My Antec True430 power supply blew!! Has this happened to anyone else?

[HSidwolf]

I assembled a computer about a week ago with all brand new parts. The setup info is below. The power supply I chose was the Antec TruePower 430 Watt psu, which I purchased after reading dozens of great reviews, ratings, and forums posts about it. I assembled and installed everything and set up Windows XP on it and installed all the basic drivers and software and everything ran just fine for a week. I also had the system hooked up to a surge protector and a Belkin 800VA UPS, so the power my computer was getting was very clean and controlled. I was not overclocking any components. I checked the BIOS and some xp diagnostic programs and there was no voltage drop in the power supply. The whole system looked like it was in perfect working order...

Then this morning, during a routine reboot, the Antec True430 PSU suddenly made this LOUD noise that sorta sounded like a terrible scratching / buzzing sound, and the power supply started smoking and giving off little bits of sparks. I dove for the power cord and unplugged the computer. After my pulse returned, I tried to see if any of the connections were loose and if any power cords were out of place. Everything inside the case looked fine except for the smoking psu...

I'm scared as hell now. I already filled out an RMA on the power supply. And it's a hassle not to have a working computer for a while, but that's not my main concern. I'm worried sick that the power supply could have damaged my other expensive components when it blew. This is supposed to be one of the best power supplies on the market, and 430 watts should have been more than enough for my system. I guess I was just very unlucky and got a defective unit. I'm wondering whether I should replace it with the same psu or go for something else (I had the Vantec VAN-520A in mind - more expensive but with more power and also very good reviews).

I could really use any kind of advice, stories of similar experiences, ideas, suggestions, whatever. Thanks in advance guys. I might run to a local store tomorrow and buy a psu just to see if the rest of my system got damaged. I'm gonna cry if my power supply fried something else... Meanwhile, I'm biting my nails and posting on the forums for ideas using someone else's computer... sigh...


Setup:

Belkin 800VA 450 watts UPS
Antec TruePower 430 watts psu
Asus P4PE mobo /w GBLan/Sata/Raid
P4 2.53 Ghz
Corsair XMS PC3200 C2 512 Mb DDR RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
2x Western Digital SE 80 Gb HD in RAID 0 setup
IBM Deskstar 60 gig (backup reasons)
NEC Floppy drive
Lite-On 40x CD burner
Lite-On 16x DVD drive
Creative Audigy 2 Platinum
5x 80mm quiet case fans

 

[UsandThem]

You will have defective products with any company. Antec has always seemed to make good products, so I would just say it was an unlucky break.

Concerning your parts being damaged, I have only had one power supply die on me and it took out my motherboard, hard drive, and CD RW drive. The memory, CPU, and video card were fine......go figure.

You will just have to test them one piece at a time if your system won't boot when you get the new power supply.

Good luck!

 

[DaveSimmons]

Man, this is the third of fourth thread on exploding TruePower PSUs I've read this year. I was thinking of getting one for a home theater PC, but now a PC Power or Zalman or Enermex sounds like a better idea.

Sorry I don't recall what the system damage was (if any) with the other exploding PSUs. A search of archived threads might find them (use advanced search)

 

[Xernex]

I recently built a similar PC to yours with that PSU, but no probs here. I'd say it was just a defective unit, give antec another go I'm sure it wouldn't happen again.

 

[Bad Dude]

I had a PSU blew up on me last year, Enhanced 350W. Nothing was damage. Eversince, everytime I turn on the computer, I had the erry feeling. I got the True Power 550W now.
It should have not blown up after a week of use. Check to see if anything else is causing it.

 

[bliab]

I also had the system hooked up to a surge protector and a Belkin 800VA UPS

You plugged a surge protector into a UPS? I don't think that caused your power to blow, but it's supposed to be a no-no.

 

[Talon02]

I helped a friend build a system with a Turbolink 350W, it blew instantly and fried the motherboard.

 

[Anubis]

eeek. i have teh True Power 430 and mines been fine for about 6 months now. hoprfully it wont blow up on me.

<-- Knocks On Wood

 

[HSidwolf]

Originally posted by: bliab

I also had the system hooked up to a surge protector and a Belkin 800VA UPS

You plugged a surge protector into a UPS? I don't think that caused your power to blow, but it's supposed to be a no-no.

Actually, I had the UPS plugged into the surge protector in the beginning for extension reasons. But when the power supply blew, I had already moved the case and wires and plugged the UPS directly into the wall (the computer was plugged directly into the UPS the whole time). Also, I installed and ran the Belkin software and it didn't detect any problems the whole week.

Anyway, thanks for the replies (even though the first one about all the broken components scares the crap out of me). I really really hope no other components got damaged. I think the TruePower series is supposed to have some sort of protection, so I might be safe. I guess I just got very unlucky. It's ironic because I've been using cheap, generic 250-300 watt power supplies for 7-8 years without any problems whatsoever, and the moment I get a good expensive psu, it blows up on me in 1 week... figures.

 

[BZeto]

please let us know if all the rest of your components are fine when you get the new PSU.

I also have an Antec True 430 Watt power supply. Hope mine never does that.

 

[Bad Dude]

You plugged a surge protector into a UPS? I don't think that caused your power to blow, but it's supposed to be a no-no.

I had one of the Belkin flat surge protector where you can put the monitor on top and it was plugged into the UPS unit. Nothing ever went wrong.
Can anyone tells me why is this a no no?
Thanks.

