Antec NEO HE warning...

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The Saint

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Just a little warning about the new Antec NEO HE PSUs...

I bought 2 of them at Best Buy and neither one of them could run my box in the sig. The first one didn`t even turn on, while the second one had a low voltage on the 12V rail and would make the pc shut off....

:rolleyes: Was not expecting this one from Antec...

or maybe I was not lucky at all!
 
That's a pretty beefy system, but you'd think it could run it. I run a nearly comprable system (a Venice, but with a GTX) on a 480 NeoPower just fine. It has juice to spare I'm sure - my roomie powers a water cooling setup off the NeoPower and has similar specs to our system. Why the HE is any worse I don't get - maybe it was just a bad batch.
 
those were both 500W!

Oh, and I forgot: at least one of them would run for 5-10 minutes and then shut off, but the NEO Power 480W that I have in there now....

well, it smells like electrical burning!

At this point I'm not really sure if it is the PSU, but I was sniffing around the HDD, CPU, and VIDEO and they did not smell at all, but when I put my nose near the molex of the DVD drive, then I can smell something; I have had that DVD drive since 3 years ago and it ran just fine...just a few hours ago after I put in this NeoPower, the smell began....

thinking of ordering OVERNIGHT a PCP&C.....

meh
 
WoW!

Unplugg the Antec & call Antec tesh support!

If this is a trend, Antec is DEAD!

If getting a PC P&C 510, telephone PC P&C, let them make sure you are getting the best config for your rig! ;)

Good Luck,
Dave
 
wow that sucks.

i've got a cheap antec 400watt psu powering my system and it works just fine. glad i havent bought a NeoHE yet.
 
The Saint said:
At this point I'm not really sure if it is the PSU, but I was sniffing around the HDD, CPU, and VIDEO and they did not smell at all, but when I put my nose near the molex of the DVD drive, then I can smell something; I have had that DVD drive since 3 years ago and it ran just fine...just a few hours ago after I put in this NeoPower, the smell began....
Click to expand...

It's not too likely two in a row would be bad... perhaps the first one hosed the DVD, and the second one was shutting itself down as it was meant to. I think I might power that one up outside a system, verify the rails are at least in the ballpark with a meter, and then give it another go without the DVD in the system to see how it does.

Still not sure which rail powers the molexes on these things. Should be 12v3 if it really is EPS compliant. I confess I have some misgivings about running the HE's on SLI rigs just because of the triple 12's.
 
So much for the quality control of the factory which manufactures recent Antec-branded PSUs. One out of every few PSUs from that brand developed problems of one kind or another.

Although my current PSU is an Antec-brand (a TrueControl 550 with only 24A capacity on its single +12V rail), I will definitely upgrade it to a better PSU from another brand as soon as I get the parts for my Intel-to-AMD (P4 Northwood to Athlon64 X2) upgrade.
 
Let's not read too much in to this.
No one is completely sure of anything right now & Antec's have been good PSU's for years.

Wait, let's get more info.
Dave ;)
 
The Saint said:
..

well, it smells like electrical burning!
Click to expand...

recheck your connections, poor connection = higher resistance = more heat = burning wire

not the only cause but certainly the first you check

given that two PSUs have bitten the dust
you might also look at other factors, try a different outlet, verify the ground, remount the mobo

describe the power protection scheme your employing
one bad supply would be more beleivable as solely a quality control issue than two
with two bad supplies contributing factors need to be definitively eliminated
especially with a third putting off a stink
 
Thanks so much guys and Admin :)

well, I have had a PC on that particular socket (protected and grounded) for 2 years and everything is fine. Left it on 24\7 most of the time....

I will try and not connect the DVD to the PSU and mobo and see if the smell is still there...
then recheck all the connections and all.

The mobo, cpu, and memory was purchased and tried by Monarch Computers as a part of their combo (pre-tested systems)...so I don't think it would be the mobo, but you never know...
 
Just a quick update for you guys.....

I took out the PSU (Antec NEO Power 480W) from my system and test it with the 14 Pin shorting method and after 15-20 second it began smelling really bad!

At this point I'm sure it was the PSU and this was the 3rd Antec that did not worked properly...

difficult to believe I know...

Now I'm wondering if a Motherboard can short out a PSU or something in like that...

need some thoughts...!!
 
The Saint said:
Just a quick update for you guys.....

I took out the PSU (Antec NEO Power 480W) from my system and test it with the 14 Pin shorting method and after 15-20 second it began smelling really bad!

At this point I'm sure it was the PSU and this was the 3rd Antec that did not worked properly...

difficult to believe I know...

