Dissection: Part 1
Disclaimer: Power supplies can have dangerous voltages inside them even after being unplugged, DO NOT OPEN POWER SUPPLIES. It’s just not a good idea. Opening a power supply and poking around inside could very well kill you. Don’t try this at home. Don’t try this at work. Just don’t do it.
Popping the cover off reveals that fan as a Globe Fan ball bearing Fan. Not a fan I usually associate with this sort of noise.
The unit itself looks thus:
Very definitely Superflower, no doubt there. Stepping through it starting at the receptacle (which doesn’t have transient filter bits on it for a change) we quickly arrive at the mains AC cables where they hit the PCB. The neutral wire (black) has a medium-serious QC/soldering defect.
Thankfully that trace exists on both sides of the PCB and only the top trace is broken/torn. What it looks like is like the PCB and case got dropped while that wire was inserted but not soldered, the metal connector bit has some barbs on it and I think one of the barbs pull the trace off. The bottom side trace is obviously large enough to keep the unit going (I test first and don’t open the unit until I’m done testing), but this is not good at all. Unfortunately we’re already on the second unit due to the modular connector related QC issue, so I have to score on this.
I’m very surprised to see it from Superflower and PC Power and Cooling, my previous experiences have all shown excellent QC. Everybody has their bad days though I guess.
Moving on to the transient filter:
That’s the entire transient filter there, a fuse, two inductors, three X caps and four Y caps. No TVS Diode or MOV as Superflower doesn’t believe in them. Other than that omission it’s a solid filter.
Interestingly the PCB is marked for a MOV: No MOV though. Oh well.
