FSP Zen True 300W (Fanless - dual 12V rail) - Faulty?

[DanZ]

[QUOTE='[FSP] Ann']Hi, Dan,

Sorry for late reply

would you mind providing the S/N (serial number) , I will check our stock and see if you can exchange another unit of Zen with your existing one

The Number is on your power supply

Thank you!

Ann[/QUOTE]

Thanks for doing this Ann,

I've already posted it, but here's the S/N of my Zen PSU again: S5532000462

Have the head office guys got any ideas about what's wrong?

Cheers,

Dan

[[FSP] Ann]

[QUOTE=DanZ]Thanks for doing this Ann,

I've already posted it, but here's the S/N of my Zen PSU again: S5532000462

Have the head office guys got any ideas about what's wrong?

Cheers,

Dan[/QUOTE]


Hi, Dan

I think it is a compatibility issue

Ann

[schneider0815]

[QUOTE=AV650]Imagine you had a PSU that worked for 3 years and then it started to show stability problems by occasionally not loading your OS and random crashing. If these problems were eliminated by trying a new PSU, then you'd know your old one was faulty and the manufacture should replace it. It would be dangerously reckless to suggest modifying the electrics to get the unstable PSU to work. But that it what is being suggested here, only with a brand new unstable PSU instead of a 3 year old one.

I'm actually very concerned about this resistor "fix". Modding to improve the functioning of your computer is one thing. But you shouldn't have to modify a brand-new power supply so that it works. If the PSU doesn't work, it's either faulty or badly-designed. What happens if it goes wrong, and causes a fire or a surge that damages your motherboard, CPU and memory? Who's going to pay for the damage? FSP Group will say it's not their fault, because you were using a non-functioning PSU and that the resistor modification just covered up symptoms of the fault. The motherboard company will say it's a PSU fault, and the PSU retailer will know your PSU wasn't working and say the damage was caused by your mod.

.[/QUOTE]


This isn`t that quite correct. If you put an PSU into a system you have to learn that things have changed a bit. Fore some times, only 3.3 & 5v rails are criticall in pc systems. Therefore all psu`s have regulated those rails, leaving the other floating. Today with ATX 2.0 things have changed, for modern systems the 12v line is more important, thus most modern psu`s regulate those lines.
Any SMPS PSU needs some minimum load at the regulated voltage rail to be able to regulate the voltage corektly.
For older PSU`S this minimum load is to be expected on the 3.3v and 5v rail, in modern psu`s the 12v rail needs some minimum load. The minimum load is stated in the datasheet of the psu and is printed on to the case for most FSP psu`S.

Now if people went out, buying the next best psu withouth reflecting what they need it is oviousely that things can`t work properly. And guess what this magic resistor will do? nothing than drawing the minimum power from the rail to let the psu be able to regulate the voltage. of course, FSP could have incorporated this resistors to avoid those bad user experince, but why to reduce efficiency for the other systems which the desing is suited for? I think it is no problem to obtain some ATX1.3 PSU`S for older or not 12v powered systems. So don't blame it to the manufacturer, except there are realy some issues.

It is obviousely that if an 3 years old psu is faulthy if it shows problems, probably the caps are blown, which is an isue in psu`s up to now.

And keep in mind, that if you put even some 500w ATX 2.0 psu's in some older 5v powered systems, it is not unmlikely that this psu`s give up in some mutch worser way. But again, not all will fit, even if the conectors will do.

[Herbie]

Hi,

I purchased my Zen from komplett in the UK just last week and seem to be experiencing the same problems as the earlier posters to this thread (Goreblast, bogomipz). I was wondering if this could be caused by one of these early batch units.

I also have a Geforce6100 chipset motherboard and am unable to power on the system. Power initially comes on, fans start whirling only for the system to power down again 1 second later. I too can successfully get to bios if I have no ide/sata drives connected, the problem manifests as soon as I connect any 1 ide/sata drive to the PSU. Interestingly if I power on the system with no drives connected and then quickly plug the molex connector into the drive before the bios begins detection I am able to boot successfully. An alternate PSU also works without problems.

The details of my unit:
Model no: FSP300-60GNF
P/N: 9PA300B001
S/N: S5422000204

My MB/Processor
Asus K8N-VM GeForce6100
AMD Athlon64 3200+

I would very much appreciate any advice that you could give me.
Regards,
Herbie.

[[FSP] Ann]

[QUOTE=Herbie]Hi,

I purchased my Zen from komplett in the UK just last week and seem to be experiencing the same problems as the earlier posters to this thread (Goreblast, bogomipz). I was wondering if this could be caused by one of these early batch units.

I also have a Geforce6100 chipset motherboard and am unable to power on the system. Power initially comes on, fans start whirling only for the system to power down again 1 second later. I too can successfully get to bios if I have no ide/sata drives connected, the problem manifests as soon as I connect any 1 ide/sata drive to the PSU. Interestingly if I power on the system with no drives connected and then quickly plug the molex connector into the drive before the bios begins detection I am able to boot successfully. An alternate PSU also works without problems.

The details of my unit:
Model no: FSP300-60GNF
P/N: 9PA300B001
S/N: S5422000204

My MB/Processor
Asus K8N-VM GeForce6100
AMD Athlon64 3200+

I would very much appreciate any advice that you could give me.
Regards,
Herbie.[/QUOTE]

Dear Herbie,

Thank you for posting your problem,
I will ask HQ about your case and get back to you soon.

Ann

[Herbie]

[QUOTE='[FSP] Ann']Dear Herbie,

Thank you for posting your problem,
I will ask HQ about your case and get back to you soon.

