Refurbished Sparkle 300watt PSU from Newegg - Beware

[Rvenger]

I was expecting a refurbished unit with some scratches/blemishes, maybe a little dust but on Tuesday it arrived at my door and I opened the package and found this wrapped in a plastic bag...

What are those spots on top of the PSU? Wow this is pretty terrible looking.

It looks to be rust. Could it have been because it was in a moist environment perhaps? I chatted online with a Newegg Rep and explained that there is rust on the PSU and he questioned me continuously on why there would be rust on something they sent me. He refused to give me a refund and told me that he would send me a replacement PSU once I sent the old one back. I refused since it was a $13 PSU and I needed it by the end of the week. Later on I called and spoke to an actual rep and explained the situation and she ended up refunding my $13 and she told me to keep the PSU. (It would cost them more money to ship it back to the CA warehouse)


Since they told me to keep it I decided to inspect further and crack the unit open...

Yep! There you have it. A Fuhjyyu 105c capacitor went kaboom.. then the electolytic fluid which is like acid seeped out and rusted the PSU case. Nice, well fuhjyyu too!

Lesson learned here... sometimes you have to pass up a good deal even though its for your father in law's 4 year old PC.

 

[Eureka]

This is why you don't go for the $13 PSU, when a 420W brand-name PSU can be had for $25.

 

[Rvenger]

Last time I checked FSP/Sparkle was a well respected brand. I just needed something for an old system that draws probably 200w max from the wall.

 

[TemjinGold]

Wonder how the cap busted. I mean, refurb technically means the manufacturer fixed it and is guaranteeing it works...

 

[Rvenger]

Wonder how the cap busted. I mean, refurb technically means the manufacturer fixed it and is guaranteeing it works...

These Fuhjyuu caps are notorious for venting under spec. I had an antec TP that bit the dust of this very reason. Not to mention it was supposed to replace a Rosewill RV450 with blown Fuhjyuu caps.

I think Badcaps.net consider it to be one of the worst.

I think I will recap all these Fuhjyuu caps and the PSU might work.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

I never buy refurburished.

 

[tcsenter]

I was gonna say that looks a lot like corrosion caused by a cap venting but I was thinking more like one of the motherboard caps around the CPU socket. At least you got your money back.

Oh and though I've never purchased refurb'd stuff from Newegg, I have bought a fair amount of refurb'd stuff from Computer Geeks. Always been satisfied with what I got and the couple times I wasn't, they responded satisfactorily by exchange or refund without any hassle.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've purchased open-box motherboards before, and factory-refurb Netgear routers.
Not really a problem with any of them.

Well, I also bought some refurb Belkin N150 routers, and one of those had defective wireless.

 

[blastingcap]

WOW. I would not buy anything really important like a PSU open-box. OP's post just reinforces that position. Nonessentials like GPUs I'm more okay with, but my Newegg open-box MSI 7770 is starting to act up a little bit. I hope it's just random chance and not a sign of things to come. Gave it a few more mV and clocked down a few more Hz and am crossing my fingers.

 

[bryanl]

Newegg claimed their refurbished products were refurbished from the factory, not merely inspected and repackaged by Newegg, and in my experience with their motherboards and video cards that seemed true, as I usually detected signs of repair.

No way could that Sparkle PSU could have passed a 300W load test with the defective capacitor since its DC voltage would have been low or its ripple too high. It appears to be a model sold at least 5, perhaps 8-10 years ago.

Rvenger: did you enter a review at Newegg and post in their forum?

 

[blastingcap]

Newegg claimed their refurbished products were refurbished from the factory, not merely inspected and repackaged by Newegg, and in my experience with their motherboards and video cards that seemed true, as I usually detected signs of repair.

No way could that Sparkle PSU could have passed a 300W load test with the defective capacitor since its DC voltage would have been low or its ripple too high. It appears to be a model sold at least 5, perhaps 8-10 years ago.

Rvenger: did you enter a review at Newegg and post in their forum?

