Troubleshooting: Drive messed up? Check your PSU quality first! Good/Bad PSU list...

Used to have a Jeantech JNP-500AP (500W Peak) on my old system and never had any problems with it. My new Seasonic S12 600W is great, I used it not only on my rig (specs below) but also on three other systems I've built for friends. It may be a bit on the expensive side but it is very reliable.

Seasonic is one of the top brands of PSU manufacturers it has some of the highest efficiency numbers of any PC PSU. Though you do pay the price for high quality as they are mighty expensive.

PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 850 SSI. It's the only PSU you'll ever need... even for two computers!

Its a big b*astard that PSU toms hardware put it through its test it has something like 4 seperate rails for each of the voltages from what i remember its one powerful machine runner.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/...st/page23.html

My Antec Truepower 480w was the best investment I made 3+ years ago. I have gone through 3 or 4 motherboard upgrades, 2 cases, hard drives, optical drives, etc but kept the same PS though all of that. It normally powers 2 hard drives, 3 optical drives and numerous fans for 6+ hours per day, everyday without complaining. Just a very solid power supply. Unfortunately it is now outdated (no sata connectors, 20 pin mobo connector, and some other fancy options) but I am loyal to this PS until it goes. Did I mention also that it is very quiet. What else can you ask for?

The problem with all of these great PSUs at least for me is that they will not fit into my Sony tower or any other tower that is not home built. I tryed to buy an Antec from Circut City and no way would it fit into my system. I was wondering if anyone knew of a good PSU that would fit into a Sony PCVRS510 tower. Something more than 350 watts. Thanks

My story -- for your edification.

I purchased a new ASUS P5AD2-E Premium motherboard to do video editing late last August. It became obvious after a couple of days that the 400W PSU was running way too warm. So, I went to my local PC shop and bought a CODEGEN model 500TX rated at max 550W.

After about 4-5 days boot-up became flakey and then the PC would spontaneously restart, or go into la-la-land. Since I had just bought a rather husky PSU I ruled that out right away.

I contacted the RAM vender and asked for replacements, since 1 GB DDR2 is sometimes fussy to match with motherboards. Well, that didn't fix it and had the RAM vendor replace with units listed on ASUS tested vendor list. Same.

I contacted ASUS and they agreed to replace the MB. Same. Replaced a second time. Same symtoms! Six months trying to get this rig off the ground. I tried replacing the video card and even bought a new Intel 530J processor.

In desperation, I sent for an Enermax whisper 460W PSU. THAT FIXED IT! No one, including ASUS and the RAM vendor suspected the PSU. I have building and repairing PC's since 1985 and I would never have suspected this new PSU.

I wish I found this forum topic a lot earlier! I hope this post can help folks avoid these kinds of problems. Don't buy CODEGEN. However, I am happy with and want to recommend ASUS and BUYAIB for their great customer service.

Hi
Welcome to the forum KenJ58.
Glad you got there in the end. When you think about the PSU is your pc s' heart.

The problem is when buying a new PSU many of those cheap ones like Q-tec give their rating as a peak. So the Q-tec 650Watt Triple fann can do 650 watts at its peak for like 1 second then explode or fail. The real wattage of some of these cheap PSU's can be 300 or less, i think the Q-tec 650 has a true rating of something like 240 watts.

Dont skimp on quality go for good brand names.

As for for the Jeantech JNP-500AP jeantech have made a mistake (though you cant blame jeantech just yet as they dont make PSU's) from what i can see, they have got in stock or made an OEM order for a 500watt PSU and got a 420watt, i guess there was a mixup or someones got something wrong. The PSU is made by sirtec and has the same specifications and look.

http://www.jeantech.com/500.htm > Jeantech JNP-500AP

http://www.sirtec.com/HPC-420-302DF.php > Sirtec 420 Watt PSU (Jeantech 500AP)

If you notice on both PSU's the rail volatages and amps are the same.

Jeantech are either unaware, or they have decided to overhipe as they usually use high standard psus. Though, i would recommended anyone thinking of buying the JNP-500AP to be aware that its really a 420 Watt PSU.

Since the Jeantech A500AP overestimates its voltages that PSU specifically will now go into the bad list as people are getting overcharged and getting lower watt PSU's than what they are expecting.

i am novice here. i have new cd burner - and when i put the rom in it seems to have exploded in side the drive and i dont know what to do next

Turn off the computer.
Normally there is an eject hole you could use to open the tray....

Well, I purchased a nice new Pioneer 111 a month ago as my old 107d begain writing coasters and I have had occasional system crashes during burning also. The new drive worked like magic for a couple of days, but then the system started crashing again (no coasters tho, just nasty blue screens with STOP messages).

I thought perhaps during the installation, some driver conflict must have occurred (even tho there's no CD with the OEM 111's.. I dunno) and decided that my first step would be to re-install to a different OS. So I scrapped win2k sp4 and went to Win xp sp2. I started getting some blue screens during the win xp installation which strongly suggested my problem was hardware and not software, but once hte OS was installed, everything was fine for another few days. Then the blue screens and crashes occurred again.

I decided to test the memory, and it failed several tests in memtest86.. I went out and bought a new stick, installed it.. and I'm still getting blue screen issues.

Can a faulty power supply cause a good stick of memory to fail in memtest???
I'm running on a 2-4 yr old Enermax 465. The system has 1 optical drive, and 3 hdd's, 2 case fans.. 465 should be enough!!

