[DEAD] LiteOn 300W PSU $19 @ Directron

[Waco10]

I'll gonna buy this PSU to replace one that went up in smoke. But first I need some diagnostic help in figuring out why the original PSU smoked in the first place.

Cheap generic $28 case+ps @300W
Cheap MSI nForce Motherboard (OEM from Package2u).
1.3Mhz Duron retail HS
2 sticks 128mb 2100 crucial ram
Liteon CDRW
WD 40bb

My Son called me at work and said that smoke came out of the back of the computer when he turned it on. he shut off the power at the surge protector. I came home and found it completely dead. So, I transfered all the components to another case. This case had run a Chainteck Apogee with similar components no problem. Once I finished transfering the components I hit the power button and poof; smoke poured out of the PSU and that's all she wrote. I've never had a PSU burn up in 15 years of fool'n with PCs. At this point I have to believe the motherboard is the culprit. If anyone can shed some light on this I would appreciate it. This is going to bother me till I figure it out. Plus, I know I'm gonna try that motherboard again.I'm a cheap SOB.

Anyhow I'm going to order the Liteon PSU and an Asus A7N266-VM AA from newegg.

thanks

Gripe: Good indepth reviews of LCD monitors and better identification of the true identity of the "value" LCDs.

 

[mindless1]

Waco10, when you "transferred all components", this means the original PSU stayed in the old case, the new case's PSU was then used?

Whether it was the motherboard or not, your PSUs lacked important safeguards, died because of that. A well designed PSU with overvoltage, overcurrent/short protection should turn itself off without suffering any damage.

Since those PSU where questionable, one "might" have damaged the motherboard, which in turn damaged the other PSU (if I understand your account correctly). With all the faulty capacitors floating around in the industry right now it's hard to speculate. You might take the cover off the dead PSU(s) and see what components failed. If you have a DMM you might take resistance readings at the motherboard ATX power connector and the large capacitors (observe polarity of caps) to check for shorts, after carefully inspecting those capacitors for buldging/leaks/vented top.

My impression of MSI isn't too bad, they make a decent value motherboard except of course they're subject to capacitor or PSU defect like everybody else.

 

[movinslow]

Is having the second fan at the back instead of the bottom worse? (as this psu has that)
I've heard having the fan on the bottom is better since it allows air to pass over the cpu/heatsink.
Makes sense to me.

Anyone else?

 

[Shagger]

I am down for one. Bought a cheapo Codegen case with a Comet 300W PS a while back for a friend's comp and it has been flaking out lately. Lots of erratic behavior. It's a P4 1.6 in an ASUS 266-C had it OC'ed to 2.4 for a while and brought it back down to 1.6 to try to solve the problem's but no dice. I have swapped out the memory and will try the video next. But since erratic behavior is a lot of times linked to a crappy PS figured I'd give this sucker a try. I had them throw in a Molex to P4 connector so it can power the CPU properly.

 

[oddjob303]

Thx grabbed one to bad they charge shipping. Also got a vantec nexus rheobus for 23 that came w/ free shipping.

 

[docinthebox]

I grabbed one too. Thanks Mindless1!! At less than 1/3 the cost of an Antec True430, this is a steal.

 

[kidsafe]

Originally posted by: movinslow
Is having the second fan at the back instead of the bottom worse? (as this psu has that)
I've heard having the fan on the bottom is better since it allows air to pass over the cpu/heatsink.
Makes sense to me.

Anyone else?

The second fan on the bottom like on TruePower PSUs is the better design since it pulls air from deeper within the enclosure. As with some cases where the PSUs are mounted vertically, it's especialky nice when coupled with a high-grade CPU heatsink designed to have fans sucking air off like the Alpha-Novatechs...

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: movinslow
Is having the second fan at the back instead of the bottom worse? (as this psu has that)
I've heard having the fan on the bottom is better since it allows air to pass over the cpu/heatsink.
Makes sense to me.

Anyone else?

