Diablotek PSDA600 PSU

[Topcat]

I did this one earlier in the week....but knew the server move was coming up so I waited before posting it.

I have never heard of this brand of PSU. The system it was in wouldn't POST, but would power up....and when I saw this PSU, it was my number one suspect.... The system was a dropoff for recycling. I plugged in a test PSU, and the system fired right up....so yea, PSU isn't working right.

Here's the PSU:



It didn't feel like it was going to be of very good quality, but it didn't feel like an empty happy meal box like some of the really junky units do....so I cracked it open. No caps visibly failed and all voltages are present.





Since all voltages are present, yet the system won't POST with this unit....lets put the scope on it. This is the noisiest power supply I have ever encountered.... Top trace is the +12v rail and the bottom is the +5v output rails. The scope in 'auto' mode couldn't lock on the time/div setting it was so bad. I have no idea how/why this thing would even start up.



All the caps in the secondary were out of tolerance by a good 20%~30% of their values, some low some high...but that's not the jawdropper! As out as they were, this unit was far too noisy...so I checked the main filters.....and umm yea....get a load....and this is read in pF not uF! Both were reading around this! I didn't bother with leakage or ESR testing with a capacitance this far out!



Here we are, recapped. I yanked the mains out of a junk supply, tested them of course... I normally frown on that....but this isn't exactly a first-rate PSU and I don't keep these kinds of caps on hand new....they don't fail often....



Going back together and retesting after recapping.



Now this is more like it!



Testing in the system it came in.



It POST's now!




All reassembled and working. It's a MSI MS-7673 motherboard with an I5-2500K quad core @ 3.3GHz, 16gb RAM and a 550TI GPU.



I stuck a SSD in it and tossed Win10 on it. I sold it this morning. Made a nice profit on it for a couple bucks in caps and a little time.....but the main reason for mentioning this was this PSU.

Just a FWIW, Thermaltake makes some really flimsy cases....

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: Diablotek PSDA600 PSU

Very interesting repair thanks for sharing it

[CapLeaker]

Re: Diablotek PSDA600 PSU

Nice recap job Topcat. I don’t see these Sencore Capacitance testers too often. That thing doesn’t lie and the most proper way testing caps, specifically if you get up in voltage.

[shovenose]

Re: Diablotek PSDA600 PSU

Surprised you've never heard of it, encountered a fair number of them over the years. It seems they are (thankfully) defunct now. Haven't seen any for years and looking it up online their website is a goner and except for some sketchy looking random websites you can't buy them anywhere.

I will say it's amazing how bad out of spec it was but visually fine. Scary stuff!

[Topcat]

Re: Diablotek PSDA600 PSU

Nice recap job Topcat. I don’t see these Sencore Capacitance testers too often. That thing doesn’t lie and the most proper way testing caps, specifically if you get up in voltage.

I bought a lot of this sencore gear new back in the mid-90's when I first started. The LCR and the PR570 variac & isolation transformer have been probably the most heavily used and most beneficial pieces. Hard to believe it's been that long ago.

Surprised you've never heard of it, encountered a fair number of them over the years. It seems they are (thankfully) defunct now. Haven't seen any for years and looking it up online their website is a goner and except for some sketchy looking random websites you can't buy them anywhere.

I will say it's amazing how bad out of spec it was but visually fine. Scary stuff!

LOL...this is the first time I've ever seen one....seriously. I guess this one dodged the electronics shredder....but I'd go out on a limb and say most of the rest are probably long gone from failures documented in the original post. I probably shouldn't have wasted any time on it....but what the heck.

[shovenose]

Re: Diablotek PSDA600 PSU

LOL...this is the first time I've ever seen one....seriously. I guess this one dodged the electronics shredder....but I'd go out on a limb and say most of the rest are probably long gone from failures documented in the original post. I probably shouldn't have wasted any time on it....but what the heck.

I don't think it was a waste of time! For a basic PC where power is cheap it's a fine unit after a recap.

[momaka]

Re: Diablotek PSDA600 PSU

I have never heard of this brand of PSU. The system it was in wouldn't POST, but would power up....and when I saw this PSU, it was my number one suspect....

Well, any PSU brand with the Devil's reference somewhere in the name, model, or logo should always be considered suspect!

Years ago, it was Logysis (with its little Devil / Troll in the logo carrying a computer under its arm... probably taking it to hell after blowing up, LOL. )

Nothing can beat the PowMax brand, though - that one just tells its true nature right from the get-go.

I, too, am surprised you hadn't run across Diablotek before. Everell did repairs on a few units and posted them here, IIRC (but then again, you probably don't frequent the PSU section as much as I do... or... well, used to when I have time.) But yes, Diablotek is often the cheapest or one of the cheapest "bargain" PSU brands you can find in electronics stores. I don't remember when it got introduced exactly, but I think early or mid 2010's. And by that time, most people doing PC builds were starting to get aware of the problems with the really cheap PSUs. So these units didn't catch on to the average builder as often as cheap PSUs did back in the day. But then again, that's just my observation at least here in the US. Elsewhere in the world, I know cheap PSUs still get used on a daily basis... and most of them don't look even this decent as the Diablotek shown here.

