Antec NeoHE 550 - WARNING!
Some of you will remember a while ago I have crazy PSU problems - I bought a Antec NeoHE 550w to go with my Abit NF7-S v2. Superb! IT worked like a dream, the most stable voltages I've ever seen and very quiet. It oozed quality.
Now the other bits of hardware finally gave up the ghost, so it was time for a complete upgrade.
Out with NF7, ****ty pcu and geforce FX5200, and in with - Abit AW9D-MAX, Core2duo 6600 and Geforce 8800GTS.
Set it all up powered up. Whirr, Whirr, restart. Whirr Whirr restart. WTF? I thought to myself. Usual tests. Everytime the fans and lights came on, starting to boot up, the AW9Ds lovely postcode lcd display showed it going through the sequence then oops restarted back at the beginning. Sometimes it would last long enough to get into the bios screen but not for long. The restarts were in a continuos loop.
removed 1 ram chip leaving one in, tried different slots etc. Check web for problems with this board can't find anything relevant. Sigh - phone Abit tech support.
They take me though the basics. Voltages good and stable, temps are great, swapping the 2 memory chips, etc etc etc
Abit "What brand of memory are you using?"
Me "Geil"
Abit - " oh we have loads of problems with them. That'll be your problem, get a different brand of ram - they're incompatible"
Me "Are you sure (disbelievingly) its the ram not the mobo or something else?"
Abit "Sure its definetly the memory"
- New memory obtained. Same problem - AARRGGHH!
On the phone to Abit again - "thats strange must be the board, rma it" So I rma the board.
New board arrives. - SAME PROBLEM- FC*K FC*K FC*K
By the way it still did the problem if I removed the graphics card, though it took a bit longer.
Hmm, cpu or psu theres nothing else left!
and then I found it! - over at the forums at silentpcreview a couple of people had posted about problems with the NeoHE with this board
Apparently Antec have fixed it with rev 4 of the PSU but not with the earlier ones. It only manifests itself with the latest boards using the 8pin additional connector to the mobo.
GRRR, go out to the nearest computer shop, and get myself a SeaSonic SS-600HT, not quite so smart looking, no modular cables, but seems to get good reviews.
Set it up, phew, after a whole week of pulling my hair out and waiting for replacements and deliverys - IT WORKS!
The PSU just as steady voltages (and a little quiter) as the antec but no restarts!
So be warned about buying the Antec NeoHE models. As I said the word is that Rev 4 is all fixed up (for the famous asus incompatibility as well) but any earlier revisions and you are on dangerous ground with the newer boards, particularly the AW9D-Max
I'm not sure how you tell the revisions which may add to the difficulties. I've emailed antec tech support, with no reply yet.
Now the other bits of hardware finally gave up the ghost, so it was time for a complete upgrade.
Out with NF7, ****ty pcu and geforce FX5200, and in with - Abit AW9D-MAX, Core2duo 6600 and Geforce 8800GTS.
Set it all up powered up. Whirr, Whirr, restart. Whirr Whirr restart. WTF? I thought to myself. Usual tests. Everytime the fans and lights came on, starting to boot up, the AW9Ds lovely postcode lcd display showed it going through the sequence then oops restarted back at the beginning. Sometimes it would last long enough to get into the bios screen but not for long. The restarts were in a continuos loop.
removed 1 ram chip leaving one in, tried different slots etc. Check web for problems with this board can't find anything relevant. Sigh - phone Abit tech support.
They take me though the basics. Voltages good and stable, temps are great, swapping the 2 memory chips, etc etc etc
Abit "What brand of memory are you using?"
Me "Geil"
Abit - " oh we have loads of problems with them. That'll be your problem, get a different brand of ram - they're incompatible"
Me "Are you sure (disbelievingly) its the ram not the mobo or something else?"
Abit "Sure its definetly the memory"
- New memory obtained. Same problem - AARRGGHH!
On the phone to Abit again - "thats strange must be the board, rma it" So I rma the board.
New board arrives. - SAME PROBLEM- FC*K FC*K FC*K
By the way it still did the problem if I removed the graphics card, though it took a bit longer.
Hmm, cpu or psu theres nothing else left!
and then I found it! - over at the forums at silentpcreview a couple of people had posted about problems with the NeoHE with this board
Apparently Antec have fixed it with rev 4 of the PSU but not with the earlier ones. It only manifests itself with the latest boards using the 8pin additional connector to the mobo.
GRRR, go out to the nearest computer shop, and get myself a SeaSonic SS-600HT, not quite so smart looking, no modular cables, but seems to get good reviews.
Set it up, phew, after a whole week of pulling my hair out and waiting for replacements and deliverys - IT WORKS!
The PSU just as steady voltages (and a little quiter) as the antec but no restarts!
So be warned about buying the Antec NeoHE models. As I said the word is that Rev 4 is all fixed up (for the famous asus incompatibility as well) but any earlier revisions and you are on dangerous ground with the newer boards, particularly the AW9D-Max
I'm not sure how you tell the revisions which may add to the difficulties. I've emailed antec tech support, with no reply yet.
0
Comments