My take on the fan placement is that it's definitely necessary on a higher-heat system (like upper MHz Athlon or P4) to have EITHER a fan on the underside of the PSU (or at least the primary air passageway from vents) or a fan on the upper rear of the case behind the CPU.

After you have ONE fan, it depends more on how your motherboard is designed, if it's component placement is such that the voltages regulators are placed high or to the right then the nearer the fan, the higher the airflow over them, meaning the PSU intake matters more. It certainly is optimal to have BOTH the rear case fan and an air intake (with or without fan) on the PSU underside, but usually not necessary except perhaps on the fastest of P4 or Palomino XPs (but again depends on the layout of the specific motherboard, you can touch-test the components under load to see just how hot all those "bits" are getting).

On the other hand, anyone having a mATX case with no fan on the rear case wall should definitely use a PSU with an air intake on the underside with any system hotter-running than a P3 or ~800MHz Duron/Athlon. It's not ESSENTIAL, but your motherboard will thank you for it in the long run. The problem can be that that many components that get hot aren't even properly 'sinked, the airflow has only a minor impact unless you go to extremes like chopping up lil hunks of heatink and arctic-epoxying them to the relevant 'site (which I admit to doing myself, plead insanity regarding). The motherboard is the real issue if you already have the rear case fan, the processor itself can be just as "happy" at the (roughly) +-3 C difference either way.

Having written that, I added a fan to the underside of my newest Liteon, for a system that's not cool-running but not particularly hot-running either (T'bred XP). Then again I probably wouldn't have bothered except for the killer deal I found on a case of fans here (dead deal, was almost a year ago) and the fact that I just can't "leave well enough alone".

 

[robrr]

Originally posted by: Waco10
I'll gonna buy this PSU to replace one that went up in smoke. But first I need some diagnostic help in figuring out why the original PSU smoked in the first place.



My Son called me at work and said that smoke came out of the back of the computer when he turned it on. he shut off the power at the surge protector. I came home and found it completely dead. So, I transfered all the components to another case. This case had run a Chainteck Apogee with similar components no problem. Once I finished transfering the components I hit the power button and poof; smoke poured out of the PSU and that's all she wrote. I've never had a PSU burn up in 15 years of fool'n with PCs. At this point I have to believe the motherboard is the culprit. If anyone can shed some light on this I would appreciate it. This is going to bother me till I figure it out. Plus, I know I'm gonna try that motherboard again.I'm a cheap SOB.

Anyhow I'm going to order the Liteon PSU and an Asus A7N266-VM AA from newegg.

Waco10,

Make sure you verify that the wiring in your home is not the culprit before you plug in that new psu and mobo.

 

[elkinm]

Just got my LiteOn and the +3.3 and +5 are very good. The problem is that the +12 V is extremely low. My motherboard reads from 11.22-11.28 v While even my old generic 400W PSU which is on its last legs is between 11.5-11.6. My motherboard is the MSI K7N2-L with an Athlon XP 1600+ at defaults, a Maxtor D740X 80 GB, a DVD drive, a CDRW, a YS tech 48 CFM 80 mm fan and two low power case fans.

I don't have a voltmeter so I am goinng by the motherboard readings, and I don't like that the +12 is lower then with my old 400W despite the low amp rating on the +12.

Is my voltage excesevly low or should I trust in the LiteOn quality to power my system.

Thanks
elkinm

 

[elkinm]

My system apears stable with even the +12 at 11.18-11.28 which is the lowet I have ever seen on this system even compared to crapy generic PSUs. Should I be woried and try to RMA it to directron or should I just keep it. Is there any way to test my +12 output without a volt meter or simply adding devices utill it can't take it anymore.

I also thought about using the pots to ajust the voltage, but I was wondering if raising both the +12 and +5 vould cause problems as I already have a good +5 voltage and don't want to raise it to much.

Thanks again

 

[mindless1]

A voltmeter is the only reliable way to know the "true" voltage.

