Antec True 480 and my video card

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Paul

Just had a bit of a puzzler, and thought I'd document it.

I've been playing with my backup computer lately. I put
another video card in it (a model of card that was used in it
some time ago, without a problem).

The symptoms were, when playing a game with the computer,
the current frame would freeze for a short fraction of
a second. My immediate thought was, that the processor was
not sufficient for the job. I tried overclocking the
processor a bit (because that has helped in the past),
and it still didn't seem to be much better.

The next interesting symptom I got, was when the computer
returned from sleep (suspend to RAM), it was taking longer
than normal to do so. I could hear the hard drive restarting
more than once, and eventually it would come back up. I was
getting suspicious at this point.

Then one day, I could hear a soft "arcing" noise come through
the computer speakers, just as the computer was coming out of
sleep. The computer did a reboot, instead of returning
from sleep. That was the last straw, and guaranteed I would
not be using that power supply again.

I got a replacement supply yesterday, so had a chance to
open up the old one. In the Antec True 480W (with two fans),
I found four smaller electrolytic output side capacitors
were leaking. So that explained where the arcing electrical
noise was coming from. That power supply is several years
old, but has low run time on it (maybe a month of usage).
So the caps are probably "capacitor plague" type caps.
I couldn't immediately see the brand on them (and knowing
that wouldn't help anyway).

I've installed the new power supply, and the surprising part,
is the hesitation in the video while gaming, is gone.

I conclude from that, that the video card was doing "VPU
recovers", due to poor quality power fed to it. And yet, in
Event Viewer, there were no errors reported. (Maybe there is
some other place where ATI would dump such errors ?)

So if you see strange stuttering or hesitation in the video
frames of your favorite game, there is a remote chance that
your power supply could be at fault.

And in all the game play, the computer never crashed, the
game never stopped playing. Just the annoying stutter/hesitation.

Paul
 
I got a replacement supply yesterday, so had a chance to
open up the old one. In the Antec True 480W (with two fans),
I found four smaller electrolytic output side capacitors
were leaking. So that explained where the arcing electrical
noise was coming from. That power supply is several years
old, but has low run time on it (maybe a month of usage).
So the caps are probably "capacitor plague" type caps.
I couldn't immediately see the brand on them (and knowing
that wouldn't help anyway).
Click to expand...

I am using a 2-year-old True Power II 550EPS12V ...... so far no problem....


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So the caps are probably "capacitor plague" type caps. I couldn't
immediately see the brand on them (and knowing that wouldn't help
anyway).
Click to expand...

Inexpensive electolytics have a tendency to fail, no matter what brand
they are.

We have even experienced, in a Lambda power supply we bought and used in a
higher level assembly, counterfeit tantalum caps. The part had TDK
markings, but when we sent it back to TDK for failure analysis, they
claimed it was a counterfeit part. Lambda's contract manufacturer (in
China, of course) bought counterfeit parts... whether knowingly or
unknowingly, that is the question that no one would answer...
 
david said:
Inexpensive electolytics have a tendency to fail, no matter what brand
they are.

We have even experienced, in a Lambda power supply we bought and used in a
higher level assembly, counterfeit tantalum caps. The part had TDK
markings, but when we sent it back to TDK for failure analysis, they
claimed it was a counterfeit part. Lambda's contract manufacturer (in
China, of course) bought counterfeit parts... whether knowingly or
unknowingly, that is the question that no one would answer...
Click to expand...

The power supply is several years old, but does not have a lot of run
time on it. I suspect the capacitors started to leak while the
power supply was not being used. Which leads me to believe they
are the usual "capacitor plague" type. It would be different
if the power supply in my primary computer failed, because
it has about three years run time on it. The power supply
that failed is in my backup computer, which is seldom used.
It is used so little in fact, that the CMOS battery wore
down. I don't leave that computer plugged in, when not in use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

You can see a picture here, of cap failure, and this is more
or less what I found. Brown deposits and a split in the
pressure relief. I can see four here with brown deposits,
and a fifth capacitor that is "ripe".

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/PSU_Caps.jpg

Paul
 
....
The power supply is several years old, but does not have a lot of
run time on it. I suspect the capacitors started to leak while the
power supply was not being used.
Click to expand...

That sounds very strange to me.
You can see a picture here, of cap failure, and this is more or
less what I found. Brown deposits and a split in the pressure
relief. I can see four here with brown deposits, and a fifth
capacitor that is "ripe".
Click to expand...

Maybe it got hit by a major surge.
 
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