Antec 480W True Blue goes....BYE BYE!

My 6 month old Antec 480W True Blue wasn't happy just dying. No sir, he said "If I'm going out, I'm taking this gaddamned motherboard with me!" and so he did.

The plug where the mother meets the PSU cable was MELTED on. I pried it off with a damn screw driver. Smelling the smell that let me know that something was wrong (along with the computer restarting or growing verticle multi colored lines) There were 5 charred black mobo pins and a bunch of stink.

Now by NO means am I condemning all of Antec for this one faulty PSU...but wow. I've already replaced both mobo and PSU. I'm going generic PSU...counting the months on how long my new CompUSA 600W will last and I got a ASUS A7NX8 to replace my GA-7VAX. Now I'm just selling my slower RAM (in classifieds right now nudge nudge say no more) so I can drop in some Corsair XMS DDR400 Twin Pack.

All in all I kinda thank the Antec for going bad, my computer runs abit faster with Dual Channel and all that...however my wallet has gotten lighter.

Just thought I'd share my experience.

PS My +5v rail was at 4.2 with the Antec!

That's why the pros use:

Happend to me too!
My 5v rail was quite low and I'm not sure if thats why all the 5v pins got so hot or wether it was a power surge that maybe messed it up and caused them to get hot and low.
I am really curious about why exactly this happend, I have seen it one other place too.

Oh well, I had similar good mis-fourtune, I got an NF7-S but am not using a lower wattage PSU (But newer, I was using an OLD 400w antec now its a new 300 watt antec, better than some of the 320w Enermax's I have).

yeah my antec true blue 480w just died last nite, donno what it took with it but it billowed a crapload of smoke :X

I had a antec true power die on me. now I have this cheap compusa 500 watt psu, but its dying to, I cant run my 9700 pro with it in my computer. all I can use is a 8500 and a few drives. sucks. pay attenetion to that compusa psu man

My 6 month old Antec 480W True Blue wasn't happy just dying. No sir, he said "If I'm going out, I'm taking this gaddamned motherboard with me!" and so he did.

PS My +5v rail was at 4.2 with the Antec!

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was the 5v rail at 4.2 before the antec died? if so, how long?

Re: Re: Antec 480W True Blue goes....BYE BYE!

dustybyrd said:

was the 5v rail at 4.2 before the antec died? if so, how long?

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This happend to me as well and it was a steady 5.8 and it slowly drpped to 4.7 then 4.67 and then 4.5 and just before it totaly stopped working (before it would from time to time not turn on and stuff but the drives would still spin up) it was 4.2 when it got into windows I didn't keep running to though I went and resteated the clip and relized that it was burnt to a crisp on a few pins.

Re: Re: Re: Antec 480W True Blue goes....BYE BYE!

This happend to me as well and it was a steady 5.8 and it slowly drpped to 4.7 then 4.67 and then 4.5 and just before it totaly stopped working

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yeah... this is similar to what larva has said can happen---namely, that an increase in the voltage line (like 5.8 for the 5v) can mean the line is being over-taxed....and then you see it drop and drop until falls to the ground and dies


hopefully this won't happen to the antec tp 550 i just ordered...

you know for some reason...i have seen more problems with the 480 than either the 430 or 550 versions...

i have seen this on newegg's buyers comments and here...

i wonder why? maybe it's because the 480's are sort of lesser 550's----in other words, might they be the same inside? but antec labels the tp480's as 480's because in testing they don't fair as well...

doubt it, but just a thought...kind of like a 2.4 p4 or 1 1700xp being "not quite as good as a 3.0p4 or 3200xp"

Akumu X said:

The plug where the mother meets the PSU cable was MELTED on. I pried it off with a damn screw driver. Smelling the smell that let me know that something was wrong (along with the computer restarting or growing verticle multi colored lines) There were 5 charred black mobo pins and a bunch of stink.

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In my electronics repair experience, this usually means a bad connection from the start. High current at any voltage going through a less than satisfactory connection can produce a lot of heat, and I've seen my share of melted connectors. Your Antec may still be working, but would need a new connector for sure; and I wouldn't even try it unless it was turned on manually by jumpering the green wire to ground and multimetering every last rail on the PSU. There could have easily been damage to the PSU's internal circuitry from the poor connection at the ATX connector, though the Antec's protection circuitry may have saved it.

I don't believe the Antec was overloaded or even at fault, just some loose pins in the ATX connector.

onx - from the sound of it you got a defective one from the factory

crash - yours also may have been defective from factory, but it could have been the board too as well as a bad ATX connection

Re: Re: Antec 480W True Blue goes....BYE BYE!

In my electronics repair experience, this usually means a bad connection from the start. High current at any voltage going through a less than satisfactory connection can produce a lot of heat, and I've seen my share of melted connectors.

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i see...

so which connection was likely to be the culprit? the motherboard socket or the psu's plug?

how can this be avoided?

it seems to me the connectors on psu's are kinda "cheap" anyway...

are pc power and cooling's connectors any better?

woah, this is creepy, how many of us had this psu die in the last day or 2? mine went out about 4 hours ago. the power supply still works, but no fans work and it smells like it burned.

