FSP 700w PSU Faulty - 1 Year & 10 Days Old - What To Do?

Jakg

I bought this PSU (FSP 700w 700-80GLN) for my PC on the 10th of November, 2008.

My PC hasn't been booting properly for the last week or so, to start with moving the RAM around got it going but now it's really dead (fans spin, but no POST etc). Finally had time to get it on a bench and fiddle and using my spare Hiper 580w it works fine, but when I go back to the FSP unit it doesn't want to know.

I've called Scan but they say it's 10 days out of warranty and so I'm SOL which seems a little... harsh.

I've called FSP, but they don't process end user returns directly.

I'm just wondering what Scan are likely to do?

I originally paid £28.14 for the PSU, however this was a "Today Only" special price, and also included a discount voucher for previous poor service (Citylink Ninja Carding). I would happily accept a replacement unit, or a similar specced unit from a similar or better brand, however to get the same unit now would cost me £68, and a similar unit would be around the same price.

I'm wondering if theres anything else I can do? I would argue that 12 months and 10 days is an unreasonable amount of time for a PSU to last, especially when it hasn't been powering anything that should of pushed it too hard (PC was pulling 500w maximum from the wall under load including monitors).

For those who think i've bought a cheapo PSU and should face the cost - FSP are a very very very big OEM manufacturer of PSU's for companies like HP etc. This unit is designed to power high end gear, however OEM's don't care about looks, or cable lengths etc, or even boxes (mine was shipped wrapped in bubble wrap - no box etc) which explains the cheap price. I would happily have a replacement FSP unit, or a Corsair, Seasonic, PCP&C etc unit, but I wouldn't class a "ColoursIT" or "WinPower" as a fair replacement as they cannot provide anywhere near the power advertised stably.

The PC in question was a Phenom 920, 4830, 2x 7200.12 HDD's & a Foxconn A7DA-S, however in the past it has powered a Xeon X3210 with 4x HDD's, 2x Optical Drives and an 8800GTX on an Asus P5K-E board. I originally bought it as the Hiper unit before that whined with the 8800GTX whereas this was fine.

Help please?

woody01

PC was pulling 500w maximum from the wall under load including monitors

You think that is low?????????????
That is an ENORMOUS amount of power draw for a home PC, and reading your specifications, it isn't even a high end PC.
I think you either:
a). have your numbers wrong
b). There rest of the street were plugged into your PSU
If that PSU was capable of delivering more than 330W of continuous clean power i would be amazed. Remember that 700W stated is peak and not continuous.

I currently run:
- Q6600 O/C to 3.6ghz 24/7
- Abit iX38 Quad GT
- 4 x 500GB Samsung Spinpoints
- 4 x 1gb OCZ Platinum
- 2 x 4870 in Crossfire
- 2 x DVD Writers
- Enermax Liberty 500W
With this unit i draw no more than 300W underload and it is a more powerful machine (though not that powerful in real terms)

Sorry but you are totally incorrect in assuming this is a high end PSU.
Looking at your post, it seems you assume that the PSU is 'high end' as it is 700W.
Its all about the rails and what clean power these rails can deliver in amperage.
I am not going to do your homework for you so if you post:
a). THe rated Wattage
b). Rated sustained deliverable wattage
c). Amperage for each rail of continuous power
(All of which can be found on the side of the PSU), i will let you know where you have gone wrong in your assumptions.

ALthough you are correct that Fortron do make higher end units, this isn't one of them as you have found out.
In no way, shape or form, are these to be compared to Corsair/Enermax/PCP&C etc as they are most definitely not in the same class.
The is most definitely not comparable to the £60+ unit you found either and the request for numbers at the beginning of my post will show that if you want to post them.

With PSU's you almost ALWAYS get what you pay for, and for £28, you have. A low end unit with a short lifespan.

If Fortron will do nothing then you are stuffed i'm afraid.

moonrakerz

Legally you are up the creek, paddleless.......

To be honest, the PSU you got was probably not "top of the range". I must agree with Woody, 500W is a lot for a PC. You may have a problem which has overloaded the PSU, hence the failure.

My PSU died a few weeks back, replaced the 250W with a 350W as I have added a few bits over the years - I think it was about 7 years old.

Mankysteve

moonrakerz wrote: »

Legally you are up the creek, paddleless.......

To be honest, the PSU you got was probably not "top of the range". I must agree with Woody, 500W is a lot for a PC. You may have a problem which has overloaded the PSU, hence the failure.

My PSU died a few weeks back, replaced the 250W with a 350W as I have added a few bits over the years - I think it was about 7 years old.

That not true.
He need to get it inspeceted by an engneer to say the fault is inhertant manufacturing fault. Then he entiled to repair or a refund of the value remaining of the item after that it can be reasonable expected to last.

OlliesDad

Mankysteve wrote: »

That not true.
He need to get it inspeceted by an engneer to say the fault is inhertant manufacturing fault. Then he entiled to repair or a refund of the value remaining of the item after that it can be reasonable expected to last.

I think the OP should consider whether it is worth it. How easy would it be to find an engineer to say in writing that it is definitely a inherent fault? Electrics can be hard to prove.

And as he would only be due a refund less the amount of time he has already had it, he would be looking at approx £15-20 refund.

moonrakerz

Mankysteve wrote: »

That not true.
He need to get it inspeceted by an engneer to say the fault is inhertant manufacturing fault. Then he entiled to repair or a refund of the value remaining of the item after that it can be reasonable expected to last.

Totally true - do you really think that you will get an "engineers report" to certify that a PSU made Lord knows where, has an "inherent" fault - for £28.14 !!
Sorry, but join the real world !

Jakg

woody01 wrote: »

Sorry but you are totally incorrect in assuming this is a high end PSU.
Looking at your post, it seems you assume that the PSU is 'high end' as it is 700W.

I'm saying it's high end because it's FSP, not because it's 700w - otherwise i'd just go and buy an eBuyer "Extra Value" 700w for 50p...

Annoyingly theres no nice neat table so i'll post a picture of the various outputs once I have a PC available with Photoshop on it (i.e. something thats not this NC10).

Jakg

Specs of the PSU here.

EDIT - I must admit I don't fully understand, but that implies the 12v rails put out a max of 40A, and that the max continuous peak (NOT load) is 700w?

Mankysteve

Wherever it worth it is another question but say he has no legal recourse is not true

moonrakerz

Mankysteve wrote: »

Wherever it worth it is another question but say he has no legal recourse is not true

If the OP thinks that, he has to option to take it to Court - let me know the result !

OlliesDad

moonrakerz wrote: »

If the OP thinks that, he has to option to take it to Court - let me know the result !

Well he does have the option to take it, but as already stated, it is not worth it.