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Interesting CoolerMaster PSU question?

M

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[H]ard|Gawd
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Joined
Nov 22, 2004
Messages
1,711
Hello everyone,

I am having all kinds of trouble with a CoolerMaster PSU I own (the model is RS-430-PMSR).

Heres the scoop. A week or two ago I purchased a brand new CoolerMaster 430Watt psu from newegg. When I recieved it I turned it on to find that the 12V rails were already at 11.8V with NO LOAD. So I thought to myself maybe it wont drop too much, I mean 11.8 is acceptable if all I am going to be running off of it is the following:
2 120mm Fans
1 92mm LED Fans
1 80mm LED Fans
4 other LED's

So I hooked it up and went to turn it on. It turned on for a brief second then shutoff. Ok I thought to myself, looks like it tripped. I checked all my connectors and they were all good. So I tried it again, and it did the same thing.

So after 20mins of tinkering around with it I decided to RMA it.

Well since that, I just recieved my replacment for the RMA today. This time I was sure everything would be in working order. So I hooked the parts mentioned above up, and pushed the button, and to my surprise...... it did the same thing. It turns out, the voltage wants to dip to 11.25V once everything is started up (I had to take off the 4 LEDS in order to get it to start up) (AND of course there is more draw when its starting up.)

Now I though a 430Watt PSU with 19A on the 12V rail would be plenty. This damn thing has proved me wrong. :mad:

At first I thought it was something to do with the fans shorting out on something. So I broke out an old GENERIC Acer 380Watt PSU I had laying around and gave it a try. I hooked it up and it ran flawlessly, makes me a little nervous to run my WC unit from it though.

Are CoolerMaster's PSU's just extremely terrible, or is the model I got (RS-430-PMSR) just a lemon?

I would really appreciate some answers :confused:

DaRkF0g
 
Bump

Ok, since no-one seems to have a clue. What are some decent-cheap PSU's I can get. I am looking for nothing under 400 watt. I was hoping to not spend more than $40 on one too.
 
Yes ALL I had connected were the fans mentioned in the first post, and the 4 other LED lights. With ONLY those connected the 12V line drops to somewhere around 11.24V.

I have a 280, YES 280 watt generic PSU in there right now, and its running without a problem. I have investing in hardware that does not funtion properly!

It bafles me how this PSU is capable of running a system!?!?
 
A lot of power supplies are not designed to run off of +12V only, the problem you see will be more pronounced as the total wattage rating of a powre supply increase. You may want to try hooking it up to a few hard drives and see if it makes any difference.
 
That "generic" 380W Acer was probably built by Delta, one of the best PSU manufacturers and the second largest in the world.

Lots of PC PSUs normally put out less voltage at low or no load than at regular load, and some older designs may need to be loaded with at least a couple of amps on the +5.0V rail to work right. For example, my 300W Delta wouldn't spin the HD in a 500 MHz Socket 7 system because its +12V rail was under 11V. But everything ran fine after a 1.7 GHz Celeron mobo was substituted.
 
Yeah, my old CM450 wouldn't power on unless I actually plugged in my AXP CPU+Mobo and a CD. Give it some load and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
 
Thank you all so much for the replies! I am glad to see someone knows what is going on. Ill plug in a few 5V devices and reply back here.

UPDATE: THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! That was the problem. I have no clue how the 5V rail influences the voltage on the 12V rail, but it works now. I hooked up 2 of the fans and the LEDS to the 5V rail and the voltage went up to 11.8V. Its funny, the lights on the fans are actually brighter from the voltage boost. Now to find MORE 5V devices to stick in there. I think I can achieve 11.95V only with 1 more device. Ill have to think about it. Perhaps more LED's.

Anyway, thanks. You guys really helped me out on this one. You have no idea how much trouble you saved me!

DaRkF0g
 
I decided to use 3 100OHM resistors to get the voltage up. Got it up to 11.87V

If anyone finds this usefull.... well there it is! :)

Thanks again guys!

PS. Made some Orange LEDS out of blue ones. Well they were orange until they turned black after they melted. 3V leds really dont like 5V. :p
 
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