Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

[Jonny Accelerant]

I have about 20 PSU's that I've collected over the years, and am wondering if, in the most general sense, they are repairable and worth trying to resell on craigslist, or should I just sell them as scrap metal.

All are in the 325 watt, Okia-quality, low-end PSU range (none are high-end, nor even Antec quality), but if they worked I could probably get $20.00 each for them on CL. From what I've read, a good percentage of these are going to have bad caps and could be quickly, easily and cheaply repaired, but on average what percentage can I expect to be "simple" vs. what percentage are going to be "more trouble than they are worth"?

[new2019]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Not worth the time and effort bro.
I bought a 1500W and fixed it for my use (I had to spend many days to fix it lol), sometimes its really hard to find the culprit.

[SteveNielsen]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

I dunno. Fix a couple and see if you get any bites on CL for em. I wouldn't think there's much demand for them these days, but who knows? It's not gonna do any damage to try.

[Almighty1]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Depends on what the total costs are and what you can get for them... LOL

[new2019]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Because its a 325W you cant see it sell for higher prices also new gen pc needs more power and different eps 12 connector , may be that psu doesnt have that.

[shovenose]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Waste of time sadly.

[c_hegge]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

It's rarely worth doing commercially, save for maybe a decent high wattage PSU. I do recap PSUs, but mainly because it's fun. However, My general rule is that I will fix a PSU only under all of the following circumstances:

- The fault is obvious, like the caps or fan
- The PSU is at least 250W, not a half-bridge (other than some really well designed ones like Antec SmartPowers), and not 5V heavy
- I get the PSU for free

For a Decent 350-400W PSU, I can get $15. Once you factor in the cost of the caps, that's more like $10 profit. Not much but enough for lunch for a day. For motherboards, I can get $50 for an s775 C2D board - a little more attractive (although rarer as most manufacturers had learned not to use GSC/Sacon by that point. I still find the odd one with bad TK and KZG, though)

[i4004]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

I have about 20 PSU's that I've collected over the years, and am wondering if, in the most general sense, they are repairable and worth trying to resell on craigslist, or should I just sell them as scrap metal.

All are in the 325 watt, Okia-quality, low-end PSU range (none are high-end, nor even Antec quality), but if they worked I could probably get $20.00 each for them on CL. From what I've read, a good percentage of these are going to have bad caps and could be quickly, easily and cheaply repaired, but on average what percentage can I expect to be "simple" vs. what percentage are going to be "more trouble than they are worth"?

no, new cheap chinese psus are just too cheap.
in that sense they're all more trouble than they're worth.

and people will prefer new chinese crap to decent used unit, and you don't have decent ones anyway.

and you won't find a way to remove those cheapest chinese psus from market, right?

[Jonny Accelerant]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Thanks for all the answers. All confirm my instincts and I think I will pick a few to repair for "personal development" rather than "profit". In my corner of the universe (San Antonio, Texas), 300 watt Okias sell new in shops for about $35.00 and little old mexican abuelas are going to hang on to their P4's running WinXP Home until you pry it from their cold, dead fingers.

There is a steady market for low-end PSU's on craigslist, as long as they can save $15 off new. A VERY strong understanding of the "used" economy. I can get $20, and not $25. The phone blows up if the price is $15.00. These folks know what's what.

I'm a founding member of the clean plate club, and occasionally have a mental health breakdown when I see perfectly good food thrown in the trash in such a way as to make it inedible and irretrievable. Notice that picking used & broken equipment out of dumpsters is a "thing" here, and I'm wired that way also. Which is the long-way around saying that the reason why those 20 PSU's are still around is that I can't bring myself to throw them away, or even take them to the metal recycling place. This forum has created a new dimension to my life as I can see repairing at least some of them as a viable alternative, so in that respect I think it's fair to say that the forum provides a mental health care service to the general public, and if someone were to solicit our Masters in DC, I'd support the idea that you folks deserve a federal subsidy.

[ben7]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Not worth it to make a living, but you can do it as a hobby.

In a way, it could be worth repairing them though, as you will learn about electronic circuits in the process

[i4004]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

if so, wear protective gear on our eyes especially, chinese cheapos like to blow!
hehe...

and be aware you're working with mains voltage on primary side. get (or make) a tool to discharge mains caps etc.

definitely not worth the injury.

[Agent24]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Not commercially viable, but useful to try and repair faulty ones so you can learn concepts that can be applied to other SMPS that are worth repairing.

And if you do repair some older but higher quality unit, you can keep it for yourself and use it, happily knowing you are powering your machine with something that isn't crap.

And if not fixed, they can be a good source of spare parts, and heatsinks for projects.

[Pentium4]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Jonny, it's not always cost effective, but it sure is fun. Some of those PSU's may be better than you think. Modern PC's don't need a ton of power to run these days. My shop still sells PSU's that I recap for $45. Most of them are recapped Delta/Hipro/Bestec/300W half bridge units. I haven't had a single one come back so far in the past 2 years and there are about 75 out there that I know of. Even if you're not going to sell them, you can fix them up for your own use, or for family, friends, etc.

(other than some really well designed ones

Like Macrons, and that global win sapphire?

[everell]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Not worth your time and effort for resale. If you are trying to learn electronics, repairing computer power supplies separates the men from the boys! As for saving electronics devices from the landfill, I have rescued many power supplies and enjoy working on them. I still have plenty left to work on................I have added to this collection since taking this picture.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Agree, not worth if you're not running a shop. If you have a shop, there's always clients' boxes to put your repaired PSUs into. Everyone else will buy the latest and greatest china special from their local superstore.

[c_hegge]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Like Macrons, and that global win sapphire?

The only real exception that springs to mind are Antec SP-xxx power supplies.

Macrons (at least the MPT-xxx2 units) are actually 2TF, 12V heavy units, but yes, a power supply like my MPT-4012, is very much worth repairing.

I do have an older MPT-301 in my stash as well, but it's destined for the metal recyclers. It's 5V heavy and didn't like being loaded 12V heavy on the tester. The voltage went down to 11.4V under a heavy 12V load. It also has only a 20 pin ATX Connector and no SATA power connectors. It was decent 10 years ago, but it's not worth my time to fix up and recap today when I already have more spares than I know what to do with.

[ben7]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

Agree, not worth if you're not running a shop. If you have a shop, there's always clients' boxes to put your repaired PSUs into. Everyone else will buy the latest and greatest china special from their local superstore.

Actually now that I think of it, you could save some money doing this. Especially if say the PSU just needed a re-cap, you could spend very little money to get new caps compared to getting a new PSU, and you can just use the PSU to replace those 'china special' ones as you said.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

I know a couple guys who sell bad PSUs by the lots. I can buy 10 of them for $20. They've always paid off. On the last lot i bought, at least 3 of them had simple defects like a bad fan or 5vsb capacitors bulged.

[kc8adu]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

okia are pure garbage.
so okia grade units are scrap metal.
i rebuild plenty of power supplies and have no problem selling them.
its not my main business i just fix some when the shelf is getting empty or i get a specific request.

[Almighty1]

Re: Repairing PSU's for Resale: Is it Worth the Time & Hassle?

I guess if you were PC Power & Cooling, now FirePower Technology, it would be worth it as they charge $95.00/hr to repair power supplies not under warranty as I was curious when mines failed a few weeks ago, wonder how many hours can they actually charge for.