A Dead Toasted Cooler Master PSU

    Before we look at a few pictures, I will share some history of this PSU. Maybe six to eight months ago I was wandering aimlessly in our local Micro-Center computer store. I came upon a pile of on sale rebated Power Supplies. Regular $99.99 reduced at register to $69.99 with a $50.00 mail in rebate. I figure hey that makes these things $19.99 and I figure $19.99 is a good price for a 600 Watt brand name PSU so I snag one. I already had a cart full of things I didn't need so why not just one more item?

        I arrive home and set this spectacular deal aside. Hey, always like to have several spare power supplies lying around!  They come in handy for troubleshooting as well as collecting dust. A few days passed and I wondered if maybe I should install and try this great find in a computer and find out out a little? My everyday computer is a good machine and without too much detail uses a Pentium D on an Intel D955XBK board running 6 hard drives in a few RAID arrays. The graphics are handled by an ATI All In Wonder X1800 and 2 GB of good Corsair RAM. Not really important. The PSU was an ANTEC True Power 2.0 550 Watt PSU. A voice told me to shove the Cooler Master PSU in that machine, I swear it did! I removed the ANTEC and Installed the Cooler Master PSU. Hey, things went well as the machine booted and ran flawlessly. I left the PSU in the machine and buttoned things up.

    That was about six months ago. Maybe a week ago I awake one morning and walk into the computer room. There are 5 to 6 machines in here running 24/7 as well as a family of UPS units and printers and all sorts of electronic toys. I was greeted by a new smell in the room. That sort of acrid odor electronic type people are less than fond of. I turn on all the monitors and things look just fine. I begin to move from item to item sniffing my way along. Hard to tell? I move the mouse on the everyday machine and nothing happens. Weird huh? OK, I open the case with the machine running and sniff more. Yeah, seems to be from this machine. Now lying on the floor with flashlight in hand I begin to inspect. Hmmm, things look OK from where I am lying. All fans running, everything normal. I couldn't quite pin point the acrid aroma. I grab some canned air and spray a little. Canned air is great for spot cooling. Suddenly the machine reboots and I am clueless? I hit the GPU and the PSU? The up close and personal odor seems to have vanished. Oh well, I restart applications and go to work. I get home that evening and the machine is OFF! I start the machine and it boots just fine. I was on the machine maybe 3 hours and not a hint of a problem. Next morning the machine is off. I restart and things seem fine. At no point does the event viewer logs tell me anything! I get home that afternoon and the thing is frozen again but running? OK, I chill the GPU and again it reboots on its own. I replace the GPU with another card. Next morning the stupid thing is OFF! That does it, I hit the power button and .... Major flash, pop and smoke! The smoke was easy to find as it poured from the PSU. I reinstalled the ANTEC and things have been fine this past week. I likely have a good ATI X1800 also.

    The following are some pictures of the failure:

Normal nameplate data.

Basic Open View!

This chip had a real bad day! Notice the split where the smoke escaped!

Resistors also had a bad day!

    Among other things it is worth noting these boards do not even use through the eyelet solder. How cheap can we get? The damage seen is all on the primary side of the PSU, meaning the line voltage in side prior to the first transformers and initial oscillator. Looking at the rest of the board, the quality is the same. The same as in none, as in junk! I don't know exactly why this PSU failed and as time allows I will maybe get more into it. However, for now I will just say when it comes to a PSU you get what you pay for and apparently "Brand Name" of Cooler Master means little.

NEW STUFF!

    Since beginning this page  several forum friends have helped me further identify this PSU. Apparently this PSU is what is known as "rebadged" meaning it was not manufactured by Cooler Master, it was manufactured by another company but bears the Cooler Master name. This is of little consequence as to my view of Cooler Master as they chose to place their name on what is truly  junk. I removed the board from the chassis to have a lookie at the bottom of the board. The following images should reinforce my view of this product.

    My main complaint with this junk is that the quality of this product just plain sucks. The flux was never washed from this board during the manufacturing process. Flux as used in soldering is actually a corrosive substance. A good board wash is critical to the manufacturing process! Apparently some manufacturers don't think so. A few people asked about having a few pictures of the transformers, thus they are included.

    Also of some interest of all this hype about multiple rails on the 12 Volt bus. This unit advertised a 12V1 and 12V2 rail with each rail capable of delivering 18 Amps of current. So why is it when traced physically back to the board the 12V1 and 12V2 lines all tie to the same point?

    Reviews are always fun to read. Ever read a PSU review on a web page with a banner advertising the PSU being reviewed? Makes you wonder doesn't it?

    Power Supply Units should be tested by independent labs using calibrated equipment and tested to the requirements of a decent specification! They should be tested by individuals having no interest whatsoever in the company manufacturing the units (read into that advertising money). They should be tested to all prescribed specifications and not just a few which seem "good enough". This is the ATX form factor design guide: http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/ATX12V%20PSDG2.01.pdf and testing to those specifications would be a good start.

    Something else of interest is the components used to build the PSU. Most (not all) power supplies have the same components and are likely made in the same building in China or Taiwan. The only difference is the label. As time and patience allow I hope to dig more into all of this.

Ron