Re: Antec Power Supplies Failing

DK wrote:
In article <etr6gg$63f$1@xxxxxxxx>, Paul <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
SteveH wrote:
Jim Garrison wrote:
I have had THREE (3) Antec power supplies fail in the last 9 months.
<snip>
Anybody else having problems with Antec?
Funny you should say that, I was beginning to thing it was just me!

I've had 3 go bad in about the same time period. Two I had Antec replace, the other one got replaced with a different brand. None of these were powering systems that would have even come close to stressing the PSU and all had surge protection.

SteveH

Antec doesn't make its own supplies. They are contracted. My early Antec
supplies are from HEC, the later ones from Channelwell (may see CWT stamped
on the transformer). I don't know who is making them at the current time.

So far, none of my Antecs have had problems. The NEO-HE models have had
their problems, which you can find mention of in some of the private
forums. But those aren't outright component failures as such, just
badly behaved supplies.

I recently bought Antec P150 case that has 430W Neo-HE. I like the case, like that everything is extremely silent and the system is rock stable thus far, in regular use and in CPU burn tests.

One thing I find weird and it bothers me though:
According Motherboard Monitor (I don't have multimeter), most voltages are lower than it should be:

CPU core 1.6V = 1.58
+3.3 V = 3.22
+ 5 V = 4.81
-5 V = 5.11
+12 V = 11.07
-12 V = 0.56 (???)

Should I expect serious problems down the road if these numbers
are real? What is the likelihood that the numbers that MBM reports are not the real numbers?

DK

It means Motherboard Monitor could be using the wrong conversion
factor.

If you are concerned, a multimeter can be used to verify the
voltages. When the main connector is connected to the motherboard,
you can contact the metal pin inside the nylon shell of the
connector, with your meter tip. Picking up a ground connection,
by clipping onto a screw on an I/O connector, allows you to handle
the other lead of the multimeter, without dropping it.

When I've tested my power supplies here, I find my multimeter lists
a much more believable voltage, than the hardware monitor does.

On my motherboard, the only obvious user of -12V is the serial port.
(My motherboard doesn't use one of those voltage pumped RS232 chips.)
It is also possible that some of the linear regulator circuits using
operational amplifiers are powered from -12V as well. Other than that,
there really isn't a lot of reason for a motherboard to touch
the -12V.

Paul
.

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