The system was a dropoff for recycling. I plugged in a test PSU, and the system fired right up....so yea, PSU isn't working right.

That's sad.
A 2nd-gen i5 is still a perfectly usable system even today. But I guess people consider even quad core PCs more than a few years old as junk now.
Come to think of it, this setup is pretty much equivalent to the Optiplex 790 PC I setup as a gaming PC for myself a few years ago.

Here's the PSU:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1683323560

It didn't feel like it was going to be of very good quality, but it didn't feel like an empty happy meal box like some of the really junky units do....so I cracked it open. No caps visibly failed and all voltages are present.

Hmm... Sun Pro build? (Probably a question for Dan81)

Crap cap brand aside, it looks like a pretty decent PSU overall.

While it certainly won't do 600 Watts... or 500 Watts... or even 400 Watts... I'd say it's OK for about 300W any day, which is plenty for a system like the one it was powering. Actually, that i5-2500 and the GTX550 TI probably pull more power than what a modern i5 and a GTX 1650 would use, so this PSU would still be OK with a more modern system.

What I like about these "simpler" PSUs is lack of APFC, which seems to kill the primary cap(s) after a number of years or nuke itself randomly for whatever reason... though in this case, it's probably ironic I mention that here, given this Diablotek PSU had bad primary caps. I guess it goes to show how terrible some of the more obscure cap brands can be, as primary caps in PSUs like this (without APFC) generally never have an issue. I have plenty of cheap PSUs from the late 90's and early 2000's with primary caps still reading fine and in-spec - even brands like Fuhjyyu, Jun Fu, JEE, and ViVA!

In terms of build quality, it looks like a single transistor forward topology with a single TO-247 MOSFET. If that MOSFET is legit and decent, this PSU should be OK for up to 300-350 Watts... and of course ,if the secondary side rectifiers (particularly on the 12V rail) are up to it. The heatsinks look big enough, otherwise. Also, the output inductor has a light green core, so it's likely a Micrometals -52 equivalent and not the lower-spec -28 equivalent found in cheaper PSUs. Looks decently-sized as well, along with the main transformer.

So yea... it should be OK up to 300-350 Watts with all of the right parts in there, which is plenty.

With good caps, a unit like this should outlive just about any APFC PSU. So yea, not a waste of time, actually.

The scope in 'auto' mode couldn't lock on the time/div setting it was so bad. I have no idea how/why this thing would even start up.

The moment you mentioned this, I figured it would be the primary caps that were bad. Otherwise bad caps on the output would usually not allow the PSU to regulate properly at all, and like you said, in most cases, the PSU shouldn't / wouldn't start up. On the other hand, bad caps on the primary gives lots of noise at 120 Hz, which goes right past the secondary side filter / caps.

All the caps in the secondary were out of tolerance by a good 20%~30% of their values, some low some high...

LOL! "GL" caps at their finest.
(Maybe stands for "Great Litter" )

but that's not the jawdropper! As out as they were, this unit was far too noisy...so I checked the main filters.....and umm yea....get a load....and this is read in pF not uF! Both were reading around this! I didn't bother with leakage or ESR testing with a capacitance this far out!

LCZ = Lame CapZ?

Here we are, recapped. I yanked the mains out of a junk supply, tested them of course... I normally frown on that

Should be fine.

Like you said, those caps very very rarely fail.

I imagine the LCZs just had fake ratings. After all, they look way too small to be rated for 250V AND 1200 uF. Either their voltage rating was fake or their capacitance rating was fake... or both? I suppose we will never know, though. If their voltage rating was fake and could not hold up to even the 160-odd Volts DC the primary subjects them to, I suppose this could be why they went nearly O/C.

I stuck a SSD in it and tossed Win10 on it. I sold it this morning. Made a nice profit on it for a couple bucks in caps and a little time.....but the main reason for mentioning this was this PSU.

Awesome!
Another great save from the landfill. Good to hear you got it re-homed so quickly.

I don't think it was a waste of time! For a basic PC where power is cheap it's a fine unit after a recap.

My thoughts exactly.

Just a FWIW, Thermaltake makes some really flimsy cases....

Don't say that too loud or the steel sides could bend from your voice.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Diablotek PSDA600 PSU

I'm so old I remember when "Diablo" was a brand of daisy wheel printer.

[Hondaman]

Re: Diablotek PSDA600 PSU

I'm sorry, but from what I have heard, Diablotek PSUs are like the 1972 Fiat -- such horrible quality that they SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN MANUFACTURED (they will wear out motherboard components with their lousy power). I always thought MicroCenter's brick and mortar computer stores quit selling Diablotek after getting so many complaints about PSUs failing and destroying computers. But reading this thread, maybe Diablotek went out of business......

I'm glad you have ripple under control now, but if it were me, I would un-solder the wires from the PSU's circuit board (SATA, video, motherboard etc) and use it as a paperweight.

Sometimes you have to say "NO MORE". "NEVER AGAIN". "PERMA-BAN". As cult founder Lafayette Ron Hubbard once said, "no amnesty shall ever cover them".

[Dan81]

Re: Diablotek PSDA600 PSU

I'm surprised you didn't mention Powmax in that list.