FSP Blue Storm pro - dodgy power switch...

[ElectroBlaster]

Ive always thought highly of FSP power supplys but I am having an issue with one at the moment and it involves the power switch on the back, it emits crackling noises when you turn it on and off. There is a light inside the switch that comes on to show whether the psu is on or off and sometimes it will not work. Tonight things took a new level as there was a nasty smell and the noises were a lot louder. Has anyone had the same problem? Looks like an rma will be lined up. The only good thing about this is the warranty covers 3years but it had to be my quad core thats out of action

EDIT: just found out if the light fails to shine on the switch but there is power ready to boot the machine it just wont stay on, it will start for about a second and then shut down... this is odd!

 

[EsaT]

Ive always thought highly of FSP power supplys

Then you haven't checked insides.
While soldering quality is good FSP (/Fortron/Sparkle) uses pretty much exclusively cheap random quality Chinese capacitors.
(that's why FSP based PSUs are cheaper than Seasonic made)

 

[ElectroBlaster]

Oh I always thought they were good? I paid a good amount for it aswell
Great thats gonna make my missus happy! Already had a bust up earlier about it, her making out it wasnt serious but when I look at what this pc has been doing recently I am leaning towards the psu being a bit dodgy. I have already lost a greenpower drive and the akasa card reader we have keeps refusing to read memory cards until the machine it powered off and back on again, recently had to bump the memory voltage up a tad just to get it running aswell.

 

[SouthEastBlue]

I had a crackling switch on an OCZ 500w PSU I bought about 2 years ago which I decided not to use again.

After having a look at it I though I found that inside the plastic rocker switch, the metal part that allows the switch to make contact and turn it on was slightly burnt and for some reason it was out of shape. So it was making an electrical crackling because the contact was loose and not firm like it should have been. I didn't know where to replace this part, so I just chucked it in my cupboard.

Probably doesn't help, but it may be an easy fix if your switch is faulty.

 

[ElectroBlaster]

I was thinking about doing that as I have some spare switches floating about somewhere. If not I know where I can get some new. But I will kiss the warranty goodbye if I bother to do it... will have to cut some sticker seals.

 

[EsaT]

have already lost a greenpower drive

Might have been "natural" death or then PSU might be going ripple happy. (have heard that WDs don't like out of specs ripple at all)
Since "reviewers" actually started doing actual PSU testing ripple performance of FSPs has been mostly rather mediocre or even bad and degrading cheap China caps can definitely make ripple jump out of specs.

FSPs should be actually rather good PSUs... if you just replaced every single capacitor with high quality (=Japanese) cap.
At worst China caps fail even all by themselves without any use. (in addition to political system China copied also Soviet quality)

OCZ 500w PSU I bought about 2 years ago

=FSP in other clothes.

 

[ElectroBlaster]

Lots of faults seem to be racking up now:

Unstable ddr voltage
Icybox backplane has a dead led on one tray
Akasa card reaser keeps dying
Dead 500gb wd greenpower (possibly just died for whatever reason)
Fizzling psu power switch that sometimes smells like its burning

Whats next?

I stupidly assumed FSP were good like in the old days and never thought twice about picking one up. If im forced to buy something what would you guys recommend? Bearing in mind this fsp was £60.00