Now I'm wondering if a Motherboard can short out a PSU or something in like that...

need some thoughts...!!
Click to expand...
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium -- X2 3800+ -- 2Gb OCZ EL Platinum -- eVGA 7800GT CO -- Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 -- Dell FP2405 & Sharp Aquos LC26GD4U
Click to expand...
Look at all of the cheap, lowend parts that you are using! :p

Really, I doubt that your mobo or anything else, other than a bad electrical outlet, could do this.

You said you checked your AC outlets, please check again with your DMM.

Good Luck,
Dave ;)
 
David...

thank you: those are comforting words! Very kind of you...

well, I have 5-6 components attached to a power surge protector and none has given me any problems, I'll try changing outlet then and see how it goes....

:)
 
Something is not right here, and, unless the retailer you bought from had a shipment from the same bad batch, I would blame some other cause.

Motherboards most certainly can damage a PSU; just as a bad PSU can damage a motherboard. It is also possible that the first PSU was defective and may very well have compromised the components you are using, hence possibly compromising the PSU.

I would certainly try a different outlet; I would tell you to try some older test components if you have them, but I understand if you do not having anything you are able to put in danger.

What else do you have plugged into your surge protector?

Try moving everything over to a different fuse, too.
 
I have a NeoPower 480w, and a system that's beefier than yours, and the NeoPower has no problems at all.
 
HE Problem:

I went over to a buddy's shop to check out the new HE. Brought the load tester in the trunk of the car and everything.

We fired up the PC that was built with the HE. It fired up, but didn't post. Stripped it and powered it up and it didn't post beep. Pulled the parts from the case and hooked it up to the bench PSU (an FSP 350W) and it fired right up.

So we switched the bench PSU out with the HE and powered it up and this time the fan twitched and nothing more.

I then took a pocket PSU tester and hooked it up to the HE. It fired up and all of the lights lit up. So we figured we'd try the motherboard again.

When we hooked the HE back up to the mobo and hit the power button. Again: Nothing. After about 5 seconds.... POP! And then everything was off. Hooked the bench PSU back up to the motherboard and it fired right up again.

These CAN'T BE Seasonic. If they are, they're Seasonic rejects. :(
 
I'm starting to be glad I have a two month waiting period before recommending new PSU designs :(
 
Guess I'll be waiting on getting a new PSU. It sucks to hear nothing but problems from some people and working perfect from others. Gonna wait to hear some more opinions before thinking about this psu again.

Off-topic question: How loud is the PCP&C 510 SLi?
 
jonnyGURU said:
HE Problem:

I went over to a buddy's shop to check out the new HE. Brought the load tester in the trunk of the car and everything.

We fired up the PC that was built with the HE. It fired up, but didn't post. Stripped it and powered it up and it didn't post beep. Pulled the parts from the case and hooked it up to the bench PSU (an FSP 350W) and it fired right up.

So we switched the bench PSU out with the HE and powered it up and this time the fan twitched and nothing more.

I then took a pocket PSU tester and hooked it up to the HE. It fired up and all of the lights lit up. So we figured we'd try the motherboard again.

When we hooked the HE back up to the mobo and hit the power button. Again: Nothing. After about 5 seconds.... POP! And then everything was off. Hooked the bench PSU back up to the motherboard and it fired right up again.

These CAN'T BE Seasonic. If they are, they're Seasonic rejects. :(
Click to expand...

Wasn't there a batch of Seasonics that were bad recently?
 
magnetik said:
Wasn't there a batch of Seasonics that were bad recently?
Click to expand...

I hadn't heard. I know Seasonic improved the efficiency of the S-12 from the first batch to the second. But didn't hear about any DOA's. Not more than usual at least.
 
well guys,
I oreder, today, a PC Power and Cooling shipped Overnight to me so I should get it tomorrow or they day after....we'll see how it goes with that one.

I put the power cable in a new surge protector/socket ...

The thing is that here in Miami there are no store where I can go in and see if the can test out my system with different components...wish there was...
 
The Saint said:
The thing is that here in Miami there are no store where I can go in and see if the can test out my system with different components...wish there was...
Click to expand...

There isn't?

Isn't there a whole row of computer stores NW of the airport near Doral?
 
Is there? Never heard of that, but I will sure check it out ....!!

...but now I'm wondring if I should even connect the PCP&C PSU to the computer and see if everything is ok! I don't want to burn a $250 PSU.....
 
Yeah... I think the NW quadrant. Like around 72nd, 82nd.. something like that. Just west of the expressway.

I was stuck in Miami looking for last minute parts one day and was going door to door looking for a patch panel. :)

http://yp.yahoo.com is your friend. ;)
 
That is a very good news jonny, thank you so very much!!