Ann[/QUOTE]

Ann,

Thanks for looking into this for me.

Whilst not meaning to hassle... At the moment I have an essentially useless PSU and a machine that I'm unable to use without one. It's been over a week since I posted my problem, is there any update from HQ?

Regards,
Herbie.

[[FSP] Ann]

Hi Herbie,

We have checked the record and this unit was those early batch. We can exchange another unit of Zen with your existing one.

Please contact my colleague Bin and he will issue you the RMA no. His email address - [email]Bin@fspgroup.co.uk

Contact no is 01727 873 888 ext. 207

Thanks
Ann

[Herbie]

[QUOTE='[FSP] Ann']Hi Herbie,

We have checked the record and this unit was those early batch. We can exchange another unit of Zen with your existing one.

Please contact my colleague Bin and he will issue you the RMA no. His email address - [email]Bin@fspgroup.co.uk

Contact no is 01727 873 888 ext. 207

Thanks
Ann[/QUOTE]

Many thanks for your assistance Ann, mail sent.

Herbie.

[new_mandorla]

Hi,

I purchased a Zen 300W PSU in Febuary. For a couple of months, everything was right, the PSU working silently in my rather beefy configuration:

AMD Athlon64 X2 4200 (no OC)
Asrock 939 Dual SATA2 mobo
Corsair 2*1024 MB TwinXL CL2 memory
AGP ATI Radeon videocard (a cheap one)
PCI studio grade soundcard
1*IDE Samsung Spinpoint 80 GB
1*Sata Seagate Barracuda 160 GB
2*optical drives
Antec P180 case

The case has a separate chamber at the bottom for the PSU with a built-in fan, so the Zen, in effect, worked with active cooling. One day the computer refusued to boot, even the POST didn't run and the monitor stayed stand-by. I tried to pull off some load but it didn't work. Once in a while I managed to force booting with some tricks but it wasn't satisfying at all. No optical drives is not meant to be a cure for longer time:).

I sent the PSU back to the service, also did have checked the mobo. Both were OK on their own, however, the same problem remained: all parts have power but the system keeps hanging on. Changing the mobo to DFI Lanparty UT NF3 Ultra didn't help. Then I tried to find out whether the PSU was overloaded. I'm sure that it's not the case, 22 amps at the 12V rails is way enough for such a system (worst case CPU amperage is 10 amps). Besides, my older 300W noname PSU succeded in powering up my new mobo, though it has only 12 amps at 12V.

Having read the posts in this thread, I'm quite convinced that this is an incompatibility problem as well. The serial number of my Zen

S/N: S5422000350
P/N: 9PA300B001

is in the range of the previously reported "first batch" items. I got this one in Hungary from a local online PC shop. I haven't find any support or usable advice yet. The warranty service has about 3 weeks lead-time. It's starting to be a hassle of sort, since I haven't been able to use my computer for more than a month now and it's not a kind of gaming PC:(. I use it for DAW work and scientific research. Can anyone at FSP help me?

Many thanks in advance
Tibor (from Hungary)

[[FSP] Ann]

Hi, Tibor

Thank you for your inquiry
Have passed your question to the Euro office,
She will get back to you shortly

Thank you

Ann

[[FSP] Heidi]

Hi Tibor,

Certainly does look like the same problem that we had with the early models of Zen 300 (compatibility with AMD systems). We have one solution, which is we can send you additional "active load" and you can just connect it to your PSU - the problem there is that i don't have any in stock right now :-( I can probably get more from China, but then there's a waiting time. Another option is for you to return it directly to us and we exchange, or we try to get one of our customers to help...

Let me know what sounds good for you ? :-)

Heidi

[new_mandorla]

Hi Heidi,

I think sending back the PSU directly is the fastest solution and it needs the least effort as well :) Could you give me details (in PM maybe)?

Thanks a lot, Ann and Heidi:)

Tibor

[[FSP] Heidi]

Hi Tibor,

Could you let me know your email so i can send you the details ?

Thanks

Heidi

[new_mandorla]

Oh, sorry...

My email:
piloxy_at_hotmail_dot_com

Thanks, Heidi

Tibor

[Ex0rcist]

[B]Hi[/B],
I purchased my Zen PSU two weeks ago but I was too busy to install and try it in my computer till now. I mounted it last weekend and unfortunately the PSU didn’t start. The CPU fan started to rotate but after 1 second the power failed and the system stopped. After I put back my old 300W PSU the problems disappeared and everything works properly. I called the shop where I bought the Zen. The store’s approach was highly rude the answer for my trouble was: „The PSU is surely good, the error is in your system.” :undecided I started to read forums and tests in topic and so found FSP.care@Hexus. Could you help me to solve my problem? Thanks in advance.

Best wishes,
Krisz (from Hungary)

[B]FSP Zen PSU:[/B]
MODEL NO: FSP300-60GNF
P/N: 9PA300B001
S/N: S5282001493

[B]My PC config:[/B]
Intel Tualatin 1.3 GHz
ASUS TUSL2-C motherboard
2x256 MB SDRAM
ASUS V8200 Ti500 VGA
Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1
Intel Pro 100 Ethernet card
Samsung 250 GB HDD
ASUS DRW0804P DVD±RW

[[FSP] Heidi]

Hi Krisz,

Well the PSU is from the very first batch that did have problems, but its the first time i've seen a problem with an Intel system and where the PSU didn't really switch on at all. First i will check with an engineer about the system config and see what they say the problem is (you gave me all the info i need, thanks :) ).
I'll get back to you

Regards

Heidi