# Worst PSUs you ever came across?



## Zyon (Jul 14, 2011)

This true story inspired me to create a thread and allowing people to discuss about the worst power supplies (PSUs) ever made, please feel free to share your horror stories and I apologise if there is an existing thread, but please only include ones that you come across in real life and not on hardware reviews, internet advertisements etc.

So one day I went to one of my aunt's house and she showed me problem with her computer being very loud with static noises (started first week after she bought the computer five years ago). So by instinct I figured out it was most likely the PSU causing the problem, after I opened her PC this is what I found as the PSU, a *SHAW Elite 680W*. Here's her PC specs by the way:

CPU: Core 2 Duo E4600
Ram: Some generic 2x1gb
Motherboard: Some Gigabyte one
Graphics Card: Geforce 8500GT
HDD: Some IDE one
Optical Drive: Some SATA one (awkward isn't it? Why have IDE and SATA?)

Mind you, SHAW PSUs are probably the cheapest 'brand' you can buy in Australia (the '680W' is only $17 at MSY Technologies), and is reputed to be one of the worst PSU manufacturers ever  (several stories of fried SHAWs taking out the entire computer), even though Core 2 Duo with something like 8500GT doesn't use much power, it's a miracle how the SHAW worked for five years *without* malfunction and taking out the entire $800 PC.

Bought her bought a Corsair CX430 and the noise disappeared.


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## Frick (Jul 14, 2011)

Don't know, but a guy at another forums had a story about Q-Tech (now gone from the market) that actually melted the inside of one of his HDDs. This was back in 2003 maybe, and when he RMA'd the drive to Samsung they said they have never seen anything like it.


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## MRCL (Jul 14, 2011)

Interestingly enough I never came across a PSU one could deem really really bad. Even tough I had a couple of generic ones, they held up - and some unidentifiable PSU (missing stickers) thats been around me for like 14 years still works flawlessly. 

And I'm actually quite comfortable with that, I don't really want to experience a cheap PSU taking down my precious hardware. My dad had this happen to him recently.


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## mauriek (Jul 14, 2011)

i got one, a power supply in my sister PC, Brand Ebenhaezer 300D, this PSU waste few days of my life trying to troubleshoot why every Keyboard i plug into the PS2 port malfunction, when i press A key it type R in the monitor, Q key become J and so on..never cross my mind that PSU can cause this kind of problem so at first few day i have tried everything from fresh OS install to changing Motherboard with no success.


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## MRCL (Jul 14, 2011)

mauriek said:


> i got one, a power supply in my sister PC, Brand Ebenhaezer 300D, this PSU waste few days of my life trying to troubleshoot why every Keyboard i plug into the PS2 port malfunction, *when i press A key it type R in the monitor, Q key become J and so on..*never cross my mind that PSU can cause this kind of problem so at first few day i have tried everything from fresh OS install to changing Motherboard with no success.



Wait what? How did you figure out your PSU did this, and not a faulty language setting?


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## lilhasselhoffer (Jul 14, 2011)

Brand: Rinky dink out of nowhere.  The labels were destroyed, and the the company logo was not from anyone that I knew of.
Problem: Construction and build quality, as well as quality assurance issues.

The power supply was in a one-off that my friend purchased from a defunct computer manufacturer (circa the time Dell finally made it big).  They did a miserable job cleaning up the circuit board, and used a cheap sheet of paper to "insulate" the circuit board from the metal casing of the power supply.

When we smelled something burning we turned everything off, dragged the computer outside, and hit it with enough compressed air to ventilate the thing.  When the stank finally cleared, we cracked the most horrible smelling component, and found that the PSU had melted the paint, burnt the paper, and partially discolored the circuit board.

I can't say that this sort of crap happens too often in recent years, but it was a huge problem back in the early 2000s and late 1990s when there was more focus on output of PCs than on quality products.


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## mauriek (Jul 14, 2011)

MRCL said:


> Wait what? How did you figure out your PSU did this, and not a faulty language setting?



no faulty setting, it even error in BIOS and i found out when later i was going to use the PSU to power older PC as temporary replacement for my sister PC.  before that i was even sure the CRT Monitor is the culprit but then same problem happened in the older PC using that PSU.


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## Widjaja (Jul 14, 2011)

Worst PSU?
Hyena.

Worst experience with a PSU?
ThermalTake 430W
It was faulty from the start but no one told me this one was already found defective.
I was asked to replace the PSU of a trouble customer who will not leave until the machine is fixed.
I set up the machine, plug in the power to the PSU, then I feel a sharp pinching on my skin which was in contact with the case.
Next thing I know I can not touch the case as it seems to be charged.
Next thing I know the PSU has smoke coming out of it.
Fortunately the customer laughed at the smoke and I was able to find a good power supply.
Still the customer made sure the boss got an ear full for not making sure whoever last used the power supply marked it faulty.


