Power Supply Smells

[Smartazz]

On my secondary rig, I have a Fortron 450W power supply. It powers an 8800GTS and a Core 2 Quad Q6600@3GHz. For a while the old power supply was able to handle the load, but then it started to smell absolutely terrible. I think something was burning inside it. I trashed the power supply, but have any idea what may have gone wrong?

 

[fralexandr]

could've been some leaky caps, or melting plastic, heh
not much information to go on though

 

[General Kenobi]

Bad caps most likely, unless it was poorly made or damaged in transit, in which case it could have been plastic as well.

 

[Smartazz]

I forgot to mention that the power supply was almost five years old.

 

[General Kenobi]

My guess would be capacitors gone bad then.

 

[mfenn]

My guess would be capacitors gone bad then.

Agree. Boiling electrolyte has a pretty distinctive smell.

 

[0roo0roo]

yea bad news, i had one go out like that, better to pull it now.

 

[Fire&Blood]

Like others said, most likely PS caps are the culprit.What about the rest of the components? If it's only the PS, a $50 close call isn't too bad.

PS's, especially older models with cheaper caps deteriorate over time, even more so if the operating temps are elevated. When it was new and "healthy", your PS was capable for the job but over time it degraded.

 

[Smartazz]

Yeah, I tossed it and used a Corsair TX650 I had lying around. This power supply is far newer and of better quality.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Yeah, I tossed it and used a Corsair TX650 I had lying around. This power supply is far newer and of better quality.

well i mean, the PSU was 5 years old xD

 

[Smartazz]

well i mean, the PSU was 5 years old xD

I was hesitant to use the Corsair unit since it suffers from horrible coil whine.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I was hesitant to use the Corsair unit since it suffers from horrible coil whine.

id rather have it whine then smell

 

[Smartazz]

id rather have it whine then smell

Heh yeah, the smell was really bad whereas coil whine is manageable. Is there a way to fix coil whine without having to RMA the unit?

 

[mindless1]

define "coil whine". You have to locate the specific component and either put something like epoxy or lacquer over it to fix the coils in place, desolder and replace the whole *coil*, or in theory you might be able to tweak the switching frequency a little and get the coil out of a resonant range. Varying the load can also make a difference but isn't very practical

 

[Smartazz]

It does it whatever the load is and it's a very high pitched whine. I'm hesitant to open up the PSU as it is still under warranty.

 

[mfenn]

Heh yeah, the smell was really bad whereas coil whine is manageable. Is there a way to fix coil whine without having to RMA the unit?

RMA won't help you unless they send you a V2 in return (technically a different SKU). It's a design flaw in the original 650TX that causes the problem. You CAN fix it yourself as mindless1 suggested, but that requires some bravery.

 

[Smartazz]

RMA won't help you unless they send you a V2 in return (technically a different SKU). It's a design flaw in the original 650TX that causes the problem. You CAN fix it yourself as mindless1 suggested, but that requires some bravery.

That's a pretty annoying flaw on an otherwise great power supply. I still have the main rig in my sig, so I'll get around to fixing the secondary rig when I have the time. Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[0roo0roo]

id rather have it whine then smell

yea wonder what is in that toxic brew

 

[Smartazz]

I'm guessing listening to that whine is healthier than smelling whatever that smell was?

 

[BFG10K]

Moved to PSU forum - Super Moderator BFG10K.

 

[Leyawiin]

I just sent a three year old 750W PC Power and Cooling off for warranty replacement. It began having an occasional whine when under 3D applications a few months ago and then last week it began to stink. Kind of confounded me as to what it was at first - I couldn't pin point the odor in the house since the power supply didn't outright fail. Kind of a burning "electrical" odor. At least it had a five year warranty, although I had to replace it while it was off for RMA.

 

[Jeff7]

If the Corsair supply is under warranty, see if you can RMA it before trying to pop it open yourself. If you aren't careful in there, there are some pretty substantial capacitors that'll wake you right the heck up if you disturb their slumber.

A few years back I had an Antec supply that produced intermittent coil whine. That's an graphical representation of the sound - those thin blips up toward the top of the ambient noise were coming from the coil, somewhere around 15kHz. Antec replaced the supply under warranty.

 

[mindless1]

I'm now confused what alternatives were hoped for to resolve this besides RMA if opening the PSU was undesirable. We could ask the PSU to shut up or shake it to see if crickets fall out.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Nuke it from orbit

 

[Smartazz]

I'm now confused what alternatives were hoped for to resolve this besides RMA if opening the PSU was undesirable. We could ask the PSU to shut up or shake it to see if crickets fall out.

I tried option C at first which was to use an old Fortron unit. However, that ended poorly as my room still smells from when it failed.