It does sound like a PSU thing im sure the Amps draw for the Pioneer 111 are much higher than the old 107D. You could always try removin 2 hds and see if the drive will burn well without those drives installed. If not try the drive in another computer see what happens. A bad psu can cause blue screens of deaths, lock ups, shutdowns, coasters, and in general all the problems you have said though then again buy if your going to buy a new PSU make sure its good quality Enermax is good quality but when going out and buying a PSU dont buy a Q-tec or something like that to test your system on. Also as time goes on PSU's get dust in them and components age which can degrade performance so maybe its time to change but try your drive on another computer first, or borrow a good quality psu off a friend.

Wow. I can't believe you have the nerve to put Silverstone under the "bad/crap" category. I submit to you examples A and B and reviews C thru E.


A: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817163108
B: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...C-pr1c3grabb3r

C: http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/02/...nt/page11.html
D: http://www.techimo.com/articles/i230.html
E: http://www.a1-electronics.net/PcHard...wPSU_pg3.shtml


I rest my (PC) case.

I didnt compile that list so it wasnt me, it was taken from various other sites and forums.

Heh, I'm not accusing you of anything. No worries.

In fact, Silverstone's come into its own the past couple of years. A few years back their PSU's were mediocre at best; now, they are some of the best on the market. You probably got old(er) lists.

I suggest updating the list, using this link for some guidance.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=974240

(My $.02)

That link shows what the innards of a cheap PSU and a Good psu look like the cheap one is empty while the good ones have lots packed in.

Hi.
Using a BeQuiet! BQT P5 470W I was first shocked to see a BQT PSU failing in THG´s test, until I noticed it was the old B5 not the new P5.

Well the current Be Quiet PSU´s are in my opinion and experience safe buy´s. These things are incredibly stable and reliable. (at least mine is

And it was one of the first PSU´s which really was ATX 2.0 standard. Here are a few reviews, in german, sorry for that For some reason I couldn´t find english reviews on it.

- http://www.modding-faq.de/index.php?testid=85&page=1

- http://www.pc-experience.de/wbb2/thr...threadid=14374

- http://www.hardwareoc.at/bequiet-bla..._470W_S1.3.htm

Be Quiet is also one of those manufacturers who listen to their customers and are really getting better and better. I expect some badass PSU´s coming from them in the future.

-Dani

Here is a list i made off the top of my head on how to spot a good PSU vs a Crap one. Feel free to add your own.

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-Good PSU's are generally heavier though this isnt always the case as some of the extremly high efficiency ones dont have lots of heatsinks in them as they produce less heat.

-Good PSU's will have DUAL or More 12v rails while the cheap ones just have one 12v rail.

-Good PSU's will have a high effciency usually over 70-72% to meet the Intel ATX standards and will usually list it in the manual. (Effciency in North America is not as high as in Europe and areas that use 230V high due to North America using 115V the required minimum efficiency is still 70% for full load and typical load in the Intel ATX 2.01/2 standard)

-Good PSU's will have various safety circuits OCP (Overcurrent Protection), OVP (Overvoltage Protection), SCP (Short Circuit Protection) and Thermal Protection and will make it clear usually. (Most cheap PSU's have at least SCP but a few cheaper ones dont even list that)

-Good PSU's will have ACTIVE PFC (Requires more advanced components) so higher standard of manufacturing is required as this is an extra circuit. (This is not the case in North America as they dont require PFC yet unlike Europe and may use Passive PFC instead)

-Good PSU's will not have Peak loads for various voltages and rails, e.g. 650 peak power supply. If its it a good power supply it will show its sustained output and may include a peak for a certain amount of time e.g. Hiper 580watt can do 630watts peak, but the Box will show that its 580 watt only as thats its true power.

-Price if you think your going to get a good 650watt PSU for £20 or £30 you have to live in fantasy land their is no way of getting a good PSU at that price. If its to cheap to believe then dont fall for it.

-If the PSU is good or of high reputation you should be able to find a review on the internet, always read up on others experinces. Its easy to find reviews of some of the highest quality PSU's e.g. FSP, Tagan, Antec, Bequiet, Seasonic etc, thats why we have google, yahoo, ask and others at our fingertips.

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Remember this is only of the top of my head but its a good start if your out to buy a reliable PSU. But remember even if you buy a reliable PSU dont expect a great 300 Watt PSU to power a system that needs 350 watts always make sure you get a PSU that meets your system requirements but also allows upgradiablity in the future.

could anyone recomend me a good 24 pin psu
thanks

Many names come to mind some of the highest quality supplies include

FSP (Fortron Source Power / Sparkle)
PC Power & Cooling
Seasonic
Tagan (Topower)
Antec
BeQuiet
Hiper
Aopen

Their are many more out their that are good but these are some of the best and most popular power supplies.

I have had my PC now for 4 years and I have never noticed a problem with the PSU.

But it's a cheap one and I sometimes wonder, especially after reading several threads on PSU problems in this forum.

Is it possible to make any kind of diagnosis of the PSU with the following screenshot? Or, are all the values shown pretty much normal?

Thanks for any assistance, in advance.

Unfortunately the only way to do a proper votlage check is to use a multimetre the onboard voltage checks are usually quite unreliable. For true output use a multimetre, it will give you the true outputs. No good review or tester will ever use the onboard motherboard voltage checks, as they just arent reliable enough.

Thanks,
I am going to buy an Enlight soon to replace the original PSU(just to be safe).

What about ASUS PSUs? I don't see them mentioned in this topic at all.

see: http://www.asus.com/products3.aspx?l...2&slname=Atlas