Problems with Tagan TG480-U01 PSUs (not just one PSU)

[halcyon]

I just got my second Tagan 480W PSU that replaced my first one. The first one refused to power up

- Athlon 64
- 2 x 512 Mb RAM (DDR400)
- Radeon 9800SE AIW

The power supply would just turn itself off a second after having been turned on.

It was as if PSUs protection circuit kicked in a stopped PSU from providing power.

Well, I plugged in the 2nd Tagan 480W today.

Guess what? Exactly the same happens.

The above system is easily powered both by AOpen FSP-30060PN(PF) and Seasonic FS-350.

The Tagan boots up fine, if I switch to a lower power AGP card (Rage 128 Pro).

So, what can I say?

Even after reading all reviews I could find, diligently calculating power supply requirements per voltage line and making sure everything is ok, it's not.

I don't know what problem is plaguing Tagans, but the same problems are haunting BeQuiet PSUs (also manufactured by Topower, same as Tagan). There are plenty of posts about these on Finnish boards.

I have contacted Tagan on the issue and hopefully will get an answer from them, but till then... if you have a high power video card (Radeon 9800 Pro, etc), then proceed with caution if considering a Tagan / BeQuiet / Topower PSU.

There is something wrong with their protection circuits. Or some other part.

Regards,
Halcyon

PS EDIT: Be Quiet PSUs have been reported to have _exactly the same problems_ with Radeon 9800 series cards and powering them up. The PSU turns the system off right after being powered up.

[Inexplicable]

I'd blame ATI's reference design on this one. There seem to be a lot of complaints about this problem in conjunction with radeon 9800 cards, and it's not just topower but many other PSUs. It seems that the inrush current to the card is so strong that it triggers the overcurrent protection circuit in many PSUs. High-quality PSUs with good protection circuits are likely to be affected.

People have reported that unplugging the 12V cable from card and hot plugging it after power on gets them over the boot phase.

My 400W BeQuiet seems ok with a radeon 9700pro and a heavily overclocked P4, though.

[edz]

The two TG480-U01 that I tried worked fine on my system:

- amd 2800+
- nf7-s
- crucial 2 x 256 3200
- samsung sp1604n
- radeon 9800 np (sapphire)
- ...

I returned both of them though because they made annoying crackling sounds =/


(are you the UK - if so where did you purchase yours from?)

[apocalypse80]

I got mine today and it had no problem powering a highly overclocked AthlonXP with a 9800pro.
However it's probably going back , since it makes an strange high-pitched sound that is driving me crazy...

It seems Tagan's QC has a lot of room for improvement.

[xarope]

guess I've been lucky, I was using a verudium 470 with my K8T Neo w/Athlon3200+ and an ATI 9800 Pro. This setup would shutdown at times for no reason - e.g. it would either refuse to startup at all, at which point I had to unplug, wait and then replug back into AC, or it would shutdown during web surfing, or 20 mins into a game etc.

so I replaced the verudium with a Tagan 480 U01, so far so good, it's been two weeks and I haven't had any such shutdown, no annoying noise although it is a bit noisier than my silenx 400 (which powered my Asus A7N8X w/XP2500 until I swapped it for the verudium as it was getting way too hot with the silenx 400). My K8T now runs about 40'C idle (with cool & quiet) and about 45-50'C when playing games, versus the verudium which probably was only 1-2'C cooler (i.e. 39'C idle, 44-49'C w/games, as reported by corecell).

FYI the verudium has two fans, one which exhausts CPU heat (the 2500+ tends to run hotter, with the silenx it was 55'C, now with new AS5 and the verudium it's about 50'C, as reported by AIDA). But I tell you what, the verudium sounds like a freight train after the peace and quiet of the silenx and the tagan! I'm waiting for the new socket939s to come out, then I'll give my 2500+ to my sister, and use the silenx in the new MB!