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Power Supply Smells

S

Smartazz

Diamond Member
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?
 
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.
 
Yeah, I tossed it and used a Corsair TX650 I had lying around. This power supply is far newer and of better quality.
 
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
 
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.
 
Smartazz said:
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?
Click to expand...

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.
 
mfenn said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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. 😉
 
mindless1 said:
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. 😉
Click to expand...

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.
 
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