Antec Smartpower SP-400

[Innie808]

Hi,

When i built my HTPC 3 years ago, i opted for an ANTEC Smartpower PSU. Antec had a good reputation.
Well, since my PSU died the other day, i regret ever making that purchase.
Yes, it ran for 3 years, but i have done some googling and found out that ANtec used inferior capacitors in Smartpower and Truepower PSU's.

What happend to my Media Center....

• Damaged my Gigabye MA78g DS3H (1 year operational hours)
• Damaged my AMD 4450e CPU (1 year operational hours)
• Fried the PCB on all 5, YES 5 of my Sammies. They don't even power up now!

2 sammies were Raid 0, 3 years worth of accumalated digital media.
Digitial photos and music are backed up on 2 other machines thank god, but movies and TV shows Gone!

$500 buck later and its back up and running!!

Hopefully i can make warranty claims on the dead equipment (it just stopped working) as there is no physical burn evidence on anything.

Hopefully the ever helpful forum members here may be able to help me. I'd like to swap the PCB on the Sammies to see if i can fire one up and possibly get some data back. (On the none raid disk.) Apparently the PCB must be identical. MY PCB details are posted below (It's enscribed on the Green PCB on the back of the HDD.)

The Sammie details are as such:
MODEL
HD501LJ
S/N SOMUJFWQ390114 REV.A
Manufacture date : 2008.03

PCB BOARD
BF41-00133A
TRIDENT 11-RE
REV.06

*** If your Antec PSU is making a high pitched sound, turn it off and source a replacement immediately. Mine started making a high pitched sound about a week before POOF!***

PS. No, it was not a Power surge. All my equipment is run of a belkin protector. AMP and XBOX360 are perfectly fine.

[logifuse]

I went through 3 or 4 SmartPower PSUs a few years back (think they were 500w models). On mine the 5v rail went wobbly & USB devices (including tuners) went troppo & caused BSODs.

I've done what you're trying to do with the hard drives (a dead Seagate 40GB IDE drive) - in that case, it just needed to be the same model. I went through Ebay & found someone selling the same model drive - confirmed the model numbers were the same (but the firmwares were well apart) & bought it, switched the boards & it fired up. Worked perfectly.

But anyway, I've got a 500GB Samsung, same model & PCB - I think it's got a bad block (the drive itself), so PM me & I'll work out a way to get the PCB to you.

Justin

[jsbbs]

.. and found out that ANtec used inferior capacitors in Smartpower and Truepower PSU's.

Sorry to hear such a tragedy Innie.
I've got an Antec PSU in my machine. I guess I better check it out - sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the heads up!

[Innie808]

Man thats great, thanks Logifuse, i will pm this weekend when i have some time. Waf is at all time low so need to let things settle before going on this quest.

Just for interest, check out this...

http://www.pjrc.com/about/rambling/antec.html

If anyone out there has HD401LJ, i wouldn't mind grabbing the PCB. If they are dead drives but they power up I'm happy to pay a small price to take them off your hands.

HD401LJ
Manufactured 2007.03
REV.A

PCB
BF41-00107A
TRIDENT
Rev.06
SATA

[logifuse]

OK, well I'm in Adelaide next Friday (5th) if that helps? Will be flying in lunchtime & heading to Adelaide Station for a train to Gawler, so let me know if our paths can cross anywhere there. Otherwise, Aust Post will probably get the business.

Justin

[Innie808]

Thanks Logifuse,

I've decided to just RMA the drives. Most were just movies and TV shows and i can get them back. Infact, now i can start afresh and cleanup my backups so they are all the same format. I have a naming convention. All i need now is for Open Media Library to release Beta 1 of their SQL driven App.

[vlad]

One PSU and bad experience? Grow up. Any PSU can fault. Stop that melodramatic queen inside you
Pathetic.

[Innie808]

Yes i Know Vlad! When you wake up and the system that gets more use than anything around the house is lying dead without a breath of life, and the WAF says, "Whats wrong with the media center now" in a tone that suggest maybe a Tivo is a safer bet, it feels like it's just not worth the time and effort.

