Remember the Hiper 'Explosive' 580W PSUs? Why did they blow up?

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
36,606
Location
In acme's chair.
Does anyone recall what the point of failure was?

I just picked one up in a lot of retro gear, and was going to use it until I remembered vaguely that they had a bit of a reputation...

Looking at the power outputs, is it possible people were just exceeding the 360W at the 12V?

Was it just one revision or all of them? This is a Type M V2

fminN87.jpg


:p
 
Just checking my old emails about my old one and apparently I RMA'd it in 2009 because of a burning smell. I bought something else in place of it and sold whatever I got back on ebay.. to a guy in Denmark?
 
I don't remember what went on them. I do recall that it destroyed my motherboard, CPU and RAM. Came in a really handy box though that I used for another 15 years. So a mixed experience overall.
 
It was the Type R ( the Modular one ) that got the bad rep.

16 years ago, how time flies :D

 
Last edited:
I owned a Hiper PSU in the early 000's, bought it off the Auction site back then about the time of the exploding models. It wasn't the 580 watter. I bought it thinking it would be quiet as it had a 120/135mm fan. Errr. no. the fan kept ramping up and the noise drove me mad. It got sold. I think I replaced it with a Thermaltake 430 watter and that was much quieter.
 
It was the Type R ( the Modular one ) that got the bad rep.

16 years ago, how time flies :D

I had assumed (perhaps wrongly) that both were the same internally?

this is a 10 on the **** around/find out graph lol

I do enjoy me some unnecessary risk taking... :D

But I have opted to use one of my other more modern PSUs for this project... I chickened out. :(

Still curious though.
 
Last edited:
I totally missed the exploding issue and happily used my type r for years. I still use the cool toolbox it came in.

I gave my dad the box and he still uses it in his garage :D

I'm unsure whether the internals, are the same in the TypeM and TypeR but I wouldn't risk it.

IIRC the TypeR replaced a Tagan, but the Tagan outlasted it and provided many years service in another PC.
 
Last edited:
I still remember the day it whnt bang! Took the main fuse RDC out as well as my Mobo. Bigest bang I've hear from an exploding PSU and taught me a great lesson. Don't beleieve the Hipe-..r.

I still have the box in the garage though. Its got my Warhammer chamberlain's in. Must go an dig that out. Thanks for the post and the reminder :)
 
In fairness to mine (type r), it ran for a couple of years in my PC and then many more in a mates desktop. It was only replaced because of it's reputation and him buying new parts.
I guess it was down to it not really running mega overclocks, and I want to say a 6800GT at most...

It did look great though, even the box was cool (at the time). :D
 
Last edited:
I don't think there was a single point of failure, they just had such little margins in terms of thermal stability, regulation, safety features and component quality it didn't take much to push them over the edge.

Something to be wary of in general with PSUs of that era is the so called "capacitor plague" which could affect many of them in the longer run.

One of the worst for me was q-tec - they didn't fail as such but devices powered by them would start to exhibit weird failings/malfunctions over time and be permanently damaged, I'm guessing due to poor voltage regulation.
 
Last edited:
I don't think there was a single point of failure, they just had such little margins in terms of thermal stability, regulation, safety features and component quality it didn't take much to push them over the edge.

Something to be wary of in general with PSUs of that era is the so called "capacitor plague" which could affect many of them in the longer run.

One of the worst for me was q-tec - they didn't fail as such but devices powered by them would start to exhibit weird failings/malfunctions over time and be permanently damaged, I'm guessing due to poor voltage regulation.
I had a Zalman that did that basically went senile in its old age I think it killed at least three HDD's. One of the first no-name PSU's I ever had blew up in a huge blue flash and a shower of sparks - its left me paranoid about PSU's and don't like to keep them too long "just in case"
 
Back
Top Bottom