My Seasonic woes

[Research]

I wanted your suggestions regarding some alternate ways of testing/repairing my Seasonic PSU before I RMA it

I bought Seasonic S12 600W after weeks of research ((See my Thread). Everybody pretty much convinced me about it's reliability and quietness (ribbon13 you are the bigest culprit ).

It worked beautifully for the first two days (all voltages in really tight tolerances .. as displayed by Intel Active Monitor). But all of a sudden nothing is working at all. I shut down the computer yesterday night, and now it's completely dead. The MOBO green light lights up as well as the start button light .. but that's it! Nothing else .. not even the fans turn on. Spend the whole morning doing tons of permutation combinations ... but to no awail. A huge waste of time and effort (maybe money .. let's see how ewiz customer service is especially for their ebay orders from mp3superstore) ...

 

[biostud]

do you have an extra PSU you could try instead, just to be sure if it is the PSU?

otherwise you could pull out all the plugs from your hardware, connect a fan to the PSU and hotwire the PSU with a paper clip from the black to the green wire.

how to:
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=268&var2=0

 

[Research]

Yes .. my Antec 350W has been pulling the system nicely. But let me try that again tonight .. It's just too much hassle to undo the connections with my 8 hard drives and two video cards + lots of junk (... that the reason I upgraded to 600 W)

 

[ribbon13]

I warned you repeatedly to buy from it case-mod.com Is it Revision A2 (next to seriel #)? I'll be miffed if it is. eWiz will likely tell you this. I take it you tried you old PSU and got POST? "Return that found to be non-defective will result in a handling fee of US$25. We will return the item back to the customer after the US$25 handling fee is paid. Customers agree that they will abide by the inspection of our technical support department. So please always follow the self-trouble-shooting processes listed on the next section before returning."

Oh and why the need to bump every Seasonic thread you can find? What if your Antec also fails to POST?

I say you should reserve any anti-Seasonic rantings until AFTER you've had a dissatisfactory RMA experience. Do you happen to be running a DFI board? You mentioned your knowledge of the DFI issue, but not if you had a DFI board or not.

 

[Research]

Yes it is it Revision A2 (next to seriel #) .. The packaging was excellent - nicely sealed.. I was so happy to see it until my hopes and my computer came crashing down! Well, I will try my Antec 350W tonight and post my results ...

Originally posted by: ribbon13 I'll be miffed if it is.

 

[bigpow]

Research,
I experience a similar thing with my S12-600.
Turned out that my old mobo stopped liking it after several days.
Old PSU works with old mobo, so I suspected Seasonic was bad.

Threat lightly, since there are a LOT of seasonic FANBOYS in this forum (even the ones that don't have Seasonic!)
These same fanboys must have Dodge Viper/Ferrari or Supermodel as their windows background.. LOL

First you need to try your old PSU.
Then if old PSU works, try jumpering PS_ON on the Seasonic. If it works by itself, then it's probably a bad combination of mobo & PSU

 

[Research]

Thanks for your reply bigpow. I'll try this. How do you try jumpering PS_ON on the Seasonic? Also, I notice that your build still has seasonic power supply? So how did you take care of this? Did you change your mobo?

p.s.: By the way my mobo is the Intel D845PEBT2

Originally posted by: bigpow
Research,
I experience a similar thing with my S12-600.
Turned out that my old mobo stopped liking it after several days.
Old PSU works with old mobo, so I suspected Seasonic was bad.

Threat lightly, since there are a LOT of seasonic FANBOYS in this forum (even the ones that don't have Seasonic!)
These same fanboys must have Dodge Viper/Ferrari or Supermodel as their windows background.. LOL

First you need to try your old PSU.
Then if old PSU works, try jumpering PS_ON on the Seasonic. If it works by itself, then it's probably a bad combination of mobo & PSU

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Research
Thanks for your reply bigpow. I'll try this. How do you try jumpering PS_ON on the Seasonic?

see the link in my reply

 

[Research]

Oh thanks .. didn't see it earlier.. seems like the PSU failure affected my eyesight

Hey, by the way, I installed Intel Application Accelerator last night .. before this fiasco. The computer did restart nicely at first. Do you think some weird mobo changes have occured because of that?

Originally posted by: biostud

Originally posted by: Research
Thanks for your reply bigpow. I'll try this. How do you try jumpering PS_ON on the Seasonic?

see the link in my reply

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: biostud

Originally posted by: Research
Thanks for your reply bigpow. I'll try this. How do you try jumpering PS_ON on the Seasonic?

see the link in my reply

If you attempt that before trying your other PSU first, and end up frying your S12 and they (rightfully) won't RMA it because you fried it, don't blame them.

Like I said.

Test your Antec 350w first. If that POSTs, RMAing your S12 may be in order.

Are you running an ATX12v platform? What motherboard do you have?

 

[Research]

I have the Intel Desktop Mother Board D845PEBT2

And Yep .. like you said, I'll try the other PSU First before going the shorting route.

Originally posted by: ribbon13 Are you running an ATX12v platform? What motherboard do you have?

 

[bigpow]

Starting an ATX PSU without mobo

 

[Research]

Okay ... Finally I replaced the seasonic with my old Antec 350 Watt, and the computer started seamlessly. Then I uninstalled intel appication accelerator, reflashed bios .. did few restarts, and finally changed back to Seasonic. .. But the same crap. One green light in the mobo, and no further action.

Just finished getting an RMA number from Seasonic website ... though ewiz also agreed to RMA it .. but I just don't feel comfortable RMAing with them since it seems that they might be carrying some shady 'seconds' models...

Didn't try the shorting of PSU and starting since I just don't want to keep this PSU even if it starts by these adhoc methods.

What do you think?

 

[bigpow]

YHPM

 

[Research]

Okay ... 100% CONFIRMED .. My Seasonic is Dead. As per your suggestions:

1. I tried my older power supply in my computer .. and it worked perfectly fine.
2. I tried Seasonc again (both before and after updating the bios). The computer would still not start.
3. Tried methods given in biostud's and bigpow's links to start the PSU without a mobo. It did not start.
4. Put load on the PSU .. since one of the websites said that sometimes Step 3 may not work if you do not have a load attached like a fan or a hard-drive. Again did not start.
5. Finally trried the PSU in my wife's small computer which runs beautifully on a cheapo Raidmax PSU. This was the final proof. Even that computer which has a completely different mobo (ECS versus my Intel), the PSU did not start.

Decision made to get rid of it ... Now ewiz is willing to replace the PSU .. and so is Seasonic. Don't know whom should I go through? Also, I've kind of wasted a lot of time on this Seasonic PSU, and would be happy to get a refund to buy something like Antec Phantom. What do you think?

Thanks!