If I were to guess, I'd guess that your CPU fan is too powerful for the motherboard, is dragging the 12V rail down on the board. As for why the other PSU read higher, either you had a different CPU fan, or perhaps the generic PSU's 12V rail was misadjusted or intentionally OVER voltage to compensate for it's inadequacy (if a PSU doesn't have a quick recovery on a rail, it could be set to slight overvoltage to stay closer to spec when it's voltage drops momentarily).

What you might do (unless you happen upon a multimeter), is try running that CPU fan from a PSU power plug, compare the RPM and/or airflow/noise to when it's powered by the motherboard. A difference of 0.7V on a fast fan like that should be noticable by mortal senses in addition to the motherboard RPM sensor (by attaching only the RPM wire to the motherboard, the other two to the PSU, they'll slip out of the fan plug and loosely fit in the PSU molex plug.

 

[Replay]

Originally posted by: elkinm
I also thought about using the pots to ajust the voltage, but I was wondering if raising both the +12 and +5 vould cause problems as I already have a good +5 voltage and don't want to raise it to much. Thanks again

Best guess is that your mobo not reporting the actual voltage on the 12v line, and reading low by about 0.5 volts. I'd try to get a friend with a meter to check it out. If it is truly so low then consider doing the RMA.
Don't mess with the potentiometers inside the PSU if your 5v line is fine. One pot changes the 5v, and incidently changes the 12v just a little bit. The other pots are a mystery (and didn't help me install a substitute fan).
The 12v line in this PSU will rise slightly as the 5v load is increased (normal with many PSU designs). You can hear this increase, and see it, in your fan rpm when you run a cpu burn-in program. My 12v line dropped from 11.88 to 11.75 when I replaced an overclocked Palomino 1.7G with a Thoroughbred, while the 5v line stays within +/- 0.03 volts of 5.02 volts at all times (very nice!). For most of us, the 12v line runs the motors, and it need not be as precisely regulated as the 5v and 3.3v lines.

 

[elkinm]

My generic PSU was the lowest voltage I have seen other then the liteon. I tried 4 Antecs from 300 to the TruePower 430 and they all had +12 reedings of 11.8 - 11.9 but were just as low on the +3.3 and +5 ratings. The best was an AGI 400 wich was good all arround except the +12 was at 12.7v. I returned all as I did not want to pay so much for a bad PSU. The strangest thing is that when I tried a Radeon 9500 pro as well as another WD hard drive, the +12 read around 12.6 - 12.7 v just below the AGI.

My fans seem to be running just fine even the high speed YS Tech which goes strait of a PSU connector. Also my motherboard has a 12v CPU connector and the power on the CPU is good and actualy a little better then before.

Also, at what points whould I measure the voltages or simply on one of the moltex connectors. Also, is there an easy way to measure the +12 going to the motherboard as maybe there is a voltage drop with the motherboard itself when it reaches the onboard volt meter.

Thanks again.

Edit, I just checked, and both the BIOS as well as SiSoft Sandra both report about 11.4v. The other voltage is from PC Alert 4. So the voltages seem slightly better but still quite low.

 

[elkinm]

I found a volt meeter. It is cheep, but it appers to be quite good, at least on basic circuits and bateries. I get a reeding of 11.68 - 11.69v on the +12 and 5.18 on the +5. I just put the connectors to a free moltex conector and this is what I got. How does it sound?

And 3.37 on the +3.3

 

[Replay]

Originally posted by: elkinm
I found a volt meeter. It is cheep, but it appers to be quite good, at least on basic circuits and bateries. I get a reeding of 11.68 - 11.69v on the +12 and 5.18 on the +5. I just put the connectors to a free moltex conector and this is what I got. How does it sound?

And 3.37 on the +3.3

I'd say your 12v line is fine at 11.68 or so. From your old 11.18-11.28v readings, my 0.50 volts low "guestimate" was on target (pats self on back). The 3.3v line is nice. Now I'd say the 5V line is higher than it could be after adjustment, but acceptable, and you should find that all of the voltages are stable under varying loads (it is a high quality psu after all).

