enhance psu killed my drives

[gorobei]

Warning: pretty much a mild rant and warning


enhance enp-5140gh 400W psu 80+ apfc.

I used a corsair 520HX to do the test of my new rig and everything was fine.

I swap in the enhance and nothing, just fans spinning. It should have enough power to run the e4300, asus P5Evm, 2 dimm corsair 800, 8800gts 512, 1 hd, 1 dvd rw. I pull the vid card and dvd to reduce the load, and still nothing. more swapping later with a different HD and I still cant figure it out.

I put the 520HX back and the HD does nothing and the bios doesn't see the drive. I notice the HD isn't spinning up now. The dvd is dead too. The other HD now has the clicks of death. I test with a zip drive and the m/b sees it fine.

I begin to suspect the Enhance PSU. I hook it back up and connect the working zip drive.
and ........

Fries the drive right before my eyes. First a pop and sizzle then smoke as I kill the power.


So I'm out 2 hd and a really good dvd burner(the zip was nice to have but not critical, but I still would rather have it) because of one PSU. It's supposed to be a good one. RMA'd ewiz, wonder if they'll do anything about all the drives I lost.

 

[Jessica69]

Odd.....but ever think you may just have gotten a bad unit instead of posting a "WARNING....Enhance psu's are bad!" rant?

I've had the next model up, the ENP5150-GH, running for well over a year now.....currently powering a Xeon 3210, X1950 Pro, 4 x 1GB Ballistix, 2 hd's, 2 opticals on a Gigabyte P965 mb, and have yet to have one single problem. Just works and works well.

And you do know Enhance is the OEM for quite a number of well respected power supplies out there, right? Like the Antec Quattro line, several Silverstones.........

There is always the bad unit that slips by QA........

 

[mpilchfamily]

I don't think the 400W Enhance PSU has enough power to run your system. Looking at the model you have the label lacks the information needed to figure out what the max amperage on the 12V rails is. But very few 400W PSU would be able to run your system under a heavy load.

But like Jessica69 said there is a chance you have a bad unit that damaged the system. If you want comensation for the drives you would have to take that dirrectly to Enhance and not the retailer.

 

[jonnyGURU]

I agree that this hardly warrants a "warning about Enhance PSU's" thread.

I'm sorry this happened to you, but quite frankly it could have happened to anyone with any PSU.

Hind sight is 20/20, but in the future if you're suspect of a PSU, it's best to STOP and use a DMM to test the voltages of that PSU instead of doing the shotgun thing. Although you probably would have only saved a Zip drive by doing so.

 

[Jessica69]

Well, jonnyGURU did test this exact power supply in 2006, and it earned a very well deserved "JG Recommended" label. Held its voltages in his notorious hot box, ripple at full load under 30mV on the +12V rail....all in all a great, small power supply. This review is the reason I purchased the 5150-GH power supply......and JG was not wrong in his evaluation at all.

Personally, I'd not have tried to use a 400W ps for your system......what most people fail to comprehend is that 400W rating rarely reflects the true +12V output of the ps, which is typically lower. In your case, the GNP5140-GH power supply can put out 336W on the +12V rails combined, with +12V1 limited to exactly 16A and +12V2 limited to 18A, but a combined +12V output from both rails at 28A. You may have overloaded one or both rails initially and then, with a damaged ps, lost your zip drive.

Or it could have been simply a defective unit, as I stated before. It happens to all of us.....get something new only to find out it doesn't work or work correctly.

 

[gorobei]

this wasn't a case of insufficient power or incompatible parts. I went back and thought about what happened. I had something happen with a usb header that was similar. SO I went back and looked at the 4pin molex's.

NOTE where the yellow +12v wires go on the molex plugs. (one of these is not like the other)
http://img88.imageshack.us/img...45/enhpsuwires1vf3.jpg
http://img88.imageshack.us/img...45/enhpsuwires2dw4.jpg

This is an absolute manufacturing error. BOTH of the 4pin molex cables have the distal plug's 12 and 5 volt wires switched.

And I haven't said anything like "all enhance psu are bad" or "dont buy enhance psu". All I have done is document how one of their supplies destroyed my rig. If it had also taken out my motherboard and 8800gts, I would probably be using harsher words. Given that it had no problem powering up the 8800, I suspect it is a very good design with plenty of power. But I think I am entirely justified in warning people to check out an Enhance psu before using it.

Are any of you going to plug in a new psu without checking the molex wiring now? I won't.

 

[mpilchfamily]

I've seen a post at another forum about this where the wires on the molex where wrong. Don't remember if it was on the same model PSU or not. Wish i could find that post again.

 

[gorobei]

I called Enhance and they're going to get back to me on compensation. I'm holding on to the psu until this is settled.

Even the non-techie CSR realized what kind of issue this was when I explained the crossed wires.

 

[Whiznot]

When Silent PC Review tested an early example of the Enermax Modu82+ 625 watt unit Mike Chin discovered crossed wires leading to the SATA power connectors. I bought a 425 watt Modu82+ and checked for crossed wires before installation. This kind of defect should never happen.