the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

[Behemot]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Should not matter if you RMA directly to Corsair. Check their site and try starting the procedure. I bet they'll want ya to send it to some other country anyway, they don't have service center everywhere.

I doubt wou'll be able to repair such carnage anyway, the HV usually burns too many components when it blasts like this.

[Stefan Payne]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Yeah this platform is not that great, but if it's only two months old, it is under warranty, no?

Not anymore because he opened it up...

Shouldn't Corsair have some kind of Worldwide Warranty??

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

That "Mercury" PSU looks like a Deer! (The cooked PCB!) Or at least acts like one...

[PeteS in CA]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

That "Mercury" PSU looks like a Deer! (The cooked PCB!) Or at least acts like one...

Fries like a Deer.

[Dan81]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

That "Mercury" PSU looks like a Deer! (The cooked PCB!) Or at least acts like one...

It actually is, and they were stupid enough to mark a ERL-35 transformer (it was a real ERL-35 transformer - I know that because ERL-28 and 33 usually have a square top while 35 has a rounded top) with EI-33ASG. That's Deer for you

[goontron]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

So, this came with new $30 BaoFeng radio. The LED had a certain rolling flicker to it, and the PSU weighed about the same as an AA battery. This one didn't' have time to bloat and toast, but that's coming.... Im going to see how long it lasts full load in a hot gas stream!

So we start with the case label.

Not inspiring....

And it gets worse. Here's the topside of the board.

Insulation? We don't need none of that....... Single diode flyback topology, no input filtering, fusible resistor, no Pi filtering.... G-Arbage!

Topside-BottomWise now. They at least tried with the compliance...

Don't let the wires bewilder you, they are all of 3 strands of copper-clad. holes in the solder mask, dry joints galore, that main filter has a lifted pad. ignore the missing LED, i did that. The bloody thing lit up my room!

And the money shot!

Mains filter: A measly 4.7uF, 400v.
Secondary: 470uF, 16v
Bootstrap: A sad 4.7uF, 50v
All ChengX (Bang eXplosion)
The "safety" cap is nothing of the kind! "222 1Kv", no compliance markings.


Goontrons rating: F for Fire Hazard.


Heres the PSU im replacing it with: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...postcount=2741

[kaboom]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Nothing but quality...

/sarcasm

You can always, wait...
EOL it!

Wanna bet the AC line wires melt before that fusistor opens?
Those disc caps misused as safety caps are the things of "electrocuted by cellfone."

[goontron]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Ill post the carnage after the hot gas stream experiment. 7000 BTUs ought to do it...

[kaboom]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Ill post the carnage after the hot gas stream experiment. 7000 BTUs ought to do it...

shango066 style...

[jazzie366]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

And the money shot!

Mains filter: A measly 4.7uF, 400v.
Secondary: 470uF, 16v
Bootstrap: A sad 4.7uF, 50v
All ChengX (Bang eXplosion)
The "safety" cap is nothing of the kind! "222 1Kv", no compliance markings.


Goontrons rating: F for Fire Hazard.


Heres the PSU im replacing it with: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...postcount=2741

Those ChengX are fake, there is no CD3000 series from ChengX, I actually found out recently that in the earlier samsung chargers, those white 5V 1A ones, they used ChengX capacitors in them, they look nothing like half of the shit we see.

[jazzie366]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

I present the WORST PSU AT I've seen.
In the photo that I measured the voltage, I almost electrocuted, because of the camera, I did not fix and I did not put the hand correctly with the tip of the multimeter. XD.
Kids, do not do this at home xD.
Going back to the subject, I find it VERY regrettable to leave a huge hole where the input of 220V DC ...
In addition, the primary capacitors bloweds...

Fuck yeah Peakmeter, those are awesome meters, I have one!

[goontron]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Those ChengX are fake, there is no CD3000 series from ChengX, I actually found out recently that in the earlier samsung chargers, those white 5V 1A ones, they used ChengX capacitors in them, they look nothing like half of the shit we see.

