aaaah my ears! stupid antec

[PyroFire]

Recently ive had alot of problems with my psu, sometimes it will refuse to boot until i do a variety of stupid things such as unplug it from the mains several times or press the switch on the back a few times ( stupid i know ) and when im lucky enough for it to boot it makes the most high pitched whining sound you can ever hear, its almost deafening, even when i put my headset to highest volume and listen to some soilwork i can still hear it. On the weekend i tried to turn it on and i smelt a really weird burning smell from it, to be honest i basically have to stand back every time i press the power button because im not sure what suprise im going to get this time. EDIT: Also sometimes the light simply comes on and i hear no post (front led light is on).

My psu is an antec smartpower 450watt, running an amd 3200+ venice ( stock, not overlocked) 1gig of xms 3200cpt corsair ram, a single unlocked 6800gt and 2 hard drives, and a dfi lanparty motherboard. I havent overclocked anythng or pissed with the volt settings (it was fine for around 13 months~) i cant possibly be overloading it since this happens when im just generally surfing the web ( ihavent dared play any games since this started) So what can i do to fix this? I bought the psu and antec sonata case ii in september/october 2005, so am i still covered ?

Thanks

[SparkyJJO]

I'll bet if you pull it out of the system and look through the fan grill you'll see leaky capacitors. Antecs (except for the Neo line) are notorious for using cheap caps that blow easily. RMA it.

See my sig? Antec Truepower II 550W blew a cap on me and the system powers on but won't boot like yours does sometimes. It was only 9 months old. I'm gonna RMA it then sell it, I don't want cheap cap crap in my system. I may just say the heck with warranty, open it up, and replace all the cheap caps with some good ones.

[IAmATeaf]

If it's in warranty RMA it, if it's not then you've nothing left to lose so open it up and have a look inside, if you can visibly see comps that have gone bad and can make out what the comps are and what value then you should be able to change them out.

Warning, there can be high voltages present within a PSU even after you've switched it off so leave it off and if you are going to open it up then leave the PSU for a day or so to make sure everything has had time to discharge. :)

[JeffnWV]

I have an NEO 480 that died. Sux...was a nice unit. What kind of warrenty do they have? can't remember when I bought it.

I'll bet if you pull it out of the system and look through the fan grill you'll see leaky capacitors. Antecs (except for the Neo line) are notorious for using cheap caps that blow easily. RMA it.

See my sig? Antec Truepower II 550W blew a cap on me and the system powers on but won't boot like yours does sometimes. It was only 9 months old. I'm gonna RMA it then sell it, I don't want cheap cap crap in my system. I may just say the heck with warranty, open it up, and replace all the cheap caps with some good ones.