Hardware Insights Forum

I have a couple questions I have an Enermax PSU here that has 100% Samxon GF caps (minus the primaries) and it will not power up at all. I know Samxon GF series are horrible, but are they very prone to dying without bulging?

Also, I have another PSU with Samxon GD (I think) caps, are those a bad series as well?

Samxon GD is bad. GD is god damn.
Samxon GF is bad. GF=girlfriends. which are troublesome.

That's how I remember the two bad series.
But Enermax has used PCE-Tur(d) caps for a long time now without issues. It is probably dysfunctional elsewhere.

Pentium wrote:I have a couple questions I have an Enermax PSU here that has 100% Samxon GF caps (minus the primaries) and it will not power up at all. I know Samxon GF series are horrible, but are they very prone to dying without bulging?

Not that I'm aware of, but any cap can potentially fail that way. It's just more common with Teapo and OST than it is with others. If you have a cap tester you can test them out for yourself. I'm assuming that this is a CWT built model. If so, then a cold joint somewhere is also a possibility. CWT aren't exactly known for good soldering.

Pentium wrote:Also, I have another PSU with Samxon GD (I think) caps, are those a bad series as well?

shovenose wrote:Samxon GD is bad.

Wrong. Samxon GD series = Samxon GOOD series. That said, however, they are similar in terms of specs to Rubycon MBZ, Panny FJ and Sanyo WG, so it's unusual to see them used in power supplies.

The other bad samxon series is the Get Lost series

I haven't checked the soldering side yet, I will definitely check that out. I have a cap tester, just feeling a little lazy I guess I will have to double check the series of Samxon that is in the other PSU, they're green just like GF

They probably are GF then. The GD series are usually black with gold printing.

They are indeed GF. Just checked, the print is a little blurry so I couldn't tell for sure at quick glance. Definitely going to replace those damn things... It's a decent Huntkey unit

I have also noticed, lots of Yate Loon fans seem to bulge where the bearing cover is....even seen some oil leak out the seams. Kinda worries me since I've seen it on three of them in a row...

And some of these PSU's have those nasty HEC primary caps. Is it just me or are those some of the least reliable caps even for the primaries?

I hardly ever come across them, but I have been lead to believe that it stands for Horrible Electrolytic Capacitor

Yate loon fans are usually not too bad, but I have occasionally seen the bulge in the sticker around the bearing plug. Just make sure the plug is in nice and tight and it should be fine.

They are horrible indeed Thanks for replying to all my questions....yeah they seem to spin very well, just concerning when they look like that

Determined that the fuse was bad. Replaced it with the same rating (6.3A 250V) and it blew again as soon as I plugged it in. Should I check the entire primary first? It's an Enermax Tomahawk 500W: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/925