Pretty Darn Toasty: 450watt 4fan PSU for $14.50 + ~$7 Shipping

[JDub02]

Here's a painted 450w PSU for $19.99 since the other deal is dead

http://store.yahoo.com/directron/artsps.html

 

[ParatoOptimal]

I fired up one of mine.
It's pretty awesome!
The noise is nominal on the first two settings.

How do I use the automatic setting to sense what is needed?

Thanks

 

[Concillian]

It tells you in the manual, but there are three settings:
S (Silent)
A (Auto)
T (Turbo)

The letters are pretty hard to see, especially because when you want to see them there is a BRIGHT ASS LED shining in your eye. Look at the letters when the PSU is off, and just memorize the order, then move the the Auto one when you turn the PSU back on.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: Concillian
It tells you in the manual, but there are three settings:
S (Silent)
A (Auto)
T (Turbo)

The letters are pretty hard to see, especially because when you want to see them there is a BRIGHT ASS LED shining in your eye. Look at the letters when the PSU is off, and just memorize the order, then move the the Auto one when you turn the PSU back on.

or

Blue = silent
Green = auto
Red = turbo

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: ss284
Well its not white, its more filmy than anything. The cables look fine, yet when I move my finger over then I can feel a residue of some sort. Try rubbing the cables, then rubbing your hands together. It kinda feels like a layer of chalk.

-Steve

Yeah, the same stuff was on mine. After touching the cables your hands felt sticky. Was kind of weird, but nothing big.

 

[Slaimus]

I got my 3 fan PS, and it does not seem to have a speed control slider.

 

[ParatoOptimal]

Right, I know the switch is there.
Does it read the temp from your MOBO automatically or do you have to attach a prob?

Thanks

 

[ParatoOptimal]

Has anyone had any problems with these PSUs?

I bought two. Niether had any powdery substances on the cables.
One lasted maybe a week before I smelled a burning smell equivalent to a melted cap or wire.
I may have seen the reflection of sparks/flames or something from the back of the PSU.
It's in the back. I thought I saw a reflection off the desk drawer the computer sits in front of. I'm not sure.

The PSU rear fan still spins and the LEDs on the computer case light but the drives don't spin and the computer doesn't boot.

I replaced it with the second 450W PSU. It booted 3 or 4 times.
The next time I smelled that burning smell with the same symptoms as the first.

 

[oupei]

I've only opened one of my two and it's been working fine. I haven't used it much though...

 

[stockjock]

Has anyone had any problems with these PSUs?

I bought two. Niether had any powdery substances on the cables.
One lasted maybe a week before I smelled a burning smell equivalent to a melted cap or wire.
I may have seen the reflection of sparks/flames or something from the back of the PSU.
It's in the back. I thought I saw a reflection off the desk drawer the computer sits in front of. I'm not sure.

The PSU rear fan still spins and the LEDs on the computer case light but the drives don't spin and the computer doesn't boot.

I replaced it with the second 450W PSU. It booted 3 or 4 times.
The next time I smelled that burning smell with the same symptoms as the first.

I'm thinking if you burnt 2 of these up...you have something wrong with your motherboard or somewhere else...One PSU burning up I can understand...but 2 I think is not a coincidence. Does your old PSU still work on the setup?

 

[ParatoOptimal]

The original, generic 300W PSU that came with the case suddenly failed after 3-years use.
I had never turned the surge suppressor off. This time I did.
I turned the computer on and remembered that the surge suppressor was off.
I turned the surge suppressor on and could never get the computer to boot.
I just got the permanent power that allowed the LED on the MOBO to light and the power-on light and HD activity ight on the front of he comptuer to light. However, there was no drive spin.

I replaced the PSU with one bought of this thread.
It worked. I removed one optical drive, a SCSI card and added a third HD.
It worked for a week and then failed as the original had.

Replacing it with a third saw 2 or 3 boots before failure.

I'm guessing it's the MOBO but what could it suddenly be? It's worked flawlessly for 3-years. I've made no changes other than those listed above AFTER the original one failed. I used some canned air to blow dust around when I made the first replacement.

I don't want to pay $50 or more to let the boneheads at CUSA look at the MOBO.
It's an Asus CUSL2 with a P3-500 flipchip.

 

[mindless1]

ParatoOptimal,
Motherboards are relatively complex parts but PSU aren't. If system was running (prior to failure, and after replacing PSU) odds are overwhelming that motherboard WAS still good. A PSU failure can damage motherboard though, but not necessarily. PSU on the other hand can be look at as much simpler devices, that no matter what would be wrong with motherboard, PSU's job is same, to produce power. If PSU was overloaded it's voltage will drop and it shuts off, period. If PSU isn't overloaded there is no "mythical" type of motherboard failure that would kill PSU.
HOwever, this is with a PSU having appropriate safety circuitry... corners get cut to save $$, perhaps that's what is happening here?