My bad, I was conflating refurbs with open-box. In that case that's even worse to have a factory refurb turn out so badly!

 

[tweakboy]

I told yall newegg sells used and refurbished stuff, and adverts as new but sends you this.. so it happened to him hes not the first... :thumbsdown: I dislike newegg imo. Thank you

My friend recieved a used garmin watch adverts as new in a white box that is another wrong ,, look how many people its happened to... I never purchase from the newegg especially since their in Los Angeles near me charge tax,:thumbsdown:

 

[tcsenter]

Too many companies these days relying upon refurbishing contractors rather than in-house.

 

[Rvenger]

Newegg claimed their refurbished products were refurbished from the factory, not merely inspected and repackaged by Newegg, and in my experience with their motherboards and video cards that seemed true, as I usually detected signs of repair.

No way could that Sparkle PSU could have passed a 300W load test with the defective capacitor since its DC voltage would have been low or its ripple too high. It appears to be a model sold at least 5, perhaps 8-10 years ago.

Rvenger: did you enter a review at Newegg and post in their forum?

I might add a review on newegg but they seemed to have resolve my issues. I really didn't get a refund of my money, they wouldn't but they gave me a gift card which I was fine with anyways. I didn't have to return the PSU so I may recap it afterall since it is a good unit. (except for the crap caps) I am thinking this is a "Newegg in-house refurb" meaning that its from their old computer systems throughout their warehouse.

 

[Soundmanred]

I told yall newegg sells used and refurbished stuff, and adverts as new but sends you this.. so it happened to him hes not the first... :thumbsdown: I dislike newegg imo. Thank you

My friend recieved a used garmin watch adverts as new in a white box that is another wrong ,, look how many people its happened to... I never purchase from the newegg especially since their in Los Angeles near me charge tax,:thumbsdown:

This was not "adverts as new lol gl ty gb".
It was sold as a refurb.

 

[tcsenter]

I've purchased open-box motherboards before, and factory-refurb Netgear routers.

Did you ever manage to unload all of those ASRock PT880 boards you purchased from 3Btech?

 

[Gigantopithecus]

sometimes you have to pass up a good deal even though its for your father in law's 4 year old PC.

You spent $13 on a refurbished PSU for your father in law? 😀 You two must get along really well... 🙄

 

[Rvenger]

You spent $13 on a refurbished PSU for your father in law? 😀 You two must get along really well... 🙄

I could have bought him a logisys 😀

I actually thought it was a good deal since its going in an old PC.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Did you ever manage to unload all of those ASRock PT880 boards you purchased from 3Btech?

At a loss, but yes, I did get rid of them.

 

[tcsenter]

At a loss, but yes, I did get rid of them.

Ah well, been there and done that! Hopefully it wasn't too painful.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Last time I checked FSP/Sparkle was a well respected brand. I just needed something for an old system that draws probably 200w max from the wall.

a $13 well respected brand....give me a break......nothing for $13 is well respected......

 

[Sheep221]

a $13 well respected brand....give me a break......nothing for $13 is well respected......

It is more like a fraud to sell something like that for such a low price even it is used/refurbished. Sometimes I don't even know why they are doing this, no one is checking the stuff they are selling over at egg.

 

[dawp]

just out of curiosity has anyone gotten a psu with bad caps to work again by replacing the caps?

I have 2 Antec TP with bulging caps, one a 480 and the other 500 or 550 (can't remember which) and trying to decide if it's worth my time to replace them.

 

[Sheep221]

just out of curiosity has anyone gotten a psu with bad caps to work again by replacing the caps?

I have 2 Antec TP with bulging caps, one a 480 and the other 500 or 550 (can't remember which) and trying to decide if it's worth my time to replace them.

Definitely worth of a try, get the same caps from electronics DIY store and it should work.

 

[Rvenger]

As long as the unit hasn't actually failed which I think this unit still works, just probably high ripple/out of spec with the bad cap. If I recap all the bad caps this unit will work just fine.