I recently had a conversation with Antec Europe which went like this:
I recently bought an Antec P150 case from a supplier in the UK. I believe the PSU (NeoHE 430) to be faulty. The motherboard fails to power on, or even beep through the internal speaker, with the Neo HE PSU connected.
With an older Antec PSU (from a ‘Chieftec Dragon’ case), the motherboard powers up and everything works perfectly.
The motherboard I am using is a Gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9. I have been testing with an Athlon 3500+ and one stick (1GB) of Crucial PC3200 RAM.
I could return the case to the supplier but I would prefer to avoid the expense (and heavy lifting) involved in sending it back; also, I have bought components to match the case, and cannot return these as I unpacked them to install in the case.
Would Antec please consider replacing the PSU?
Rik, Have you tried using that power supply on a different motherboard? Have you tried using that power supply on your motherboard with all the devices included? Try setting the Tricool fan on high speed and also try adding more fans.
You wrote:
> Have you tried using that power supply on a different motherboard?
I connected the PSU to a different motherboard, which has an original Athlon running at approximately 950 Mhz. The CPU fan started up and kept spinning, but the board did not POST (no VGA signal) and did not even beep.
I connected another PSU to the board and it worked immediately.
> Have you tried using that power supply on your motherboard with all the devices included?
I connected the hard drive and DVD drive to the PSU. Now the fan spins up and keeps spinning, but the motherboard still refuses to POST. As before, there is not even a beep from the motherboard.
> Try setting the Tricool fan on high speed and also try adding more fans.
This seemed to have no effect.
I borrowed an Antec PSU tester: its green LED lights up, as it should.
So when the PSU is connected to two different motherboards, neither of them will POST, or even cause a beep to the PC speaker. Both of their CPU fans are supplied power. Both of these motherboards work perfectly when connected to other PSUs.
When I swapped the PSU, I noticed that its sticker which says ‘warranty void if removed’ has been split, as if its case has been opened! I am a little concerned that I have been supplied a PSU which not only does not work, but has been interfered with, so if it had failed over a year from now I would have not even been able to have it repaired under warranty.
Would you please let me know whether Antec will consider replacing the PSU without cost to myself, or whether I will have to return the entire case to the supplier for a refund? Returning the entire case will not cost me anything, but, as I mentioned previously, I like the case and would like to avoid having to buy a different model.
Rik, We are aware of the problem with the warranty sticker and we do warranty our customers that has this problem. As for the motherboard that you used to test the power supply, the neohe has a new design that will not work with older motherboards. If you can have all the parts installed and set the tricool fan and add a few more fan in the system then it should boot up fine.
The PSU is not advertised as being unable to function with older motherboards. In fact, the extra 4 pins on the motherboard connector are removable; however I am not concerned that the PSU does not work with the old motherboard I used for testing: I’m concerned that it does not work with the brand new motherboard which I bought at the same time.
I am not prepared to add even more fans to the system simply in order to force the PSU to work. On your website, the case is called the ‘P150 UK Quiet PC Case’. I bought the case (and its PSU) specifically because I wanted a quiet system; adding more fans will increase the noise generated.
I have been searching the web and found that many others are having very similar problems with the same PSU, with other brand new motherboards; it seems that there is indeed a fault with a batch of these PSUs.
For the third time I ask you kindly: would you be please to replace the PSU separately from the case, at no cost to myself, or will you force me to return the case to the supplier (ebuyer UK) for a full refund? The former would save me time and effort, and for this I would be most grateful.
Antec would not replace the PSU for me, so I sent the case back to ebuyer, who agreed it was faulty and gave me a refund. I bought an older Antec case, the SLK1650B, instead - as I knew it didn't have the same type of PSU. This one worked fine and is half the price, but gives out twice the noise and looks pretty nasty in comparison.
I've been avoiding Antec cases since this incident, as I'm not too happy with their support. Unfortunately, they make the best mid-price 'home' cases, so next time I buy one it'll be difficult to choose.