most of those are the junko ones, they are still good, but not what I want. The other thing is i contacted Computer world (Cworld) almost 1.5years ago for their Zippy PSUs. They couldn't even verify the model number for me (so i didnt know if it was the the one with big 12v rail or not), so i basically told them to fuck off, what bad service they have.

Then a guy on XS, told me to try buy it direct off Zippy. I tried Zippy USA, they redirected me to the HQ. I asked the HQ in Taiwan (10s of emails, none ever replied to). I didn't bother to waste anymore time and just got a Silverstone ST56ZF.

Unless you actually GOT one, that is the only proof i will take.

 

[STx]

^ ah right, no I dont have one, i found out about the Zippy brand on XS as well.. btw I have a Silverstone ST56F.

 

[timace]

Got myself a Belkin power board w/surge protector... got the $75000 warranty. Seems like a goer. Could possibly claim just a bit more than a PSU