Dodgy? Antec PSU

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12-09-2008, 06:00 PM
ChrisC418

Dodgy? Antec PSU

I've had a Antec Sonata Plus Case+550wPSU from Scan for a few months now. Recently my machine has been shutting down and the PSU not starting back up again for a few minutes. Then after a while it will run quite happily.

I have an Antec PSU tester which showed red lights of the 3.3V line and with a volt meter I'm reading about 3.6V for a while. I actually have to turn off the PSU at the mains then turn it back on again. The motherboard wont let it turn on but the Antec PSU "forces" it on.

So my thinking is that the PSU is way out of both ATX and Antec spesc on the 3.3V line at least (3% and 5% variation stated).

I'd like to return the PSU to Scan, but I'm not quite sure of the best way to proceed.

a). The PSU and case came as a set, so I'm assuming I only need to return the PSU.
b). The problem only happens for a short while after startup and then the PSU seems to settle down again.
c). What's the worst than can happen if I arrange an RMA and then Scan can't find a problem. ie I rather they kept the "broken" PSU rather then me paying to have it shipped back to me again :(

Thanks for any help.
12-09-2008, 06:07 PM
DavidM

Re: Dodgy? Antec PSU

Please log a query here: http://web6.scan.co.uk/aspnet/Suppor...px?QueryType=R so Returns can check into it tomorrow for you.
13-09-2008, 12:30 AM
w3bbo

Re: Dodgy? Antec PSU

Most motherboards will show the rail voltages in the BIOS, have you checked these?
13-09-2008, 12:47 AM
Agent

Re: Dodgy? Antec PSU

Quote:

Originally Posted by w3bbo

Most motherboards will show the rail voltages in the BIOS, have you checked these?

Motherboard rail voltages are usually quite inaccurate :(

Best way by far is to use a multimeter :)
13-09-2008, 07:27 AM
ChrisC418

Re: Dodgy? Antec PSU

I went for the multimeter approach as the Antec PSU tester gives you access to the 3.3V/12V etc lines.
I actually took the whole PSU out last night to retest it to see if I can get some more confidence in the failure.
I would be happier if I could say "after 5 minutes of operation then the failure occured and the voltage of the 3.3V line went to X", rather than "occasionally the PSU turns itself off but I can't replicate it successfully" :(

I've a good few hard disks connected to the PSU, but no power hungry CPU or GPU since it's my NAS.

The main problem is of course that it's an intermittent failure so I'm going to give it a few more days of testing to see if I can get a definite failure senario before approaching Scan via the website link that DavidM mentioned.