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## hellrazor (Jul 14, 2011)

I got a 3 dollar one from Value Village (it's like Goodwill) - I think it still works, but I don't recall where I put it.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 15, 2011)

I've been bitten by several Antec power supplies, and just had an aunt and uncle that had an antec PSU take out their entire rig. It killed every single piece of their computer including all of the fans. I don't normally write off a brand, but I wont buy another antec.


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## qubit (Jul 15, 2011)

newtekie1 said:


> I've been bitten by several Antec power supplies, and just had an aunt and uncle that had an antec PSU take out their entire rig. It killed every single piece of their computer including all of the fans. I don't normally write off a brand, but I wont buy another antec.



Jeez, that's behaviour more fitting of a no-name $10 Chinese brand. :shadedshu

Myself and my friends have had reliability issues with Antecs too, where they start slowly failing (odd noises etc) or they blow up. None have taken out the PC they were in, though.

How can a brand be this shit and still be considered 'premium'? I think they might be better now, but I'm not gonna chance it, especially with such excellent brands as Corsair and Seasonic around to choose from.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 15, 2011)

I've been pretty lucky.  The only one that stands out is an AeroCool 550w.  It put on a light show when it died (rather than simply going off) but I have yet to have a PSU kill computer components.  My "worst" isn't as bad as others. XD


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## m4gicfour (Jul 15, 2011)

Ultra.

Had two die within 6 months, and a third which spontaneously began emitting an irritating high-pitched noise at the very very upper levels of my hearing. 

That noise making PSU: The sound was so high-pitched that I could barely hear it, and my dad couldn't. (your hearing naturally declines with age) It must have been just at the extreme range of my hearing and must have been LOUD. I could barely hear it, but more than 10 minutes in the room with the PC would cause migraines. :shadedshu

All other PSU failures I've dealt with have been OEM units in other people's prebuilt computers failing after years and years of service. Failing properly, at that. Goes off, won't turn on. One in an intel-based system even had a status LED in it that was out (indicating failed PSU).


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## scaminatrix (Jul 15, 2011)

Hiper Type R series (the ones from like 5 years(?) ago)

I've had two of them blow on me. Proper blow. They're the reason my Daughter tells me "not to do fireworks" when working on the PC :shadedshu


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## Pestilence (Jul 15, 2011)

Never had any "Bad Ones". I still have a 1K watt Coolmax that works like a charm


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## ChristTheGreat (Jul 15, 2011)

A friend had a Antec Smart Power 500w modular, after 3 years, it died with motherboard, CPU, RAM, HDD, VGA card.

The cheapest I saw was a Deer 300w xD


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 16, 2011)

Frick said:


> Don't know, but a guy at another forums had a story about Q-Tech (now gone from the market) that actually melted the inside of one of his HDDs. This was back in 2003 maybe, and when he RMA'd the drive to Samsung they said they have never seen anything like it.



the brand is actually called Q-tec.

I still have one of their 650w units running an XP athlon.

Not had any problems with it.

though i did read an article online where they reviewed loads of PSU's and they had a handful of Q-tec PSUs there. And the problem with the Q-tecs was that they output a lot less then originally stated. their 650w unit was more like a 450 or 500w unit. it wouldnt do 650w.

I think they are good for the job so long as you dont put a lot of pressure on them, though id worry about how efficient they are. my PSU gets silver award for efficiency.


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## remixedcat (Jul 16, 2011)

a brand called Echostar (and not the people who make dish network boxes!) went through 4 in 1.2 yrs!


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## AsRock (Jul 16, 2011)

My worsted was a CoolMax were it could not handle what it claimed and the PSU got so hot that the PSU power button melted to the point were it would not turn off.  Which is why i keep away from silent psu's as they need to be cooled right to work better.

The manufacture sent me a new revised one which is used in a much lower demanding system now lol.


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## Zyon (Jul 17, 2011)

One thing I noticed with most crap power supply is they tend to make up to the calculated wattage by raising the 3.3V and 5V currents (even if they can't provide that much), take this for example:






(original source: http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6714)

Assuming that the power supply *CAN* provide as much as they state in the 12V rail/s (most don't by the way!), look at that outrageous 3.3V and 5V, even my HX650 is like 25A only.


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## qubit (Jul 17, 2011)

Yes, the thing to remember about these cheap PSU's is that they are not simply of poor quality. Something like that would be expected to work within it's specs for at least a while.

No, these things are actually _frauds_, as they will _never_ do what's asked of them and are likely to go pop or damage your PC even with very light loads on them.

There are excellent examples of this all over this thread. Stay away from these at all costs. And I mean this to the point of if you are given one for free, either refuse it, or just throw it away.


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## eidairaman1 (Jul 17, 2011)

Ones that come in 20 dollar cases


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## gottistar (Jul 17, 2011)

Mine...hence my thread..


