luckybob wrote:

The motherboard might need a recap itself.

The newer power supplies might just be 'too good'.

haha good point!

It's been a couple decades since my last electronics class but I'll have to see if I can dig up some interwebs info on how to check for bad caps. It is a little interesting that with the current hodge-podge setup it doesn't freeze until everything is under a bit of load though.

Here's the inside of the VPower 400w unit after spraying with compressed air. It was pretty nasty. Caps don't appear to be bulging or leaking anywhere that I can see at least.

I'm thinking to swap out the stock fan with one from one of these 2 new-old-stock Thermaltake Volcano 9 cpu coolers since I'm using Noctua fans on them, and the Thermaltake fan has an auto thermistor-controlled mechanism that might help the PSU be quieter.

The 600w vintage Enermax unit I bought will be here tomorrow so I'll check its caps before trying it out on the Tyan MB but I would still like to get things working with the Corsair HX1200 as based on my current understanding I don't see a logical reason for it not to POST.

OOF

Without going into detail, that PSU is TRASH.

It maybe working right now, but those anemic parts mean that is probably a 200W power supply, with a 400W label.

luckybob wrote:

OOF

Without going into detail, that PSU is TRASH.

It maybe working right now, but those anemic parts mean that is probably a 200W power supply, with a 400W label.

haha yeah doesn't surprise me.

I'm still confused how the Corsair HX1200 is not booting the Tyan dual CPU board, while this is though.

On a funny note, I didn't have any spare normal 80mm case fans laying around, but I have 2 Thermaltake Volcano 9 coolers in box, so I used one of those fans to replace the stock PSU fan in this unit. Using the thermo sensor included and turning the fan speed knob all the way down I had incorrectly assumed that this would be quieter than the worn-out stock sleeve bearing fan.

I was wrong. SO wrong. It sounds like a jet engine now (very much like a server PSU if you've ever been in a data center) which I suppose has the benefit of keeping the weak internals very cold.

Kind of makes one wonder how in the world Thermaltake ever marketed that fan as 'smart and silent', given the slowest it wants to run seems to be in the trillions of RPM.

************* EDIT**********

So funny thing... the Enermax 600w unit came in and just out of curiosity I hooked it up to this Tyan board to see if it would POST. Nope. Same behavior as the new Corsair unit - fans, drives, etc power on and stay on but no POST at all.

With an old PSU is that indicative of bad caps? I am really stumped now if the Enermax unit is fine but also won't POST this board, while the VPower 400w unit will.

Here's the inside of the Enermax 600w PSU, as I'm going to recap it and stick it into a modular case (debating between an EVGA 450w unit I have or the Corsair HX1200 since that has plenty of space).

I don't see any leaky caps but I was able to eventually get it to POST on the Tyan board with only the video card and RAM installed... but it either froze or rebooted as soon as Windows began loading.