Tick Tock Ticking Tagan Troubles

[StephenCWLL]

Hi

I would like to add my experiences of the Tagan 480W PSU to proceedings in order to gain feedback and hear of other people's views.

I brought a 480W Tagan from Scan about a month ago now and the first thing I noticed when I plugged it in was some strange noises. I hadn't even powered on the computer at this point, just applied power to the PSU. I had a little 'fun' trying to describe the noise to friends and to Scan. It was a mixture of ticking/clicking/crackling coming from somewhere inside the PSU case.

When I rang Scan to complain that I didn't feel it was right to hear such noises the techy chap claimed he had heard no reports of any noises from Tagans. I got it RMA'd at no cost to me and it was diagnosed as having a fault. A few days later a replacement Tagan arrived and I cheerfully plugged it in but to my dismay there was also a ticking noise from this one.

At this point I started to question my sanity. Was I making a big deal out of nothing? I thought I had a case (not a metal one of course, I mean a theoretical one!) as I had read reports in forums of people with no problems with Tagan's and also have a friend who has one which makes no noises. This time the Scan techy chap I got through to told me that he knew about the ticking noises and that all Tagan's make that noise. It’s an operational feature caused by (don't quote me hear as I can’t remember exactly) the secondary fan which has some diode (not sure on this) or something connected to it which causes the ticking when the PSU is supplying high loads. I had to laugh as I only had it connected to a motherboard and nothing else plus it makes the same noise when connected to nothing else.

Ok, so I asked the techy chap what was the fault with the first Tagan I sent back and he rather quietly said that the chap who examined it found it had a slight ticking noise!!! It was at this point that I told him that they were contradicting themselves. Seems not all Scan techies have heard of the ticking noises. Right hand not knowing what the left is doing perhaps?

The conclusion to this for me is that Scan has agreed to a full refund even though it’s not a fault but an 'operational feature'. To that end I take my hat off to Scan for their customer service. However, their technical service I'm still a little puzzled with as I am about Tagan's. Tried emailing Tagan but have got no reply. They don’t even have a phone number.

If this ticking noise is an 'operational feature' then I would expect all Tagans to make this noise but I know from other forums and friend's that they don't. Also I would have expected this noise to have come up in reviews but I see no evidence of that either. The Scan chap did point out the 2 year guarantee but that’s of little relief to me if the thing blows up! At the very least I would want Scan’s written guarantee or Tagan’s about this operational feature before I let one of those PSU’s go in one of my cases again.

I would to hear from anyone reading this posting what they think about my experiences, about the Tagan’s, Scan Techy Support and the ins & outs of ticking noises in PSUs.

Please let me know your thoughts. Good or bad.

Thanks

[Steve]

I've moved this to the Scan forum so it's more likely that the Scan guys will see it.

I can't say I've ever had a Tagen PSU, however I do not posess a PSU that ticks during operation. This includes those which have one or more temperature regulated fans.

I would suggest you check that the input voltage is at 240 and not 110 - but if it was at 110 you're more likely to witness a loud bang than a little tick, hehe.

[bigjonnyauk]

i have a tagan sitting here waiting to go in my new set up i hope it dont sound like a clock

@kez form what i can see the tagan is a auto switching unit and auto detecs the voltage going into it

[MadAsABadger]

To my knowledge Tagen PSU's are imported into the UK via a distributor called Nanopoint. It is from here that the stock is then forwared to the various UK resellers such as us and Scan.

If you feel you have exhausted your options with Scan and Tagen have not got back to you directly (not unusual with foreign companies) then you MAY get some advice from the importer as they do have a technical team. If you explain your situation they may help: service@nanopoint.co.uk, after all their job is to assure the UK of the quality of this product so it is in their interest.

I hope that resolves the issue and keeps you sain. Rember if you hear voices in your head rather than ticking in your case then your beyound help!

Good Luck!

[SilentDeath]

Can you describe the ticking nioses? Does it sound like mains humm?
There are many resons why electronics stuff - esp psu's, would make ticking nioses, this is probably due to bad design or quality control, but I expect it would still be very safe to use, just a bit annoying to hear.
Also are you sure its definatly coming from the psu casing, as Ive heard it before coming from mains powered speakers, when the is on or off, the psu will still affect the soundcard - esp crappy creative soundcards, and make low freq niose on the speakers.
As an altnerative psu look at the CWT 450w and 550w models scan sell.

[StephenCWLL]

Can you describe the ticking nioses? Does it sound like mains humm? Also are you sure its definatly coming from the psu casing, .

It's very hard to describe the ticking noise other than to say it’s exactly like ticking. A continuous stream of rhythmic ticks that are as sure as I can be that they are coming from the deepest insides of the PSU.

I have applied power to the PSU when it’s been outside and away from the case with the same ticking noises still sounding.

I’m sure its not mains humm. I expect to hear a certain amount of that but this is distinctively nowhere near the same sound.

[StephenCWLL]

To my knowledge Tagen PSU's are imported into the UK via a distributor called Nanopoint. It is from here that the stock is then forwared to the various UK resellers such as us and Scan.

Thanks for the info on Nanopoint Badger. Interesting to know that. It was suggested to me by a friend that maybe Scan have a 'dodgy' batch but one would expect them to be aware of such an issue. Another interesting development is that I know someone who has just got a Tagan from overclockers and theirs doesn't tick. I'm wondering if I should order from a different source.