Your mobo manual may show the pinouts for the ATX power plug and sockets. You ~might~ have a poor connection to the mobo at the main plug, but most likely the mobo voltage reading is inaccurate. Double check that the ATX plug is on well, or remove it and install it again.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: elkinm
Also my motherboard has a 12v CPU connector

Are you using an ATX12V 4-pin adapter attached to that 12V CPU connector? If not, you should. My first instinct would be to not use that PSU, either try on another system or return it. On the other hand it seems to be working, and most PSUs claim variances of +- 10% on 12V rail, making the low value 10.8V.

If it were me I'd keep the Liteon but consider using it in another system, and in that system use a PSU with higher 12V rating, since the 12V reading from the molex connector should read VERY near 12.0V.

 

[stompah]

I just received mine yesterday. 11.84v at the molex. Also mine was in near mint condition with perfect connectors.

 

[letsgetsilly]

So this will not work with Pentium 4 computers?

My friend's p4 compaq just broke down, i was wondering if this would work in hers.

Thanks

 

[mindless1]

Compaq P4 systems can't use it, but then some of them can't even use ATX12V, because they have an oddly 24 pin motherboard connector. If that's the situation you'll be rewiring a PSU, or it's cheaper to buy a standard mobo + PSU than a PSU from Compaq.

 

[docinthebox]

I installed mine today in my KT7-RAID system. Got exactly 3.3V and 5V for the two rails, and 11.84V for the +12V rail. Not bad, considering I have a total of 5 hard drives (1 of them a Seagate Cheetah 15k.3), plus a DVD-ROM and a CDRW. The PSU is pretty quiet too. Overall a great deal for $26 shipped. Thanks for the deal!

 

[dman]

Well, I'll report too...

I bought two of them. Installed one last week.

In the MB Bios:
3.3v reads 3.32v
5v reads 5.1xv
12v reads 11.5x...11.7x (it varies a bit). Not sure if that's bad or not. So far system seems stable.

I am using a converter for the extra connection to an (AMD) Nforce2 board by Soltek. Perhaps that's part of the 12v fluctuation, or perhaps it's just the MB readings. I'm too lazy to hook up a voltmeter at this point.

 

[OulOat]

Just got 2 of these too, near mint condition with just some scratchs. All of my rails are good, but I just 2 hds and an optical. This PSU is heavy, more than twice as heavy as my 400W generic.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: Archaicknite
Comments about the noise have been inconclusive... How does it compare with the 420w turbolink/channel well psu's... I'm trying to replace it without spending too much money. Anyone have experience with both?

I already had a "Channel Well" labeled Channel Well 420W PSU (with single fan/chrome grill) which is a good PSU, comparible to a 400-odd Watt Antec. IT would be a good choice... Quality a little lower than the LiteOn, but not bad, and higher 12V capacity plus the 12V P4 connector.

Then there is the "Turbolink" labeled Channel Well PSU... I just opened one of these a few minutes ago, and I'm startled at what a stark contrast there is between these two Channel Well PSU, having VERY similar labels. The Turbolink has practically no input filtering, not even the most elementary MOV surge-protection circuit that most if not all of the cheap PSUs have. Practially all the internal components are undersized and it failed when it's output filter caps gave out, from either overheating or just inadequacy to deliver enough power. I didn't have the misfortune of seeing what the REST of the system it was in looked like, but the PSU itself was DOA.

If I had ANY system with the "Turbolink" PSU in it, I would immediately pull that PSU out of the system and never use it again.

I still can't believe it's rated as a 420W PSU... I have Delta 240W PSU that look like they're made out of GOLD compared to this thing.

 

[Replay]

... I have Delta 240W PSU that look like they're made out of GOLD compared to this thing.

Get that Delta in the summer '01 Micron Andara barebones deal? I've got several of those little Deltas running hard, with Palominos at 1.7GHz 1.85v, micro-atx case, no fans, GeForce3 oc'd, nic, modem, cdrom, and a 40G 7200 drive. No wonder you'll find Delta's in many better-brand pc's. I'll take 250W 300W quality over 420W 500W light-weight junk any day.
Junk psu's mess up the radio too since most have no RFI filtering.