So I bought an Ultra 500W PSU....(help needed!)

[lordz]

I fried two hard drives after turning the computer on. Putrid smoke came out of both. A Raptor 74GB and a Maxtor 200GB.....

I am sure the PSU has everything to do with it. What am I doing wrong? And what should I do? I'm not worried about my Raptor cuz I can get it RMA'd. I just wasted a perfectly good 200GB backup drive.

The other components in my PC seem fine. What gives?

Help me please :(

Thank you!

[ghettocomp]

RMA the PSU as well, and check to see if you can get reimbursment for the damaged parts too. Since it may have been their problem to start with. Check the voltages &/or have a pro test with a results paper to prove the problem to teh manufacturer or you may be SOL

[ghettocomp]

Oh Yea, I'll :welcome: you to the forums in case no one else did. :santa:

[ckj]

I'm sorry but an Ultra just is not a quality powersupply. Harddrives are one of the first things to go down when they get overloaded with too much power. I can reccomend you a better powersupply what else are you running?

Without knowing anything, and assuming your rig is at least semi high end considering you've got a raptor, I'd say a minimum of a fortron 500w.

[EvilCloudStrife]

i think you will have a hard time getting anything out of ultra except a new power supply. Even the best brands in the world would never cover parts that their powersupplys killed. that 200Gig drive is out of warranty you say? stinks. what does it do exactly? does it power up?

[lordz]

Thanks for the friendly welcome :)

I have an AMD 3800+ X2, Corsair 2GB XMS PC3200 RAM, a Geforce 7800 GTX, a crappy ECS nForce4 board, and two dead drives >:| .

In a matter of seconds I had over $300 in hardware go up in smoke. Now I'm finding a way to recuperate my losses....

I'm willing to place a bet that Ultra will give me the runaround and claim no responsibility. So I'm probably going to have to suck it up....Maybe I will go get a Fortron!

:bang head

[lordz]

The circuit boards that controlled the hard drives crackled and then emitted a foul smoke. Now neither of the drives power up...much less spin :/

Do not buy an Ultra :/

Edit: Feh...I just went ahead and bought myself a Blue Storm. Honestly, I regret trying to spend less money only to end up strangling my wallet. :eh?: At least my other parts didn't get fried...I hope...

[ghettocomp]

This might be a place to start with the Ultra PSU:
http://www.ultraproducts.com/warranty_info.php
they warranty as such:
" That’s why every Ultra product must meet the highest industry standards for quality and reliability. And our warranty program is second to none."
Might use that on them. after calling and not seeing satisfaction then start at the top and work down.
I actually got the electric company to replace another computer of mine after their power went off from an auto accident somewhere nearby. persistance is the key but dont be an ass like I get.

[ckj]

Btw, what else did you have in your rig? Because the 500w bluestorm is not the ultimate powersupply, just regarded as a great supply at a great price.

[lordz]

That's all I have. I use an external USB DVD-RW thats self powered. A pretty minimalistic but powerful rig.

[lordz]

This might be a place to start with the Ultra PSU:
http://www.ultraproducts.com/warranty_info.php
they warranty as such:
" That’s why every Ultra product must meet the highest industry standards for quality and reliability. And our warranty program is second to none."
Might use that on them. after calling and not seeing satisfaction then start at the top and work down.
I actually got the electric company to replace another computer of mine after their power went off from an auto accident somewhere nearby. persistance is the key but dont be an ass like I get.

Thanks for the effort man :).. I didn't catch that part of their warranty. Maybe I will use it against them :P. heh heh

[ckj]

Woops I'm blind. :eh?:

[Rattle]

Wow thats very unfortunate, I actually owned a 500 ultra and called them in the past trying to get a lifetime warranty out of the unit, it went form 3 years to lifetime while I had it. Anyway they turned me down cuz I had bought it to early.
They seemed pretty nice though you may have a shot at getting something out of them.

Good luck man and sry about those HDD's

[3DFlyer]

:welcome: to OC Forums lordz. It sounds like you got bit badly. I'm sorry to see you had issues, and the PSU got your drives.

PSU's are very important in a system, and they will usually take out the video card, HDD's, and will even get the mobo sometimes. I hope it didn't damage that video card as those are very sensitive to PSU issues.

You might wanna look into a good OCZ520ADJ SLi or a, Forteon unit for your system. You have a pretty expensive vid card in that system, and a 100 dollar PSU will pay for itself, the first time it saves that component alone.

I saw a guy on here who had shorting issues, and he had an issue where the PSU clicked off 5 times. If it hadn't been for OCZ's protection circuitry (which is very good) he would almost surely have had damage. That unit paid for itself 5 times over.

Their warranty may not cover the damage to your drive, but they are still responsible for it. Ask them when you correspond with them if they'd rather have a rep on a forum of 60,000+ users for causing damage to your system, and also use their own line about their service on them.

There are other methods to get them to come around, but i would rather reserve those coments for PM. If you wish, contact me privately about that, but they are very much responsible for the damage. Their unit burned up your drives, and there's nobody else to blame for that.

