Power Supply Shenanigans

[floppybootstomp]

In my main system (see sig) I had a Jeantech 700W 'Storm' modular PSU. Bought it 14 months ago.

For the last coupla months the 120mm fan has been intermittent and the fan's blue led's have been flickering on and off. Eventually fan stopped rotating altogether, although all power rails seemed to be ok as everything was still working.

Ok, I thought, have been wanting to upgrade PSU in weakest system here which had a Jeantech 300W PSU. So I bought a Corsair modular 620W PSU for main system, fitted it, everything is good. In fact I swear it's made Vista work faster, like it did when I first installed it (honestly, that be the truth, but I guess that's a different subject).

So I figured I'd now repair the Jeantech 700W and buy it a new fan. So I bought it a new 120mm fan and it done the same thing - wouldn't work, just kinda staggered and made a few random revs when it felt like it. WTF?

Took the fan out, tested it on my bench power supply - it's fine. So, tested old fan on bench power supply - that's working fine too. Hmm. So, I cut the connector off of new 120mm fan and soldered the wires straight across the back of the output socket for the motherboard 12 volt supply (and yes I used my voltmeter to determine which pcb pins had +12V).

Hooked it all up, Jeantech PSU working fine, fan wizzing round and lighting up all pretty blue.

Fitted it into it's new home - it failed to boot. Eventually took out motherboard and connected just it, grafix card, monitor, keyboard and mouse. It still didn't POST.

Dang

Then I noticed one RAM module dislodged, probably from where I'd re-routed cables. Pushed that home - bingo - she lives

Put everything all back together again and all is good.

So now I have a socket A XP3200 2.2Ghz in a DFI Lan Party Ultra II B with 1Gb RAM and an AGP 128Mb 6800 card; one hard disk and two optical drives with a 700W PSU all to themselves. Overkill or what?

Still, it does seem to be running very smoothly.

Fun and games, boys and girls, fun and games.....

 

[crazylegs]

It always is Flopp's it always is...

 

[Ian]

Is that the system you use for XP gaming still?

Seems really stange that the fan just failed, but at least you got it working with a direct connection

 

[muckshifter]

Nothing surprises me much these days ...


A lesser person would have just dumped the PSU ... you have the skill & knowledge to 'tinker' with the PSU ... I wouldn't advise anybody, in general, to mess with the innards of their PSU ... me, I would never have bought it in the first place, but I guess that's a different subject.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Ian: Yes, it is odd that the 12V connection to the fan within the PSU should fail, the fan itself was actually ok. Still, I'd bought a new fan so I used that as a replacement. And yes, that's the machine with the swappable hard disks where I use Win 98 for old games and try Linux Distros.

Mucks: Ah yes, I forgot about the Health & Safety warning, kid gloves, so: 'Don't try this at home kids'

As for Jeantech and you not buying it in the first place, Jeantech have had consistently good reviews in bench tests and I've always had good experiences with them. But all it takes is to be let down once and they're now on my rubbish list along with Antec & Hiper PSU's.

As well as the repaired Jeantech 700 and the new Corsair 620, I'm using the Tagan 480W I reviewed some years ago and an old Jeantech 350W in my other systems. The Tagan has been good, very good.

 

[muckshifter]

It is not the brand name, necessarily, that would put me off, but the way it is built.

Sorry, you just proved my point ... "it is odd that the 12V connection to the fan within the PSU should fail" ...

Not wanting to go into any lengthy discussions, my personal preference is my own opinion, if the object don't meet my criteria, I don't buy.

 

[floppybootstomp]

It is not the brand name, necessarily, that would put me off, but the way it is built.

Sorry, you just proved my point ... "it is odd that the 12V connection to the fan within the PSU should fail" ...

Not wanting to go into any lengthy discussions, my personal preference is my own opinion, if the object don't meet my criteria, I don't buy.

Which is a similar reason why I would never recommend Nortons AV....

As to the build quality, yes, you're right, when I looked inside it was shoddy.

So I guess I've learnt a lesson here the hard way although up to this point Jeantech have been good.

And if you want to bandy expressions such as 'You've just proved my point' expect, if not a lengthy discussion, then at least some feedback.

 

[V_R]

Fair play for fixing it Flops, i'd not want to do that myself.

I cant fault my Corsair 620, been good as gold and the modular cabling is great!

 

[Abarbarian]

An investigation worthy of Holmes . Well done flops .

I'll give my vote along with V_R's for the Corsair psu's my modular HX 550 is doing just fine , just a mo I can't hear anything , has it stopped ........ runs of to check .......... phew .......... thank goodness its still spinning silently away .