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## DrunkenMafia (Jul 17, 2011)

Zyon said:


> This true story inspired me to create a thread and allowing people to discuss about the worst power supplies (PSUs) ever made, please feel free to share your horror stories and I apologise if there is an existing thread, but please only include ones that you come across in real life and not on hardware reviews, internet advertisements etc.
> 
> So one day I went to one of my aunt's house and she showed me problem with her computer being very loud with static noises (started first week after she bought the computer five years ago). So by instinct I figured out it was most likely the PSU causing the problem, after I opened her PC this is what I found as the PSU, a *SHAW Elite 680W*. Here's her PC specs by the way:
> 
> ...



You know what the funny thing is - As of about March this year SHAW have a 3yr warranty on all their PSU's!! 

They definitely are the worst PSU on the market, I bought a 750w "gaming" Viper (wow) power supply for like $15 new off ebay and the thing was so light it almost floats away in the breeze


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## remixedcat (Jul 17, 2011)

Zyon said:


> One thing I noticed with most crap power supply is they tend to make up to the calculated wattage by raising the 3.3V and 5V currents (even if they can't provide that much), take this for example:
> 
> http://www.deviantart.com/download/166955215/labelshot_by_Makalu7.jpg
> (original source: http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6714)
> ...



Those are the echostars!!!! congrats on finding one! LMAO


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## zsolt_93 (Jul 17, 2011)

I should call myself lucky having only owned noname PSUs that never blew up. My current case came with a 380W noname one and they call it a gaming case. Changed to 450W from another anonimous manufacturer and had an E8400 failing at full load. It might have been the RAM though. CPU got changed and it held the Q9400 for a year when the fan started acting weird. Then got an 500W from the same manufacturer with newer tech and even 6 pin PCI-E power plug. I have it running for a year with fairly high OC on CPU 500MHz+ and the GPU ~150MHz+ and stays well within spec in full load too outputting a bit more heat but all round stable voltages. It might have some kind of PFC too reading from the sticker and the backplate it seems to be active. 
Anything below a 500W noname PSU is a total failiure in my oppinion. I think this one outputs around 400W peak and is rated at 500 so a 380W is 250?
But they make a good job as people need to change them often or need to change the whole PC getting computer shops many clients. I have worked at my father's shop for 3 years in the summer and almost all hardware faults were PSU related.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 19, 2011)

well,

The moral of the story here is you get what you pay for.

so it pays to invest in good PSU


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## Sir B. Fannybottom (Jul 19, 2011)

My Thermltake 480 Watt psu. It had a 20pin connector and a 4 pin, the day I got it, the 4 pin cracked down the middle. It would still plug in, but it was a hassle. Then the fans on it were so loud and would kick in if it was over 28C. It wouldn't be so bad if the fans wouldn't rev to high rpm then go down for a second then went back up.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 19, 2011)

FreedomEclipse said:


> so it pays to invest in good PSU



Antec was supposed to be a good PSU brand.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 19, 2011)

I would have taken it back to the shop and exchanged it for another brand. 

Early Thermaltake PSUs and watercooling units were no good. but theyve come a long way since back then. Their Toughpower XT line are some of the best PSUs out there, unfortunately for TT, they are overshadowed by the likes of Corsair, Enermax and OCZ when it comes to PSUs.

however where availability is concerned, Toughpower XT PSUs shouldnt be overlooked when it comes to building a new PC



newtekie1 said:


> Antec was supposed to be a good PSU brand.



'supposed' to. after it ate one of my 4870s and almost ate a Xonar D2X


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jul 19, 2011)

Oddly the only psu I've ever had fail on me was an Antec. I've yet to have a rosewill unit fail on me to my surprise given how much they get ragged. Even one of those old "585w" HEC units is still going after 3 fan replacements and powering lots of high end hardware 24/7. That said I only use top units for my main pc.


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## newtekie1 (Jul 20, 2011)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> Oddly the only psu I've ever had fail on me was an Antec. I've yet to have a rosewill unit fail on me to my surprise given how much they get ragged. Even one of those old "585w" HEC units is still going after 3 fan replacements and powering lots of high end hardware 24/7. That said I only use top units for my main pc.



Ha, yeah I've had a Rosewill unit powering Rig4 for years now.  And I have an HEC unit powering my Minecraft server, the HEC units are actually not terrible if they are just going in basic low power rigs.


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## Zyon (Jul 20, 2011)

DrunkenMafia said:


> You know what the funny thing is - As of about March this year SHAW have a 3yr warranty on all their PSU's!!
> 
> They definitely are the worst PSU on the market, I bought a 750w "gaming" Viper (wow) power supply for like $15 new off ebay and the thing was so light it almost floats away in the breeze



Oh and the SHAW 1500W "gaming" Viper got almost 50% off and is now for $52 only! $1 for every 30W, think of the savings! http://msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=5042

Just something interesting how a SHAW can cost more than a Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Shaw-150...Components&hash=item35b362dcbf#ht_4255wt_1139, it's really worth that much? SHAW (sarcastic laughter)


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