Re: Re: Re: Antec 480W True Blue goes....BYE BYE!

dustybyrd said:

so which connection was likely to be the culprit? the motherboard socket or the psu's plug?

how can this be avoided?

it seems to me the connectors on psu's are kinda "cheap" anyway...

are pc power and cooling's connectors any better?

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Hard to say, could have been either, but I'm going to hazard a guess that the board's connector does it most of the time due to time and oxidization. The pins may have picked up some crud over time that built up enough resistance to cause the problem. Could also be a flaw on the board sucking too much power through one wire that exceeds Molex's ratings.

Dirty contacts would be hard to avoid on this type of molex connector though they usually stay good for a long time - my usual method of combating this is to use professional contact cleaner on both connectors and then use sandpaper on each contact to make sure there was a good connection, but the pins on these are so small all you can really do is try the contact cleaner by itself and unplug/replug the connectors several times. 99% rubbing alcohol might help where there is no contact cleaner, but one should make sure the board and PSU are not powered when doing so. I would only suggest this if there is visible oxidization on the motherboard's pins (ie they're black instead of shiny).

Molex connectors are Molex connectors whether used by Deer or PC P&C (Molex has them patented I believe) - like anything electronic there is a certain chance they will fail, but Molex has a great reputation and the odds of a connector failing are minimal unless they get fairly old or are damaged somehow. Usually when they do, it's because of damage or crud on the contacts. Personally, I don't worry about mine failing and only check for buildup on the pins and obvious damage.

Anyway, this isn't too big of a problem - I would say 99% of the time there's nothing to worry about, but on boards I haven't used for a while that suck a lot of power (especially from one line) I usually check the connector for crud or other obvious damage like sleeves that are out of shape or bent pins.

Edit - one more thing - any electronics tech worth his salt on a soldering iron should be able to replace these connectors, so if the board's something really special it may be worth it to ask around and see what various techs' rates are. Been meaning to add an ATX connector to my old FIC VA-503+ 1.1a board, but too lazy to do it.

Thanks for the informative responses. I'm sure that there was nothing wrong the way that it was seating in. It was only seated in once and the whole case was blown free of dust numerous times.

Oh well, I'll try and keep a sharper eye out, make sure it doesn't happen again.

It was probably a failure of the board's voltage regulators that caused excessive current draw if the connector was undamaged and seated ok, and the PSU didn't go into protective shutdown. For the PSU to do this, it would have needed to fail on both the protection circuitry and the voltage regulation - odds are against that happening on one of these.

To sum up my essay up there, you don't really need to worry about Molex connectors unless they're old, dirty, or damaged. In my 15 years of electronics repair, I can only recall a handful of cases where a Molex connector was discolored or melted thanks to too much current; though on a modern ATX connector (Molex Mini-fit Junior) with high current demands it's somewhat more likely to happen than in my repair practice (but not so much more likely I'd recommend checking all Molex connectors in a blind panic).

If MBM starts showing wild voltage fluctuations like Crash's experience up there on the CPU rail with a multimeter showing no such thing, then it's time to start checking connectors

If the connectors look fine, time for a new board before meltdown happens.

Hmm. One possibility, in the cases where the ATX connectors melted, is that the crimps where the wire is attached to the Molex are bad.

Does it look like the hotspot(s) were down close to the mobo or up towards the wires?

Since87 said:

Hmm. One possibility, in the cases where the ATX connectors melted, is that the crimps where the wire is attached to the Molex are bad.

Does it look like the hotspot(s) were down close to the mobo or up towards the wires?

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Thanks - I knew something had slipped my mind... the crimps are also a possible hotspot (pardon the pun )

Considering the seeming rash of these failures. It makes me wonder whether they don't have a bad crimper or unqualified operator on the production line.

It's possible... I've seen Molexes come from the factory with bad crimps, and I usually repair them with a soldering iron to be sure it doesn't happen again.

I hope the QC over at Channel Well isn't starting to slip; if the Trueblue Molexes haven't been altered by Antec somehow then one of the better PSU makers will start losing its reputation. Anyhow, I'm planning to buy an OEM Channel Well 480w or 550w unit soon (when I have the spare $$$) and I'll inspect it for myself. If the ATX connector looks suspicious I'll fix it myself and let this forum know about the problem.

My older 420w unit doesn't have a Molex issue, but it's at least a year old now and things could have changed.

Edit - just noticed the Trueblue comes sleeved... perhaps therin lies the problem. If the PSU comes from Channel Well with no sleeve, perhaps it's the QC at Antec we should be looking at. I don't see too many complaints about the original True 480, just the Trueblue. Do the regular Trues have sleeves?

So how many people have had this PSU die recently. looks like atleast a half dozen threads on this.. perhaps its worth mentioning to Antec that they got a faulty PSU sneaking around perhaps?

and about the CompUSA band, mine has lasted like year and a half. and Ive finally reached its limit (its a 350W) it cant handle a Radeon 9200 with all thats in my comp

preping two Sparkles to use in new case (soon to come project) since Im out of room and power in current one

star882 said:

That's why the pros use:

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so it would be "**** powered"? talk about your......never mind.

i have a linkman 300w with an fic sd11 for 3yrs and 3 months and no problem!(to now almost)