Antec BP500U APFC Coil

[GnatGoSplat]

Antec BP500U PSU fried in my wife's gaming PC. I smelled something unpleasant last night, so I had a hunch something might be amiss. Woke up this morning to a popped breaker and immediately assumed the APFC cap must have blown. I last fixed it sometime in 2011, there's a thread about it here someplace. APFC and secondary caps that time. Replaced them with Panasonic caps. 10+yrs is probably a good run. It's been running 24/7 the last 3yrs, eth mining with a 1070ti and AFK fishing in Black Desert Online, lol.

Anyway, cracked it open this morning, expecting it to just be the APFC cap and a MOSFET or two, which it very well could be, but right off I see the APFC coil is black and stinky. Awesome! I assume the enamel on it is pretty compromised and it needs to be replaced, but is it possible to even get a replacement anywhere? I don't even know the specs on it.

I'd really like to salvage this if possible, it's the only PSU that fits perfectly into my casemodded Mac Quicksilver case.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Antec BP500U APFC Coil

That is a FSP power supply, you may be able to use this thread linked below to at least judge the original color of the coil, as that narrows it down.
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...highlight=coil

Momaka has written some threads on coils, so you may wanna search for those and read them, here is the one I had in mind:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...light=inductor

[GnatGoSplat]

Re: Antec BP500U APFC Coil

Thanks, there are a few pics of a BP500U in that thread, but I can't see the core color through the windings. Other FSP PSUs in that thread had a blue core, but from what I can tell on the one pic I have from a "before" shot of a previous bad cap repair, the core on mine is a yellowish color or pale green, not sure. It's unfortunately, the best pic I have that shows the coil in a healthy state.

I'm not sure I want to wind my own. I hadn't been too successful with that in the past.

[R_J]

Re: Antec BP500U APFC Coil

Here is a video of a similar 500 watt PS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7SFR9-1Z48
It does look like a blue core?

[kaboom]

Re: Antec BP500U APFC Coil

Don't forget that if it was bad enough to trip the bkr, it's likely got shorted MOSFETs & diodes.
It is possible to trip the branch ckt bkr & not blow the internal fuse (though it probably is blown)-
some have rather fast magnetic trip, which picks up on dead shorts (blown MOSFETs & diodes).

Check the APFC MOSFET(s) & diode(s) with a DMM; if bad, you also have to repair the driver circuits.
Shorted MOSFETs typically backfeed the driver IC when they fail;
a new APFC inductor will not fix it if other parts are bad.

[GnatGoSplat]

Re: Antec BP500U APFC Coil

Thanks, @kaboom, I'm pretty certain the MOSFETs and other associated semiconductors are blown since that happened 10yrs ago when the PFC cap went bad. I don't remember having any issues sourcing suitable replacements for the semis, but the PFC coil might be a show stopper.