Power Supplies

[floppybootstomp]

Can't believe I've just had another Antec PSU fail, that's the fourth.

I started messing with 'puters either 95 or 96 so in either 15 or 16 years here's my PSU track record and this is just my own computers, nobody elses:

The number denotes failure

Antec - 4 (That's every Antec PSU I've ever bought)
Enermax - 1 (Out of 1)
Tagan - 2 (Out of 2)
Jeantech - 0 (Out of 4)
Corsair - 0 (Out of 2)

Jeantech are a generic make sold by PC World who mostly sell crap but these PSU's are good, they even get good independent reviews.

And to be fair to Antec the PSU that just failed was around 6 or 7 years old but had been used very little in the last 2 years, having powered ny socket A Win 98 machine in that time.

And I do hear that Seasonic now make some models for Antec.

Still, 4 failures means no more Antec PSU's for this boy from now on, a shame they can't make 'em as good as their cases.

In future only Corsair; Seasonic and OCZ.

 

[Reefsmoka]

Had a 480w tagan in one of my first custom builds around 7 years ago and it's still going strong for me sister today.

Got a corsair now and from what i've read there the best going, havent heard a single bad thing about em so far which is strange, normally you will get a fanboy who prefers another make slating em

 

[V_R]

Lame.

Same here, Corsair PSU's have been grand for me and all i've recommended them too.

Can also recommend Be Quiet, OCZ, Seasonic and Coolermaster's.

Heres a 500w Corsair for a little over £45 if your interested. Thats probably over speced for the system, but a good PSU for the money.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Thanks for the link V_R but I do have 1 or 2 spare old PSU's stored in me lockup.

The Socket A/Win 98 machine doesn't need much current, one hard disk, one optical drive, 512Mb RAM & AGP Graphics card so 300W is plenty.

I may buy a cheapo Jeantech from PC World but as I don't use this machine much I'll probably wait until I visit lockup again.

Which will probably be April 8th as I'm starting some work April 11th and need a reel of cable I have stored in lockup for that.

 

[V_R]

Fair enough, even better, not having to buy one.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Conclusion to this sorry tale, after much kerfuffing about, swapping peripherals and proving things dead or alive:

I looked through my boxes of bits and found I had a spare Jeantech 300 watt PSU so fitted it, all came back to life.

The PS2 bus has gone on the motherboard and it has also killed the keyboard which was plugged into the PS2 port.

Motherboard will POST, prompting me to reset CMOS settings by hitting del but of course no keyboard input.

A USB keyboard won't work on the motherboard before OS is loaded, I think it's too old, which is probably why I had a PS2 keyboard fitted.

The mouse - a Logi G5 - was plugged into a USB port and haven't tested that yet.

I'd had that motherboard - a DFI LAN Party Ultra IIB - since 2003 and poxy Antec killed it for me.

I'd been running Win 98 with lots of old games on that machine which means I've probably lost all my save games.

I do have another motherboard setup stored in my lockup but can't recall what type it is but I think it's a Socket 939. Which means it won't run Win 98 - too new, Socket A & Intel equivalent was last genre that could run Win 98.

Which means I either keep my eye open for an old machine/motherboard/CPU/memory that's compatible or try DOS-Box or VMWare. We shall see.

These things happen, as they say...

 

[crazylegs]

Sorry to hear that Mr Flopp's

Hope you get a machine sorted soon then..

 

[yurihyuga]

I am on my second corsair power supply they are definetly quality my corsair HX750 lasted near enough 3 years before it kicked the bucket so definetly had some good use out of it. I replaced it with an AX850 a couple weeks ago.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I am on my second corsair power supply they are definetly quality my corsair HX750 lasted near enough 3 years before it kicked the bucket so definetly had some good use out of it. I replaced it with an AX850 a couple weeks ago.

Only 3 years? My youngest Corsair PSU is more than 3 years old, lol, eldest will be five in November.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Seems an Australian fella at another forum I frequent is sending me a socket A motherboard.

There may be a happy end to this tale.

The generosity of relative strangers never ceases to amaze me

 

[Ian]

Glad you've got one sorted Flops . All the way from Aus, now that's some journey!

My current PSU is a PCP&C and that's been installed for 2 years. The one before that was an OCZ GameXStream and it lasted about a year...

Out of interest, what games do you use your Windows 98 machine for?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Out of interest, what games do you use your Windows 98 machine for?

Oops, forgot about this, lemme see, off the top of my head:

Shadowman
Nocturne
American McGhee's Alice
Giants
Quake
Kiss Psycho Circus
Outlaws
Breakneck (A racing game)
Ignition (A racing game)
Lego Racers 1
Formula One 2002
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Star Wars: Racers
Toca Race Driver 1
Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinths Of Worlds (loaded from floppy disks)
Ultima Ascention
Sin
Daikatana
Hydro Thunder
Carmageddon II
Carmageddon TDR 2000
Lands Of Lore III
Aliens Vs Predators Gold Edition
Shogo
Clive Barker's Undying (though I think this one works in XP)

My favourites are the first three in the list.

I have some more, like Hexen II, not installed.

I use a cordless Logitech gamepad for the racing games, it works well.

Had a rummage in my lockup today and found a working Socket A Asus A7V8X motherboard with CPU, 512Mb RAM and a Zalman cooler. Also has a Hercules AGP 3D Prophet 8500 128Mb video card.

So I think I'll replace the blown board with that for now and store the Australian arrival. Wish I'd found that board before the guy sent the board, but, oh well.

Also found a couple of good 350W Jeantech PSU's.

 

[Ian]

Some of those games bring back memories! It's quite rare that I go back and re-play something (a few exceptions like Dungeon Keeper and Constructor, every few years).

You may find that you can run them ok on your main PC using VirtualBox - may be worth a shot one day .

 

[floppybootstomp]

Have now fitted the replacement motherboard and blow me Win 98 fired up ok

Lots of prompts for drivers at boot but most everything ok, including graphics.

The Logitech G5 mouse is very sluggish though and I have no audio (using onboard audio).

So I will take a look at the Asus site and see if drivers are still available for this motherboard. If they're not then I have a couple of old Creative sound cards that I can probably find Win 98 drivers for, may even have some lurking here.

Not sure if I will find suitable Logitech mouse drivers though, we shall see.

And I haven't connected the Logitech cordless Gamepad yet, but I'm fairly certaijn I have a CD with Win 98 drivers for that.

The Zalman Cooler is a whole lot quieter than the previous Thermaltaketake one I was using but CPU temp has risen, it's now 48.5C rather than the previous 42C.

And this Socket A CPU is running at 2.1Ghz, the one in the old knackered motherboard was only a 1.4Ghz version.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Installed VIA 4-in-1 drivers and Realtek Audio Codec but things aren't doing what they should.

Audio doesn't work and the control panel device manager has a million and one yellow exclamation marks. And gamepad not recognised either. Plus the mouse is still very sluggish.

Old installation with DFI motherboard setup obviously clashing with Asus motherboard and drivers.

So, looks like a fresh install of Win 98. Good thing is as I can access the current setup I'll be able to pull off most gamesaves.

Installing Win 98 is a very definite PITA, btw, makes me apreciate Win 7 all the more.