[Lee H]

I'll grab one of these on Monday and get the technical team to have a good play with it. What type of hardware is connected to the PSU when it clicks ? Hopefully we can get this issue resolved as quick as possible as I would too complain if a "silent" PSU started to click.

Just mailing my work account now with this link so I remember to get this checked up

Best Regards

Lee

[bigjonnyauk]

well i got mine from overclockers and suspense got the better of me i just whipped it out of the box and plugged it in and yes it does tick even on its own but tbh i had to put my ear to it

just out of interest although i doubt it makes any difference are you all earthing it to your case with that little earthing wire that comes with it

i think ill keep it till my new system comes and give it a whirl cuz you do really have to listen to here it and im sure unless you p.c is totally silent you wouldnt hear it

[Lee H]

As an altnerative psu look at the CWT 450w and 550w models scan sell.

yeap - I've got the 550w in my new system - awesomely quiet, temps are also quite good, but the wires are crazily long so you can hide them out of sight yet still wire everything up to them

Since getting the 550w I've been utterly impressed by its rail stability and have recommended this PSU's to all my mates who are upgrading at the moment.

[SilentDeath]

The ticking is as I would have assumed, its probably all of them that tick, just that some are either louder than others or you just have really good/sensitive hearing for that frequency range..

Yea the 550w is teh w1n but Ive had to fiddle with the cables a bit, there is just too many. Ive also changed the BTX connector for a ATX conenctor and removed the extra wires... With a 1700+ at 2.1v, 2.4ghz, 9700 at 1.9v gpu, chipset at 1.9 and mem at 2.9 with all the other crap im using too, even a small pelt, the rails have NEVER changed atall. removing the ATX converter helped lower resistance and boost the rails a bit to what they should be too...

Just dont look inside this psu... I had wanted to watercool it but have you seen how messy they are in there... eek... the layout is terrible, but as its very quiet so I wont bother watercooling it.

[starside]

i have the TagaN 480w from overclock.co.uk, No ticking here

[fatkat]

Hey all,

When I first bough my Tagan there was a very annoying 'ticking' noise when it was turned on. I thought it was too loud to be electrical 'buzz' from a component inside. Sure enough on further investigation (a pencil through the rear fan guard to stop the fan - technical huh :/ ) I found the rear exit fan to be rubbing on a component as it was spinning. I inserted a small piece of the plastic that insulates standard electrical cable, to 'push' the guilty component away from the fan. This has solved the problem. Unfortunately by opening the power supply I voided the warranty so was unable to send off for a new one.

All was fine and dandy until recently I have noticed an insanely annoying ticking noise. The only way to describe it is like an extremely fast, but faint Morse code transmission. I'm not sure If I'm particularly susceptible to noise at this frequency but it is slowly driving me crazy. Now unless my computer is secretly sending data via Morse code from the psu (spyware is getting awfully sophisticated lately lol) I am at a loss to what this noise is. Any ideas guys? Oh I bought the Tagan from Scan. Maybe a dodgy batch they had?

Take it easy,
Jase.

[StephenCWLL]

All was fine and dandy until recently I have noticed an insanely annoying ticking noise. The only way to describe it is like an extremely fast, but faint Morse code transmission. I'm not sure If I'm particularly susceptible to noise at this frequency but it is slowly driving me crazy. Now unless my computer is secretly sending data via Morse code from the psu (spyware is getting awfully sophisticated lately lol) I am at a loss to what this noise is. Any ideas guys? Oh I bought the Tagan from Scan. Maybe a dodgy batch they had?

Take it easy,
Jase.

I've had my Tagan for 3 months now and it ticks but one can only hear it if they put their ear up to it! It seems that it is normal. I've been throw a lot trying to prove that point and now just accept it.

[bmh.01]

Had my tagan for about 3 weeks, got it from overclockers, no ticking here (that I can hear).

[teasers]

I have bought a TG380-U01 model almost a month ago here from Istanbul, and I have that ticking noise, too. In fact the noise began appearing more after I have spend over a $100 for making a low-noise PC. I have bought a Zalman FB-123 fan bracket, disabled the stock case fan, and I can say that the ticking noise is louder than the CPU fan!!

First, this sound does not come from any of the fans inside the PSU. It is electronical, it is heard even when the PC is turned off (which means the PSU is still connected to mains, thus has electricity inside)

1. The most least sound is heard when the PC is turned off
2. It gets louder when the PC is turned on
3. It is really loud when you have some actions on the PC that will use slightly more energy than it uses on idle, even like clicking the Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer.

It's really annoying. I wouldn't buy it if I knew that. I guess that comes from the active PFC correction feature, but I'm not completely sure. Even we accept that it comes from the power correction, we can't say that all PSU's having the power factor correction feature have this sound.

http://www.bit-tech.net/review/299/5 reviews some PSU's including a Tagan, and has a paragraph named 'Noise/ripple' :

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Noise/ripple - first, let me stress we are talking about electrical noise here (interference and distortion on the PSU's output voltages) and not the acoustic kind. The results have been rounded up to the nearest unit of 10mV for clarity. The Tagan was the only supply to have a chassis ground cable to reduce electrical noise. Supply rail noise was measured both with and without this cable tied to the chassis using an oscilloscope. With the cable connected to the chassis the Tagan electrical noise was reduced significantly and in fact produced the best result of the roundup. It is worth noting that the Zalman matched the Tagan's +5V noise figure. Without the cable connected its results were more typical of the other supplies although generally better.
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I have this cable connected to my mainboard too, but that morse-like ticking sound is really, really bad. It's so bad..