Your shitting me? Undersized and knockoffs of a Crapacitor brand? Vhat the fuck?

[momaka]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Single diode flyback topology...

I don't think that is an actual topology.

It is just a standard flyback topology. That little 8-pin SOIC SMD chip on the bottom is probably an offline controller with built-in FET of some sort. Nice to see that, but there is no optocoupler with it, so the IC is likely running in open-loop mode - which means the regulation will be shit. Then again, seeing how the rest is built, this should come as no surprise.

I really don't understand why people waste resources to produce garbage like this. It just doesn't do anyone any good.

ignore the missing LED, i did that. The bloody thing lit up my room!

I have a different cheap power adapter like that as well. Never thought that frosted lens LEDs could be so bright. Mine has a red LED, and it is the brightest red LED I have ever seen. It literally burns your eyes upon sight - worse than staring into a toy laser.

The "safety" cap is nothing of the kind! "222 1Kv", no compliance markings.

Ugh! And you can see it goes between primary negative bus and secondary "ground". They could have saved more money on the adapter by not installing that cap, and it would actually have been safer. Imagine that!

Goontrons rating: F for Fire Hazard.

Or "D" for Death Hazard?

Those ChengX are fake...

Does it matter?
Fake or real... Cheng/Chong/Chang caps are shit and that is all that matters.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

... That little 8-pin SOIC SMD chip on the bottom is probably an offline controller with built-in FET of some sort. Nice to see that, but there is no optocoupler with it, so the IC is likely running in open-loop mode - which means the regulation will be shit. Then again, seeing how the rest is built, this should come as no surprise.
...

I noticed that, too. It's an unregulated power supply, maybe semi-unregulated. If it's a Topswitch type regulator it's probably regulating its own Vcc, and the output winding is of a chosen ration to that primary Vcc winding. So its line regulation might be decent, but the load regulation will be as you described (probably in the +/- 7%-10% range).

[Dannyx]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Failed mains cap on Benq monitor power board causes fuse to blow. No other components shorted though. I was expecting at least the FET to have gone bang, but no :|

[RukyCon]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Looks like there may have been a electrical surge that caused the capacitor to fail.
And i think the fuse failed for the same reason as i don't think fuses are designed to blow up like that.

Or it could be poorly badly made parts.

[Dannyx]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Looks like there may have been a electrical surge that caused the capacitor to fail.
And i think the fuse failed for the same reason as i don't think fuses are designed to blow up like that.

Or it could be poorly badly made parts.

Yes there definitely was, as the guy who brought it in himself said it popped after a power outage...

[PeteS in CA]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

That must've been a really high energy, fairly long surge! I don't see an MOV or other surge protection device, so it would be vulnerable to surges, but that looks like a ceramic body fuse. Usually ceramic fuses are chosen for resistance to shattering. That looks like substantial arcing continued after the fuse wire fused (i.e. the voltage was high enough to sustain an arc from end cap to end cap). That is really an impressive sight!

BTW, I love the genuine Y-caps and the slots cut in the PCB to increase the creepage distance.

[Dannyx]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

That must've been a really high energy, fairly long surge! I don't see an MOV or other surge protection device, so it would be vulnerable to surges, but that looks like a ceramic body fuse. Usually ceramic fuses are chosen for resistance to shattering. That looks like substantial arcing continued after the fuse wire fused (i.e. the voltage was high enough to sustain an arc from end cap to end cap). That is really an impressive sight!

BTW, I love the genuine Y-caps and the slots cut in the PCB to increase the creepage distance.

Too bad I didn't take a shot of the whole board....now that I think about it, yes, you're right: I don't recall seeing any MOVs either. I fixed it today: replaced the mains cap and worked straight away, so I'm still astounded the FET didn't short out...fuse must've gone off in time.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: the gutless, bloated, and fried power supply hall of shame

Just speculating ... if the MOST AT was an 800V part, the cap might have absorbe the hit, shorted, and blown the fuse. IOW the 420 cap might have protected the MOSFET. Not good design, relying on an almost accidental sequence of events.