I live in Coral Gables, so it is a bit far from me, but I will surely go ahead and take a look around!

One more question: the PCP&C is on the truck for delivery; would you be wary in trying it out on the PC after all the PSUs I tried, or I should go ahead and don't worry about anything??
 
I wouldn't be too worried about it because protection should kick in unless you provoke it (like what happened to me.)

I would definitely start with a barebones assembly. JUST the mobo, CPU, RAM, NO DRIVES. Just enough to get into the BIOS. And do it outside of the case.

If that all works, THEN I would do it again inside the case.

And not until that works would I hook up the drives and any PCI cards, etc that you may have.
 
Alrighty jonny...

will do as you said. Hopefully things will work othersie I'll throw everything in the pool...
 
magnetik said:
Wasn't there a batch of Seasonics that were bad recently?
Click to expand...

The company I work for sells the S12 PSUs. We've had a few returned as defective recently so that may very well be true. If there were some bad ones, they probably don't know which ones though as I'm not aware of any recall notice on a particular batch.
 
jonnyGURU said:
HE Problem:

I went over to a buddy's shop to check out the new HE. Brought the load tester in the trunk of the car and everything.

We fired up the PC that was built with the HE. It fired up, but didn't post. Stripped it and powered it up and it didn't post beep. Pulled the parts from the case and hooked it up to the bench PSU (an FSP 350W) and it fired right up.

So we switched the bench PSU out with the HE and powered it up and this time the fan twitched and nothing more.

I then took a pocket PSU tester and hooked it up to the HE. It fired up and all of the lights lit up. So we figured we'd try the motherboard again.

When we hooked the HE back up to the mobo and hit the power button. Again: Nothing. After about 5 seconds.... POP! And then everything was off. Hooked the bench PSU back up to the motherboard and it fired right up again.

These CAN'T BE Seasonic. If they are, they're Seasonic rejects. :(
Click to expand...
jonny,

I just saw this< next time please PM & email me!

Thanks,
Dave ;)
 
jonnyGURU said:
HE Problem:

I went over to a buddy's shop to check out the new HE. Brought the load tester in the trunk of the car and everything.

We fired up the PC that was built with the HE. It fired up, but didn't post. Stripped it and powered it up and it didn't post beep. Pulled the parts from the case and hooked it up to the bench PSU (an FSP 350W) and it fired right up.

So we switched the bench PSU out with the HE and powered it up and this time the fan twitched and nothing more.

I then took a pocket PSU tester and hooked it up to the HE. It fired up and all of the lights lit up. So we figured we'd try the motherboard again.

When we hooked the HE back up to the mobo and hit the power button. Again: Nothing. After about 5 seconds.... POP! And then everything was off. Hooked the bench PSU back up to the motherboard and it fired right up again.

These CAN'T BE Seasonic. If they are, they're Seasonic rejects. :(
Click to expand...
This is from Hard: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=965645

There is more to come, just DO NOT BUY! :dog:

DO NOT BUY/USE!
 
I don't mean to hijack, but I would just like to add to the total for people not having a good experience with these power supplies. Just recieved the 550 from the egg yesterday and put it in my system to replace an older antec 400W supply that was running my system with no problems. Needless to say the computer would shut off after about 20 minutes of running just in the BIOS all at default settings. Didn't have a multimeter to test the rails, but then I'm not exactly sure how I would be able to test the 12 volt rail going into the motherboard. Oh well, I guess I'll be sending it back and getting the OCZ Powerstream.
 
My 550w has been running for about 4 days now non-stop without a hitch. Been playing BF2 and running F@H.
 
well, guys....

An AntecRep contacted me and he was very kind to have support contact me and ask me a few question about the issues...

Anyway, support is aware of the issues and they are working for us, to understand what problems there are and why they are happening.

Antec has always been on top of my PSU list and they still are, I guess there is a bad batch out...

we'll see how it goes...
 
i had initial problems with my HE550...but it seems to be more of a problem with my motherboard reading the rails incorrectly...i had an error message about checking the voltages, fans or temps, so i went to hardware monitor and my 5V rail was dipping into 4.7V, which was in the "red zone" for my a8n sli deluxe i guess...but after checking both my 12V and 5V rails with a MM i bought at radioshack today, they are both pretty solid, albeit a little on the low side, but still within range of acceptable voltage. so i just went into my bios and changed the hardware monitor to ignore the 5V rail so i didn't get any problems with it. now i'm testing out my rig with my overclock and seeing if i can get any improvements in my OC while being more stable than before with my 450w modstream
 
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