Enermax Liberty 620...Blew up...

**Plywood99** · 10-17-2007, 06:27 PM

Yup, Enermax 620 roughly one year old, bit the big one. Was browsing the web when a bright flash, with a pop/crack sound came from the back of the psu. Scared the mess outta me. Psu was being used on the system in my sig.

I have a ups and the most it ever showed being pulled from the wall was 470watts, well within limits of the psu. Took her apart to see what the deal was and noticed a torched mosfet, a cap, and a blown fuse. I think the problem was the mosfet, I noticed a electrical type smell yesterday, but thought it was coming from my laser printer since it puts out a similar smell when heating up. Then this morning I play Ep2 for a couple hours and all seems well. Later I'm just browsing when the shebang happens.

Me and psu's just don't seem to get along, this is the third one to die on me in about as many years. One cheap Aspire psu, knew it would go anyway. So I buy better quality, OCZ Powerstream. It dies while doing a torture test with a opty 165. So moved up to the Liberty 620 which from reviews was supposed to be a very good psu. oh well...

Anyway I have replaced it with the Antec Quattro Power 850. Hopefully this one will last me a while...

Ply

**NickS** · 10-17-2007, 06:36 PM

Dang, that's weird. I've had my 500w Liberty drawing 500w from the outlet np. I did hear that the 620's were far more problematic than the 500's.

Regardless, I'm glad you're OK and I hope your rig is ok as well. Just an FYI, you weren't pushing the PSU at all with your rig in sig in case you were wondering.

**bypolar** · 10-17-2007, 06:43 PM

just had a EM liberty 620 die myself one month of use. had a 500w die in a customers machine after 3 months a 400W after 6 months.

I purchased my first EM PS about the time they released the NF2 chipset. it ran for 3 years before i sold it on the forums.

I just started buying EM libertys the past 8 months, there track record sofar is terriable this time around.

**Plywood99** · 10-17-2007, 06:45 PM

Yeah was wondering in the back of my mind if the quad core was too much for it, but as I said my ups showed 470 max being pulled from the wall. And I about had a heart attack when I put the new psu in and it did not boot up. But a reset and all was well.

And thanks for the kind words NickS...

Ply

**Plywood99** · 10-17-2007, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by bypolar

just had a EM liberty 620 die myself one month of use. had a 500w die in a customers machine after 3 months a 400W after 6 months.

I purchased my first EM PS about the time they released the NF2 chipset. it ran for 3 years before i sold it on the forums.

I just started buying EM libertys the past 8 months, there track record sofar is terriable this time around.

Ouch! That's a lot of Enermax psu's killing over. Wonder if they had a bad spell of quality control or something...

Ply

**NickS** · 10-17-2007, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by Plywood99

Ouch! That's a lot of Enermax psu's killing over. Wonder if they had a bad spell of quality control or something...

Ply

Possibly. Me and afireinside have been runnin 500 Liberty's for ages.

**Sparky** · 10-18-2007, 02:38 AM

Liberties ain't what they used to be. When they were first released they were OK but Enermax got cheap on us.

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4077

Now this problem here isn't cap related apparently but I've heard of many of these things blowing up. I'm staying well away from them personally.

**Plywood99** · 10-18-2007, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by SparkyJJO

Liberties ain't what they used to be. When they were first released they were OK but Enermax got cheap on us.

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4077

Now this problem here isn't cap related apparently but I've heard of many of these things blowing up. I'm staying well away from them personally.

Nice forum Sparky, I tried to register there but they don't allow free email.

Anyway, here are some pics of the inside and the damaged areas if you want to upload them to that site no problem. After reading that thread I will not purchase another Enermax psu...

Pics one and two show the damaged fet, three shows an overall pic, including the crappy CTC caps Enermax used.

Ply

**cadaveca** · 10-18-2007, 12:15 PM

I had one 620w Liberty fail..was bought when they first came out...PFC module blew, tripping house breaker, had a minor flame-out(might have been dust that cuased the flamage).

Replacement is running Q6600 @ 3ghz, X1900XTX, X1800XL, tv tuner, 6 250GB HDD's, and X-FI in Stacker 830 fully equppied with fans. Been going for quite some itme too, cannot remember exactly how long tho.

**Plywood99** · 10-18-2007, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by cadaveca

I had one 620w Liberty fail..was bought when they first came out...PFC module blew, tripping house breaker, had a minor flame-out(might have been dust that cuased the flamage).

Replacement is running Q6600 @ 3ghz, X1900XTX, X1800XL, tv tuner, 6 250GB HDD's, and X-FI in Stacker 830 fully equppied with fans. Been going for quite some itme too, cannot remember exactly how long tho.

Yeah, they just seem to be hit or miss. Must be some kind of design flaw or something that only shows up under certain circumstances. Just thinking out loud mind you, have no real clue as to why some work great and others just go BOOM...