Then, when you realise not only is the WAF ****ed, now i have to add to that "its gonna cost $500 bucks to fix", well, a Tivo starting to look pretty damn fine!

Then, once the system is up and running, all the crap run around to Get stuff RMA'D, waiting weeks for replacement which i don't really need now cause i just spent $500 bucks replacing it all. This means trying to recover some of that would be unnesscary $500 black hole which some damned known faulty PSU has caused.

AFter all this, I could own a Tivo or PS3 with that PlayTV thing and be well ahead!

OF course, all sorts of dumbass thought go through your head during this, as it has upset the comfortable routine of Waf and Kids at home.

Until something like this happens, you don't know the reliance a family may actually have on the media center, with Kids movies, WAF's law and order/Criminal minds recorded tv over many months, Years of Music collected and Family Photos.
(yes, i have the most important stuff backed up everywhere!)

Now, let me be. Let me go and put my stilhetto's on, fishnet stockings and fake boobs and hit the "Mars Bar" and tell the Queen Fraternity all about the dilema's of a Heterosexual life

ps "Mars bar is a gay club in gouger st Adelaide, I'd been there once but not again!)

Is this post pathetic enough? I'm sure you could do better Vlad

[Innie808]

PS VLad, i actually took your recommendation of the Vantec ION2 PSU into consideration when finding a replacement PSU. So, if this one dies like the Craptec, I'll be sure to let you know.

[vlad]

Now, let me be. Let me go and put my stilhetto's on, fishnet stockings and fake boobs and hit the "Mars Bar" and tell the Queen Fraternity all about the dilema's of a Heterosexual life

ps "Mars bar is a gay club in gouger st Adelaide, I'd been there once but not again!)

Is this post pathetic enough? I'm sure you could do better Vlad

Sounds good to me I was just saying that sometime we got carried away by the dark side

[vlad]

PS VLad, i actually took your recommendation of the Vantec ION2 PSU into consideration when finding a replacement PSU. So, if this one dies like the Craptec, I'll be sure to let you know.

Then I will be scared, as I have 2 of them

[Innie808]

Thought i'd better end this thread on a better note

All my equipment which was damaged by said thread topic has been successfully RMA'd.

I've put some stuff on the classified section.

[audiophile]

my antec died just after being a month old.

They replaced it however with a newer model with a 100W extra.

So can't complain.

[nikko1974]

Wow is funny you say this....I had a terrible time a few yrs ago where I had around 5 HDDs die on me over a period of a few months.

I lost a LOT of data that I could never get back including family photos and tax return stuff. To a degree I was to blame for this as this single period was the only time in recent history when I hadn't been using an external backup as well......I'd just sold my old one to a pal and was looking to buy a new one. What are the odds!

BUT ANYWAY - after going through absolutely everything the culprit turns out to be the Antec SmartPower 450w that was in the case (Sonata II).

It was still under warranty and all the HDDs were replaced but the data lost and stress was unbelievable.

Both my home systems currently have Antec PSU's in them - pretty much solely as I LOVE Antec cases! (P182 is the best ATX tower for general use ever!)

One of them is a Neo Power 550w and the other is an EarthWatts 380w.

Can't complain about either.......but thanks for bringing that story up - it make sit a little easier to look back on knowing that a few others maybe suffered the same disaster - haha and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

If I had to buy a new PSU tomorrow I'd find it very hard to go past a Seasonic 430w - they're meant to be awesome.

[GuiGuy]

Hi,

When i built my HTPC 3 years ago, i opted for an ANTEC Smartpower PSU. Antec had a good reputation.
<snip>
Digitial photos and music are backed up on 2 other machines thank god, but movies and TV shows Gone!

I feel for you because a similar thing happened to me 18 months ago. I managed to trash five successive HDDs before I realised that a faulty PS was zapping them.

And I know the horse has bolted, but given that a quality 1G HDD is now sub $130, I'm backing up via one of those external eSATA HDD docks. It's fast and works a treat and I sleep well. I recommend you try it.

Cheers