On the other hand, your surge protector is mentioned so also look at the quality of AC power input.

Frankly it's not worth spending any $ to have someone troubleshoot a 500MHz platform, the parts have served their purpose and it's time to upgrade.

 

[ParatoOptimal]

So Then it is likely they did send me two lemon PSUs?

As for the power input, it hasn't changed or been a problem in the last 3-years before this. After this occured, I added a new extension cord between the surge supressor and the wall outlet just to allow more room to work on this to figure out the problem. After further failures, I replaced the original surge suppressor with a new one.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: ParatoOptimal
So Then it is likely they did send me two lemon PSUs?

Possible, yes, but more likely yours are working as designed, same as everyone else's. They "could" both be bad though, more testing would be needed and use of different, known good parts. Keep in mind that the more variables, questionable parts you put into a system, the more of a PITA it can be to troubleshoot unless you backtrack and retry different parts. Even more difficult it is to do this on old box that may be nearer the end of it's expected lifespan. It may (or may not) be telling to determine what points in these PSU have failed. If there is a particularly likely failure mode for these then eventually many users will be facing same situation... Many PSU work just fine upon arrival, sorta HAVE to work OK at first or there would be a horrible sales to return ratio. Lifespan is a different matter though.

Ideally you should start out running a m'board with a good quality PSU and never start out with a free-with-case-generic, waiting for it to fail. A poor PSU stresses many parts in a system, your orig. PSU may be the primary cause of your current problems, that systm won't run, EXCEPT that these PSU in this deal thread should not be dying, merely shutting off if there is a problem with other components. This is part of the secret on how to make a low-capacity PSU output more power, to keep it running when any better PSU would turn off due to overload condition... in the short run it seems to help but in the long run it can easily cause problems. Unfortunately your "long run" wasn't too long.

As for the power input, it hasn't changed or been a problem in the last 3-years before this. After this occured, I added a new extension cord between the surge supressor and the wall outlet just to allow more room to work on this to figure out the problem. After further failures, I replaced the original surge suppressor with a new one.

I can't troubleshoot your AC power from here, but keep in mind that it's conceivable that most people who have Ac power problem, did at one time have AC power working fine till a pole mounted transformer started failing or their home circuits aged or became overloaded, etc.

 

[ParatoOptimal]

I don't mean to muddle-up the hot deal forum with these tech issues.
It did originate from this hot deal.

Anyway, I let it sit for 24hrs and then powered up with only the master HD, floppy and a tape drive power lead connected. (The tape drive lead is a pain to get to.)
It worked.

I connected the power leads of each internal device one at a time and booted before shutting down and connected another power lead.
Everything is working.
I'm typing on it now.

It boots with the system horizontal.
I shut it down, stood it up-right (it's a mid-tower) and it boots.
I'll see if it lasts longer than a week this time.

I wonder if the first one that failed after a week still works.

Sniffing the back of the PSU smells like a PSU should smell.
There's a little "electrical" smell but nothing burning.

This is a mystery.
I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for the help.
Keep it coming if you think of anything.

Thanks

 

[JiggaJohn]

http://store.yahoo.com/directron/4fanpsu.html

what about this one?

 

[ParatoOptimal]

There's no mention of a probe in the manual.
I'm assuming there's a thermostate in the PSU for use when setting the PSU to auto.

 

[mindless1]

If a psu goes out of spec though over/under voltage/current, it may need unplugged from Ac for a few minutes before being retried. That could include trying to power too many devices with this PSU.

 

[JiggaJohn]

hey what is your opinion on the link i posted above? is it by the same company as the psu from the OP?

 

[ss284]

It looks the same, except for the use of aluminum casings.

Almost as hot as the original; too bad there is a limit of 1.

-Steve

 

[JiggaJohn]

does the fact that it only says it compliant with the:
"Supports Intel ATX 12V ver.1.1 & 2.03 Standard. Compliant With AMD K7 (Athlon)."

be worrisome for someone who wants it for a amd 64

 

[Slaimus]

The TTGI website states that Active PFC is optional on these PSs. Is there a way to tell whether this has active or passive PFC? Does a 110-240 selector automatically means it does not have active PFC?

 

[vicdoc]

Hey parato
I thought I had a bad psu or something and it turned out to be the CPU: I had inadvertantly smeared Arctic Silver onto the SMD components and it would not post, or it would quit erratically. Turns out after cleaning that stuff off with paint thinner the CPU was fine, presto all problems went away. 2 other CPUs I had written off had the same problem. :roll: One of them has gone into my wife's PC and the other is now a spare.

 

[n666]

jigga thnx for the link..i'm getting one..hope it's good

 

[n666]

meh nevermind..shipping is 12 bucks..and i'm sure more of these will pop up