Blown PSU - Please Help!

[parky135]

Hey All,

Recently (this morning) built a new pc - specs below - installation went okay but when I powered on, the PSU made a whizz and then a loud bang (sparks 'n' all). Was wondering if anyone out there could tell me what might have caused this????

SPECS

-OCZ ZX 850W PSU
-AMD FX-6100
-Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
-Asus GTX 670
-Asus M5A99X mobo
-8GB Corsair Vengeance
-120GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD
-standard optical drive

Any help would be HUGELY appreciated,

Thanks

 

[Knufire]

Just a DOA PSU, probably. I'd RMA with OCZ and try again. Can't really check if anything else is dead without a working PSU.

 

[parky135]

Thanks, i've already sorted a return. As long as nothing there shouts out lack of wattage to you?

 

[Knufire]

That PSU could probably run triple-SLI 670s.

 

[parky135]

Happy days cheers Knufire

 

[Bobnova]

Yeah that's more than enough PSU. You just got unlucky in the random draw of PC parts.
The BANG means it was on the primary side, which in turn means that it was isolated from the parts inside your computer and shouldn't have done any damage.
Every brand has PSUs that fail, that series is supposed to be a good one.

 

[parky135]

so you dont think its anything i might have done?? shouldn't be but just exploring the possibility...

 

[Bobnova]

Nope, I seriously doubt it's anything you did, unless you dropped screws into the PSU.

 

[wingman99]

Post back when you get the new PSU and tell us how it's working.

 

[larrymoencurly]

Pictures in this review show that the OCZ ZX 850W is made with capacitors from CapXon, Teapo, and some brand I can't identify (the silver ones). The latter are probably solid polymer, known for being able to withstand high current, and while both CapXon and Teapo make lousy caps, the CapXons are seem to be only high voltage versions, which are apparently OK, so that leaves the Teapos. It's also possible that a big MOSFET or diode on one of the heatsinks blew when the cap blew.

 

[Bobnova]

Teapo caps generally work just fine in SMPS units.
Where they really suck is when used incorrectly on Dell motherboards

 

[larrymoencurly]

Teapo caps generally work just fine in SMPS units.
Where they really suck is when used incorrectly on Dell motherboards

My old Antec PSUs and D-Link routers were Dell motherboards?

 

[Bobnova]

Apparently


Thing is, a lot of PSUs use Teapo caps, those Antecs were a bad design.
It may well be that Teapos aren't as forgiving of a bad design though.

CapXon is, as far as I can tell, the best of the Chinese caps. That's not saying a hole lot, but the foil is etched in Japan at least as CapXon is willing to admit that China can't do it right.
I don't know how they fare in the long run. In the short term I've tested a number of PSUs that use them and they do their job.

 

[larrymoencurly]

Apparently


Thing is, a lot of PSUs use Teapo caps, those Antecs were a bad design.
It may well be that Teapos aren't as forgiving of a bad design though.

CapXon is, as far as I can tell, the best of the Chinese caps. That's not saying a hole lot, but the foil is etched in Japan at least as CapXon is willing to admit that China can't do it right.
I don't know how they fare in the long run. In the short term I've tested a number of PSUs that use them and they do their job.

I know that some PC Power & Cooling PSUs contain Teapos and haven't had problems with them, but those D-Link routers each needed a couple of new Teapos, and Actiontec modems using the same model Teapos had some of them bulged, according to a friend who repaired seveal he bought from Goodwill. CapXons are kind of famous for making LCD TVs and monitors stop working, and some of them have a few Samxons, apparently in high stress locations. CapXon sells aluminum foil, and their website shows the general production process, including etching, but doesn't say where it's done:

http://www.capxongroup.com/en/prod_page.aspx?catid=mp

I've read that the best Taiwanese caps are made by Jamicon; at least they're not considered terrible. Apparently the only good mainland Chinese maker is Samxon, but Ltec (Luminous Town) is considered OK but not great in PSUs (Delta uses them a lot).