Ply

**jonnyGURU** · 10-18-2007, 02:14 PM

Interesting. That looks like one of the rectifiers used for PFC in the unit. Bad AC could've killed this unit.

Or is the burn actually coming from the PCB just below the rectifier in the photo?

**Plywood99** · 10-18-2007, 02:33 PM

Don't know if AC is bad or not. According to my ups it runs around 116-120 constant. Have not recorded a single brown out yet.

Hmm, is the rectifier the little platter shaped thing to the right???

Ply

**SP1** · 10-18-2007, 02:49 PM

Are you going to send it back to Enermax?

**jonnyGURU** · 10-18-2007, 02:51 PM

Platter thing to the right? Not sure what that means, but the rectifier is the black square with the two notches in the side and three legs going through the PCB. From the angle of the camera, it looks like the burn is at the base of this rectifier by one of the three legs. Then again, it could be coming from the PCB just under where the rectifier is mounted. Can't really tell from your photos. Maybe you can clarify exactly where that burn is coming from.

I can't think of what would be on the PCB at the base of that rectifier other than a few ceramic caps that wouldn't burn nearly that much.

EDIT: I think I know what you mean by "platter thing." In the second photo, that brown round thing is a ceramic cap. It could be what blew. Still hard to explain.

**cadaveca** · 10-18-2007, 02:57 PM

Personally i think the modular connector design is allowing for dust build-up and the rect. is shorting out. Old liberty's has a lanyard, cord, 4 screws, and cables in box, along with a case badge.

New ones come with little rubber covers for the unused modular connectors.

My PSU ended with permanent short..needed to unplug from wall in order to reset breaker properly. In my case, bad power is possible, but not very likely...nothing else has ever died in that socket, nor has the breaker ever tripped again...only other thing plugged in there is DSL modem, and they are finicky on power provided...

Plywood's rectifier blew, it looks like to me...

**Plywood99** · 10-18-2007, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by cadaveca

Personally i think the modular connector design is allowing for dust build-up and the rect. is shorting out. Old liberty's has a lanyard, cord, 4 screws, and cables in box, along with a case badge.

New ones come with little rubber covers for the unused modular connectors.

My PSU ended with permanent short..needed to unplug from wall in order to reset breaker properly. In my case, bad power is possible, but not very likely...nothing else has ever died in that socket, nor has the breaker ever tripped again...only other thing plugged in there is DSL modem, and they are finicky on power provided...

Plywood's rectifier blew, it looks like to me...

Yup, that is what happened. I thought it was a mosfet or something. One leg is completely burnt through. And I think mine ended in permanent short also, until the fuse vaporized that is. Fuse is just white powder now...

Ply

**Sparky** · 10-18-2007, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by Plywood99

Nice forum Sparky, I tried to register there but they don't allow free email.

Yeah they had boatloads of spam come through. Use your email address your ISP gave you and you should be able to register then. I used my university address myself.

**Plywood99** · 10-18-2007, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by jonnyGURU

Platter thing to the right? Not sure what that means, but the rectifier is the black square with the two notches in the side and three legs going through the PCB. From the angle of the camera, it looks like the burn is at the base of this rectifier by one of the three legs. Then again, it could be coming from the PCB just under where the rectifier is mounted. Can't really tell from your photos. Maybe you can clarify exactly where that burn is coming from.

I can't think of what would be on the PCB at the base of that rectifier other than a few ceramic caps that wouldn't burn nearly that much.

EDIT: I think I know what you mean by "platter thing." In the second photo, that brown round thing is a ceramic cap. It could be what blew. Still hard to explain.

Thanks for clarification Johnny...

Ply

**jonnyGURU** · 10-18-2007, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by cadaveca

...dust build-up and the rect. is shorting out.

Conductive metallic dust?

**Oklahoma Wolf** · 10-18-2007, 03:59 PM

Originally Posted by jonnyGURU

Interesting. That looks like one of the rectifiers used for PFC in the unit.

Looks like a primary switching transistor to me. While it could be a result of bad or inadequate filtering on the primary PFC circuit, my first instinct is bad capacitors - probably somewhere in the primary other than the main filter cap. It does happen to Enermax units, as a friend of mine found out, and I'm not especially fond of those CEC caps Enermax is so bent on using in the cheap models.

Could also be primary transformer saturation or overload/failure of the secondary, or one of the other causes of primary switcher failure too though.

**jonnyGURU** · 10-18-2007, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by Oklahoma Wolf

Looks like a primary switching transistor to me.

I didn't think it was shaped right and I don't a Liberty here to take apart and find out.

**Oklahoma Wolf** · 10-18-2007, 07:47 PM

Depends - some units like those two Corsairs we reviewed use the same MOSFETs for both switchers and PFC transistors

I'm just guessing myself though from the fact it's facing the primary transformer where the switchers usually are. Also, picture #2 makes me think the one next door went out too. In that pic, you can see a similar transistor on the other side of the sink.