Be sure to get voltage readings from that unit, and take pictures of the meter so you have proof. Don't send it off until you do, because once they get ahold of it, you have nothing, and won't see a dime from them. If they know you mean buisness, they'll be a little more caring about your issues. :)

[MidnightQ4]

I saw Ultra's on sale at Fry's tonight, reg 89.99, now 39.99 after mail-in rebate. Almost bought one too. whew! Actually I need to get one that does pci-e anyway.

[mantralord]

The newer Ultra's are made by Wintech, which should put it at or near the same quality as one of those Sintek units, but the older ones (X-Connect, etc) are made by Youngyear, which is somewhat below average.

I would still invest in a Fortron/OCZ unit though.

[lordz]

Since I'm a pretty busy person, I found time to call them during a short break at work. They told me that they would not reimburse me for my busted drives because I did not purchase the PSU through them directly. They agreed to RMA the PSU for free, I'd just have to pay the shipping back. But since I was at work I didn't want to cause a scene around my co-workers on the phone. I politely thanked them and got off the phone. I'm not sure how I can pursue this without getting a bit ****ed on the phone.

Thanks for the support by the way.. I love these forums :santa: . I'm just a college student who works and goes to school full time with barely enough time on my hands to tinker with computers. So that money means a lot to me :(

[ghettocomp]

Since I'm a pretty busy person, I found time to call them during a short break at work. They told me that they would not reimburse me for my busted drives because I did not purchase the PSU through them directly. They agreed to RMA the PSU for free, I'd just have to pay the shipping back. But since I was at work I didn't want to cause a scene around my co-workers on the phone. I politely thanked them and got off the phone. I'm not sure how I can pursue this without getting a bit ****ed on the phone.

Thanks for the support by the way.. I love these forums :santa: . I'm just a college student who works and goes to school full time with barely enough time on my hands to tinker with computers. So that money means a lot to me :(
Amazes me all the time when manufacturers and other related companys try to skate away on things like that. "we cant fix because you didnt buy directly from us." THEY ARE THE DOLTS THAT MADE THE D***** THING!
OOps! I am getting on a rant again.
Anyway does buying in from an autorized dealer make the warranty void? That is what they are saying to me...

[bboyfobulous]

i had a 500w X-Connect not too long ago ...worked perfectly with my current setup... i know ultra isn't like top-of-the-line equipment ....but it sure do look nice!! :p well anyway ...i sold my x-connect to get a pcp&c 510 .... honestly ...it ran about the same .... i was dissappointed .... don't get me wrong the 510 is awesome and rock solid ....but i guess i got lucky or something with that x-connect ...cuz it too ran rock-solid and I never had any problems with it ...just got the 510 cuz it was on sale and I heard good things about it ....but i guess its consistancy that counts ....i kinda miss my x-connect now ...it was so pretty ... :cry:

[Rattle]

i had a 500w X-Connect not too long ago ...worked perfectly with my current setup... i know ultra isn't like top-of-the-line equipment ....but it sure do look nice!! :p well anyway ...i sold my x-connect to get a pcp&c 510 .... honestly ...it ran about the same .... i was dissappointed .... don't get me wrong the 510 is awesome and rock solid ....but i guess i got lucky or something with that x-connect ...cuz it too ran rock-solid and I never had any problems with it ...just got the 510 cuz it was on sale and I heard good things about it ....but i guess its consistancy that counts ....i kinda miss my x-connect now ...it was so pretty ... :cry:

I had an x connect for a while and I beat the crap out of it.
never once did it gove me trouble.

[shawkins]

I have a X-connect right now. It has worked fine for me, but on my new system, since Im gonna WC Im going for a PC P&C 510 SLI.

I havent had to deal with theirm warranty dept. before but I doubt they will pay for your HDD. No companies want to do that.

[protocol_droid]

Oh gees, I've had a brand new one sitting in a box ready to go for some time now. I'm worried now with my new 148 opty here and don't want to take a chance with my a8n32. I'll be getting rid of that heap and move to another. Best of luck.

[Avatar28]

i had a 500w X-Connect not too long ago ...worked perfectly with my current setup... i know ultra isn't like top-of-the-line equipment ....but it sure do look nice!! :p well anyway ...i sold my x-connect to get a pcp&c 510 .... honestly ...it ran about the same .... i was dissappointed .... don't get me wrong the 510 is awesome and rock solid ....but i guess i got lucky or something with that x-connect ...cuz it too ran rock-solid and I never had any problems with it ...just got the 510 cuz it was on sale and I heard good things about it ....but i guess its consistancy that counts ....i kinda miss my x-connect now ...it was so pretty ... :cry:

I'm perfectly happy with mine. The voltages have been solid and I run it pretty hard. A64@2360 at pretty high voltage, two hard drives, dvdrw, video card, various lights and fans, and my waterpump runs off the 12v line too. It's never, that I can tell, batted an eye.

Protocol droid, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Despite what some people would have you believe they're NOT junk units probably slightly above average in performance, IMHO. Even assuming that the PSU is directly responsible (which seems likely but is far from certain), that could have happened to any manufacturer. I've seen people who have had the same thing happen with an Antec but I've not heard anyone say to avoid Antec because they're junk.

Oh yeah, one thought. Lordz, where do you live? Are you in the US or Europe or where?