Anyone have any dealings with Antec RMA?

muddocktormuddocktor
edited June 2004 in Hardware
I just had an Antec PP-412X psu take a big sh!t on my watercooled Asus dually a little while ago. :mean: I had just pulled the case side off and was getting ready to shut it down to change out a cd burner in it (nothing wrong with the burner, just selling it because the burner was black and the case is beige) and I was waiting till it finished 1 more frame on a WU before I shut it down and all of a sudden the Antec psu starts popping and throwing throwing fire. I hurried up and pulled the plug wires out of the ups and started looking for where all the sparks were coming from. Sure enough, the vent holes on the psu show scorch marks coming out of it, so it is dead. I bought the damn thing from Newegg in Feb 2002, so it is still covered under Antec's 3 year warrantee. I went to their site and looked and called the number listed there for a RMA and a frigging machine answered asking to leave a message with the RMA dept. :rarr: So I left a message, but I'm less than impressed with this kind of service so far. :rolleyes:

Has anyone here dealt with Antec's RMA department? I just hope the psu didn't take out my mobo and the rest of the stuff in the box too. I don't think it did because none of the wires feeding anything look like they got overamped, no discoloration or melting of anything, but I don't have a spare psu to test with. :(

Comments

  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited June 2004
    I had a 300 watt (PP303X ?)go bad. I called them and gave them the date off of it and they replaced it no problem. It came with a case I bought and I didn't have to have a proof of purchase. :)
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2004
    Cross your fingers. That the psu was all you lost. When they go out violently I have had them take lots of the other internal parts including drives, MB's etc... all to the grave with them.

    And I have had far more high dollar enermax and antec psu's crap on me in the last four years (one violently) then all the cheaper ones combined. I am not saying its not good to get a high quality PSU but buying Enermax or Antec isnt the golden blanket of protection many think either. At 2cpu it was pretty scary to see the number of posts from guys that had Truepower psu's in particular fry themselves and the dualy MB when they were first powered on the first time. Now maybe those are doofus guys that have a screw lodged under the MB. Or bad motherboard's but you know I can't remember anyone ever posting even once in those threads with people pissed at antec saying the same happened to them with another brand.

    I know lots of folks are also very happy with the truepower so don't start a long wailing list of "well my truepower is fine". I am just saying that even the high dollar psu's fail especially when stressed.

    I tend to buy high wattage cheaper psu's and use more then one in a system is if I run the hard drives and stuff internal so that they are all running at a fraction of their rated output generally. I also replace the fans with aftermarket fans that push more air. The other thing I REALLY highly recomend is using a voltage regulator. I have a 1800 watt and a 1200 watt Trip Lite that just locks teh voltage in perfect. Many of you might be shocked to stick a drantz (spelling?) on your home outlet and watch the voltages fluctuate. This can really jack with computers and other equipemnt especially when it runs low for any length of time. We used to install a drantz analyzer which teh power company used to rent to us very cheap onsite for a week before we installed a big network server even if they had a computer room. You could set the tolerance levela nd it would print a line on a roll of recipt like paper tape with date/time and the voltage if it varied out of that range. I can't tell you the number of times we left and couldn't even get back to the office befoe the customer would call saying it was beeping (it was out of paper already) would someone come clean up the huge pile of paper as it was hard to even walk around the darn thing.

    Tex
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    Tex,

    I had one of them 412's with a low output once. Called Antec up. They changed it out no problem. Since it was only 6 months old they let me change it for a newer model. So I had a good experience with em too.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2004
    And I am in NO WAY saying they won't happily replace the PSU. He had flames and sparks fly out.. And if... just if it shot a high voltage spike and took a dualy MB, two cpu's and a raptor... they would just giggle at the suggestion they should replace that even though there PSU failure was the cause of all the other damage. And no other PSU maker I knowo of will either.

    The only point I was making is that I had actually lost more Enermax and Antec PSU's then all other brands combined.

    Tex
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    Where's Thrax? It's about time for his pitch for CompUSA PSUs.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited June 2004
    Thanks for the feedback, guys. I tried all afternoon and just got their effing voicemail in both the RMA dept and Tech Support. :rolleyes2 I'll call the bastards tomorrow and try again.

    Tex, I know what your talking about with the sparks and stuff; I'm sincerely hoping that it didn't take all my stuff out in that box. It's nothing really high-end, but it's a damn good folding machine and my backup rig though. As much as I hate to, I guess I'll have to get me another psu as a backup for my farm here so I can check that machine out since it will be faster to replace the psu by buying another 1 than waiting for this smoked SOB to be RMA'd. I was just lucky as hell that I happened to be right next to the machine when the fireworks started. The psu is supposed to have cutrouts for overvoltage on the load side and I hope that they worked.

    I don't think I will replace this psu with another Antec though, maybe I'll get a Sparkle or Fortron Source. If someone else has some good ideas for a powerful and less expensive psu, please chime up. :) It has to have the ATX connector, the 12v connector and Aux connector for this Asus mobo.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited June 2004
    Leonardo wrote:
    Where's Thrax? It's about time for his pitch for CompUSA PSUs.

    No CompUSA anywhere near my neck of the woods though. ;)
  • MissilemanMissileman Orlando, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    Here's a link to Dealsonic.

    http://www.dealsonic.com/powersupply.html

    I've been buying powersupplies from these guys for quite a while. Always have good cheap units like Tex likes :)

    I've been putting there 14 buck 400 watt PowMax supplies in peoples for 6 months. Used about a dozen of them and they are all still working. And at $14 for 400 watts they are a steal :)

    They have a 600 watt for $44. Always a great source of cheap powerful off-brand units and some name brand too.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2004
    And you will croak as I been buying 24 buck 600 watt psu's off ebay. Thats whats in my dual opteron, the the single opteron and the new amd64 3200+ has a modded 15 dollar 500 watt we modded the 5 and 12volt rails on. All hold solid voltages.

    I'll pay a littlle more for the next one as I want one modded witrh the clear cover and lighted fans and crap for a real dressy rig in a all blue acrylic case.

    Tex
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2004
    These are 23 bucks but another 20+ to ship.

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=40158&item=4135435670&rd=1

    Tex
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