 

[HSidwolf]

antiABIT and Bad_Dude, do you remember exactly how your power supplies failed? Did they make any noise? Did they smoke or make sparks? Do you remember what you were doing with the computer at the time? What brand and watt psu were they? Any details would help... Thanks a lot.

 

[Bluefront]

My Truepower 330 died recently....it was new. Fortunately it didn't blow, nor did it take anything else with it. The computer started rebooting...sometimes it would bluescreen and say hardware failure, then reboot. No more truepower for me....never had a PS fail before and I've used no-name brands for years.

 

[Derango]

My antec has been going for 7-8 months now. Very nice PSU.

My guess is you just got a bad one. If it did its job right, all of your other components should be fine.

 

[Brian48]

Haven't had a problem with my 430w TruPower yet, but I did have a pp352x die on me at one time. Give Antec a direct call at their customer service line. They respond fairly quickly for RMAs. At least for me, they went out of their way to get me my replacement as soon as possible.

 

[ROJAS]

I running 2 Antec SX1040 w/400w p.s. and 1 Antec SX1080 w/430w p.s. and no problems. They are at least 8 months old, and my pc (1 of the SX1040) runs 20 hours a day.


ROJAS

 

[ROJAS]

Oops. Please delete this post. Sorry.


ROJAS

 

[buleyb]

Originally posted by: Bad_Dude

You plugged a surge protector into a UPS? I don't think that caused your power to blow, but it's supposed to be a no-no.

I had one of the Belkin flat surge protector where you can put the monitor on top and it was plugged into the UPS unit. Nothing ever went wrong.
Can anyone tells me why is this a no no?
Thanks.

There isn't anything really wrong with it, but there are some things to avoid. You don't want to overload the UPS by filling a surge protector strip. The UPS can only provide so much power to that port, and the more things you have pulling juice, the less backup the UPS can provide (and some UPSes won't even let you put that much on it without setting off an overload alarm of some sort).

It also isn't a smart idea to use a surge strip as an extention. Thats a sign to change your configuration, or put a heavy extention onto the UPS lead cable.

But I can't think of any reason why this would be a technical 'no-no'.

Anyone prove/disprove?

 

[Bad Dude]

Well the enhanced PSU that I had, just blew up with sparks and don't remember smoke but I cut the surge switch on it. Eversince, my hand is always on the surge when installing new PSU for the first time. It's a very scary experience. I bought it from Newegg.

 

[fluxquantum]

sorry to hear about that. i hope nothing got fried. i own both an enermax and antec power supply. so far both are working great. maybe you just got a lemon. it happens. hope it all works out. good luck!!

 

[HSidwolf]

Well, it seems like I have a little bit of good news in the midst of all this chaos... After my psu blew, I was so worried that the very next day I took out my girlfriend's power supply from her Dell system and brought it over to my place for some testing. The Dell power supply was rated at 170w/250w max, so I thought I'd be safer testing a few components at a time, just in case. I plugged in some basic components and my system didn't even post. I thought CRAAAAAP my components are fried. But I switched around some of the components and I was able to boot into XP with my RAID drives! I didn't have the time to test and benchmark everything, but everything seemed to be working fine. So I shut down and started connecting the other devices and testing them one by one. My dvd and cd drives seemed fine, but no matter what I tried, I could not even get the system to post with my IBM Deskstar 60 gig connected. I thought it was dead, since I've read countless posts about how these drives fail easily (even though mine's served me well 24/7 for over a year).

So I took my girlfriend's psu back to her place, and I also took the IBM hd with me. After I connected the IBM hd to her Dell, I went into BIOS but the bios wouldn't recognize the device and would list it as "unknown." At this point, I was pretty darn sure it was a goner and boot into her xp anyway. But when XP booted up, it detected the correct device driver for my IBM 60 gig and set it up automatically. I was ecstatic. I ran a full disk surface scan and virus scan just to make sure it was working, which is was. Then I reboot once again and went into the BIOS. This time around, the BIOS recognized the disk drive. I thought it was a miracle. The only explanation I can think of is that somehow the psu shorting out might have shocked my IBM hd and disrupted its firmware or onboard memory or something, and the xp bootup reset it. In any case, I was ecstatic.

Even though I got a defective unit that blew up on me, I'm grateful that at least the psu must have had some protection features that saved my other components from frying. I put in a RMA request to NewEgg and sent the psu back. As always, NewEgg was GREAT and very fast and waived the restocking fee also. I should be getting the new psu this Friday or next Monday. I really hope my other components are in full working order, and chances are, they are. But I won't know for sure until I install the new psu and test it out. I'll come back and post here once everything's working.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

I've got an old Antec KS188 case that came with a 300W Antec PSU. It has been running strong for over 4 years now. I have my lego machine running off of a $15 no name PSU i got at the monthly side walk sale, and it works fine, but for a Mission Critical machine, i will only ever use Antec.

 

[BD231]

The earlier modles were said to have a defect that Antec took care of, I've had 2 blow on me, but both were bought when they FIRST came out and at the same time. One just blew with smell of smoke but nothing visible, and the other blew with TONS of smoke and sparks. Antec sent me 2 newer modles and I've never had a problem with them. They said that a capacitor was the culprit, you may have just gotten one of the bad ones.

 

[bluesky]

Good to hear that your other components are still alive.

Anyone knows like this case, if a psu goes down with othe components, you get covered from the manufacturer like those surge protectors?

 

[joeryu]

my antec true power 430 just blew up on me today =(. loud bang, and smoke, and thats all she wrote. it was when i turned it on in the morning. im SOO scared that my componenets might be fried, im going to best buy in a bit to pick up another PS. hopefully everything is ok...