new Fortron that crashman recommended bad?!?

[poly4life]

I ordered the 530W Fortron PSU from newegg.com the other day. I connected it to a PSU tester, which I know is not malfuncitioning itself. I connected the PSU tester to a 500W PSU and measured the voltages, specficially the 12V rail line at 11.82V. BTW, I used two DMMS which gave me the same results. Upon testing the 530W Fortron PSU, I got 11.34V, 3.4V, and 5.4V for the 12V, 3.3V, and 5V rail lines, respectively. Crashman told me that if I get the 530W Fortron, I'll find a voltage of 12.1 for the 12V rail line, as opposed to the Antec 430W, which will give me 11.9V. Crashman, I think I will return this to newegg and get the Antec. 11.34V is not comforting; it's over 5% tolerance. The PSU that I was replacing measured 11.82V and it was a RAIDMAX! What gives?!?

 

[Crashman]

d00d, congratulations, you found one that might be misadjusted! Go ahead and get the Antec then, and see how that test!

I've owned Fortrons up to 400W and know that they normally adjust their 12v line a little higher than Antec does, so evidently you found the "needle in a haystack" dud.

If it turns out to be a problem across the entire 530W line, I'll be eating crow for sure!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

BTW, the line voltage is adjustable by internal pots, but I wouldn't do that to a new supply as 11.34v is totally unacceptable for factory adjustment.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[poly4life]

Well, I would just a replacement for this one, but I can't deal with the headache any longer. I just need something that is quiet and works like a charm. Obviously, the Fortron I received fills only one requirement. Who knows, Enermax or Zalman or some other top-notch PSU manufacturer makes a dud here and there, but people still buy from them. However, I haven't seen or heard any complaints from the Antec 430W PSU. And 100 5 star votes on newegg.com certainly sounds friendly to my wallet. I can handle an 11.8 or 11.9 voltage, assuming all voltages, including the 12V rail line, are steady and not fluctuating. If Antec screws me over somehow, I'll either get enermax or go back to Fortron and get a 400W PSU, which should be good enough for overclocking on the p4c800-e deluxe mobo, right?

Thank you very much, crashman.

 

[Crashman]

Yes, the last Fortron I used on my system was a 350W unit, gave me perfect voltage (only slightly high, which is perfect for me).

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[poly4life]

If this 430W PSU from Asus doesn't work out for me, do you think that your fortron 350W PSU would be a good fit for my system. Here are my specs:

Pentium 4 3.0 GHZ 800MHZ FSB 512KB
two Kingston KVR400X72C25A/512 sticks
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
SOHO NIC 10/100 Fast Ethernet (internal)
WD2500JD Western Digital 250.0 GB SATA HDD
Plextor DVDRW PX-708A
Sony DVD=ROM Drive DDU-1611
samsung floppy drive
three 80mm case fans - two back ones and one part of the window for my alumnium ATX case

 

[poly4life]

Oh, and I will upgrade to corsair oc4000 pro memory (I think that's it, right)? and I will be doing some overclocking on this system. So, will 350W be enough?

 

[Crashman]

It worked fine on my system, I have a SCSI card and am overclocked fairly high. My Corsair PC4000 works fine too.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[zental]

Hey speaking of fortrons, Uhm well lemme just tell you my little story first. Using a 350W fortron
You know how on radeon 9500 pros they had to be plugged into the PSU and the agp slot. The box comes with a splitter thing that you can attach to one of your power leads, like a regular molex that goes to your harddrive. then it splits off and gives you another one thats the small ones, about 1/4 the size of the molex ones, theyre usually white and have 4 cords going to it. Anyways, well the card comes with the splitter thing, but its just a regular y splitter right? So when i moved it into my case I have here i just used a direct connection to the PSU instead of running through the splitter, I dunno if this is what did it or not, but when I tried to boot it up like that it gave me some messed up screen, just blocks of colors fluctuating. So of course I figure I must have plugged something in wrong or something, so I open my case and check connections and everything looks good, then I try to turn it on again with the case open and I get a nice dandy flame on my video card. So immediately after that I think that it might have been that little Y splitter thingy, so I plug that back on and it starts working again, even after catching on fire for a bit. I saw a spark on that spot where it lit up and it had burned the corner of one of the chips onthe back side. So it ran for me for another day then it died. The ram was friend on it from what the guys told me in the chat room. So I RMA'd it today. I dunno if any of you know if that y splitter/extension cord thing had some other properties to it than just a splitter, i dunno.

But that brings me to my question, you don't think it coulda been the psu do ya? The connector i used was right off the lead on the PSU and shoulda been fine, it was the exact same plug that was on the splitter, came off a molex one and everything. I'm just baffled and my only conclusion is that either the y splitter is more than just an extension cord, or that the psu may have fried it. I guess it coulda just been old age, but why did it start working again once I plugged the splitter back on? Thats what I wanna know. Anyone else ever mess with this on the 9500pros?

-The Zent
Barton 2500+,Abit NF7-S V2, Fortron 350W, 2x512 Geil pc3200, ATi Radeon 9500pro

 

[Crashman]

A bad power supply would have affected the entire system. I don't know what happened.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[4Ryan6]

That Y splitter is just wire, no resistance properties, I also did away with mine because my Antec 430 Truepower, had the connections to plug in my ATI 9800 Pro, straight into the P/S, you could have a bad P/S, you need to check the voltage on your rails before you plug in a new graphics Card and fry it up too.




<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=2541" target="_new">My Rig</A>

 

[zental]

How can I check my voltages? But I think that I figured out what the problem was. My mobo must have shorted out and chain reactioned into my video card because it worked fine like that till i put it into the case. A few days ago I took the mobo out and i noticed it was bent down on the corner because the smart guy who put it in didnt use a stud to screw into so it was bent almost down to touching the side of the case, plug a screw was loose right under my video card. Oy. I'm gonna RMA the mobo because its dead, i've tested everything and its all good but it still wont work so i'm assuming that its the mobo. Hopefully they'll give me another one, I really don't feel like spending another $100. Get back to me on what you think might have happened.

-The Zent
Barton 2500+,Abit NF7-S V2, Fortron 350W, 2x512 Geil pc3200, ATi Radeon 9500pro