Problem with Antec Power Supplies

[Salvador]

I've got a problem with Antec power supplies. My work system went down a few weeks ago. For some reason, the power plug that plugs into the motherboard burned. It burned up the plug on the power supply and motherboard, so I replaced both. I had an indenticle motherboard laying around, so I installed it. I was using a (cheap) power supply that I had laying around until I could replace the power supply with a new one. It's some kind of LLC brand or something and it's only 250 watts.

This combination worked perfect btw..

Anyway.. I priced out power supplies, namely Antec, because I've had good luck with Antec power supplies. Instead of buying the 300w power supply by itself at Newegg, I figured that I'd just go ahead and buy the SLK2600AMB case instead with the power supply for $15 more than just the power supply. I can always use a nice cheap case.

The problem is that I'm on my second Antec power supply and I don't know what's up. What I'm doing is removing the power supply from the Antec case and putting it into my work system case. The first Antec power supply wouldn't power up at all. Nothing. DOA! The second power supply worked for about an hour and then when I shut down the system overnight, I noticed that it smelled funky. I thought it was just the newness burning off. I went to power up the system this morning and nothing. It must've died. I replaced it again this morning with the cheapo LLC 250w power supply and it works perfectly again.

Now.. I've been thinking about this and wondering if I'm accidentally killing these power supplies somehow. I've been using the lead for the fan control and plugging it into a fan header on the motherboard. Could I be plugging it into a bad lead? The power supply fan seems to work fine. This is the only thing that I'm doing differently than with the cheap power supply. The cheap power supply doesn't have a fan control.

The other possibility is if the Antec power supply that comes with the case doesn't like to work outside of the case. I can't imagine why this would be the case though.

Any ideas? I don't want to fry yet another Antec power supply.

TIA,

Sal

 

[erikistired]

i have an antec truepower 430 that works great, sorry to hear you are having all these problems. i don't use the fan lead at all, not sure if that could be the problem. maybe try leaving it unplugged to make sure the board isn't turning off the fan or something? the only complaint i have is that the 'fan only' leads don't seem to give my case fans enough power (but then i'm running 5 of them), otherwise it's been a great solid power supply.

i wonder if there is a grounding problem in your case, altho you'd think it would affect the other psu as well.

 

[Salvador]

i wonder if there is a grounding problem in your case, altho you'd think it would affect the other psu as well.

I know.. That's what I thought. It's weird to have two defective Antec power supplies in a row (One DOA and one died after using it for about an hour). Then again, I've never used the Antec power supply outside the Antec case, so I want to be sure that I'm not causing the failure myself.

Sal

 

[William23]

It has nothing to do with what case you put an antec psu in.You probably have a short or a bad fan header on your mobo.

 

[dnoyeb]

Perhaps the MB can not run the antec fans fast enough, or your OS is turning it off for some reason, or on very low. Try running it witout the MB connection and just use a PSU connection for the PSU fan.

Also, what kind of smell was it? Melting plastic which is overheat smell, or ozone which is overcurrent smell?

 

[Salvador]

Also, what kind of smell was it? Melting plastic which is overheat smell, or ozone which is overcurrent smell?

I initially thought that it was just the smell of the wire coatings burning off. It did smell a little more on the burned side though, that's why I was a little worried. When it wouldn't fire up my computer in the morning, I had suspected that something burned up.

Are you saying to just leave the fan control for the psu fan unplugged all together? I think it's just there to sense from the motherboard whether to turn the fan at a faster rate when things get hot. By not plugging it into the motherboard header (leave it unplugged), won't the psu fan just run at full speed?

Thanks again.

Sal

 

[erikistired]

it's for fan monitoring i believe. i left mine off, seems to be fine. my pc stays on 24/7 and the antec has been in there a few weeks now.

 

[piasabird]

Might be the motherboard and not the power supply.

If wires got too hot you either had some shorting or the first power supply might have caused some damage. Computers sometimes can short out the power supply when I/O cards touch or something like that. I burned out a power supply when I inserted a modem once. I just turned it back on and it just quit.

 

[DrCool]

who are you purchasing the power supplies from?

it could be they just got a bad batch, happens from time to time.

Directron http://www.directron.com has really good selection on power supplies, not sure how much you've been spending, but you can pick up a 300W Enermax for about $20

 

[Salvador]

I actually bought the power supplies from two separate places. The first one came from Newegg and the second one came from Circuit City. That's why I'm worried.

As for the fan speed control lead, I'm thinking about leaving it off. That's the only thing that I'm doing differently than with this cheap power supply and it's working perfectly.

Sal