Straight door for your p180.

I have an Antec P150 and an Asus A8N SLI Deluxe, and I'm having the compatibility problems. I'm trying to get the replacement Neo HE that has the fix. I want to try updating the BIOS too, but I'm not sure how I can because:

A) I don't have a floppy drive
B) It crashes within a few seconds so there wouldn't be time to update anyway

Hope somebody can help,
David

Well, that will be hard without a spare PSU. I wouldn't want to try updating the BIOS with a faulty Neo HE OTOH if you have a spare, the windows utility Asus has for BIOS updating works fine, so you won't need a floppy drive.

I don't have a spare PSU, as this is the first computer I've built. Also, I don't have Windows or anything else on there, since it always crashes before I can get anywhere.

You can get cheap ATX PSU's on ebay or elsewhere for less than £10 ($20). I think the A8N SLI deluxe has a 24-pin ATX connector, but I think 20-pin PSU's also work in a 24-pin connector? Failing that you can always buy a Seasonic which doesn't have compatibility problems with Asus boards.

PS. Like your comic by the way.

good idea. hehe. I got 3 tricool 120mm fans + some of my shipping costs back in our deal.

Well, that part about the bios having to be the latest is partly BS, because I installed my a8n sli premium not too long ago on the 3rd NEO unit (actually the fixed model) and the board booted every time I've used it. the kicker? It has the original bios which was like 6 months old, nowhere NEAR 09.

heh-heh.

Get on the line with Antec and request a swap and PRAY, HARD.

Unless you have a spare PSU you are SOL until you get either: A) A fixed NEO in your box, B) Buy a Seasonic, Fortron or something else suitable.

hmmm, i love the tricool switches, unfortunately they arent quiet enough for me. i guess Ill just shoot for the door/front

I've already tried sent them an email and I'm trying to get the fixed Neo, but from what I've heard, getting Antec to give me a new one isn't exactly easy-as-pie.

Nope, it will take a while... and the first one you get might not even be fixed I'd definitively buy a cheap noname PSU to tide you over, if you are planning on waiting for the Neo HE (otherwise you could just buy another one, but the Neo HE is really nice when it works).

I bought a "400W" (12V: 16A) PSU for $25 or something, ran my rig 100% stable for a couple of months while I was waiting on Antec.

'Fraid of that. Well then, any specific recomendations for a cheapy PSU?

I have:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Asus A8N SLI Deluxe
Corsair DDR400 1GB
XFX Geforce 6600GT 128MB PCI-E
Hitachi Deskstar 7K250, SATA 3G, 80GB

Thanks again for all the help everybody.

Antec support said:


I wonder if there have been no issues with this motherboard, or if it's simply the case that hardly anyone has tried the combination of GA-K8N and NeoHE.

I'm going to return my entire P150 case to where I bought it and get a different one: something made by a company other than Antec. I'm also going to stop recommending Antec; in fact I'll be recommending that people stay away from Antec, at least until they've had a couple of years without problems such as this.

I won't say the above to Antec support, because in such a context it would sound like a lame threat, when it's simply the truth. DOA hardware is slightly annoying, but when support staff suggest idiotic solutions, tell you there is no problem, and refuse to answer your questions, it becomes time to think about using completely different kit.

Well, I have some semi-bad news. When I moved everything over to the P150, it didn't start up- green power led on the board just blinked on for an instant. Oddly enough, I had forgotten to plug in a couple fans (via an Aspire fan controller), and after plugging them in, it worked fine. So there's definitely some quirks with this PS/MB combo. I was planning on 7v'ing the tri-cool fan (loudest thing in there by far, even on low), but now I'm not so sure.

Anyone know of a reason for this odd behavior? My best guess is it requires a certain amount of load on each 12v rail- I remember seeing a post somewhere where Antec had suggested adding fans and such to get the NeoHE to work.

oh yea, they are the blingy blue led too. Had my choice of colors. hehe

This thread on Anandtech may help you:

Do I really need a 24-pin PSU?

It would seem that any 20-pin ATX PSU will be adequate, as long as it has sufficient amperage on the 12V rail.

Hey, how many case fans are you running? I ask because our systems are almost identical..

MB: Abit NF7-S 2.0
CPU XP-Mobile 2500+ @ 2200
RAM: 2x 512Mb Kingmax Hardcore
HDD: 120GB Maxtor PATA & Maxtor 160GB PATA
ODD: NEC DVD-RW 3500A + Liteon Combo LTC48161H
Video: Leadtek Winfast A400TDH 6800
Sound: Onboard Soundstorm
Other: Floppy, USB 2.0 PCI Card

I think other than the additional optical drive and the USB PCI card I have, our system is pretty similar. So the only variable might be how many fans I should add?

After you hooked up the fans, there were no problems though right? Rock solid for gaming and everyday use?

Is it possible that Antec is simply retrofitting the returned NeoHE's by adding a load/resistor to one or more of the 12v rails? If adding a fan is all that it takes to get a system working, why do anything more. That would explain the broken seals. Quite a mystery indeed. - FG

Old case: 4 80mm. Had everything hooked up from the get-go, worked fine.
P150: 2 x Nexus 92mm, 1 x Antec TriCool on low. Didn't work with just the TriCool plugged in.

Ran Prime95 for a few hours, played CS for a couple hours. Seems stable.



Well, it worked for my board, but I doubt that's the only quirk the NeoHE has. Most of the problems I've read about involve the thing shutting down after anything from 15 seconds to a couple hours. Mine barely even flicked on until I plugged in the fan controller.

I'll probably e-mail Antec tonight or tomorrow to see what they have to say.

Edit: Silenator had the same kind of problem: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?p=237404

Well, I can report now that it wasn't that simple. After a couple of weeks the new build started to malfunction, it that it would fail to start: press power button, nothing happens. I managed to get it to start once by unplugging it from the mains, then plugging it in again, but the next time it never started.

I took out the NeoHE and put in an older Antec Truepower 380, and everything is running fine again after more than a week with the Truepower.

While I can't completely rule out other explanations, it really does look as if my NeoHE is a hopeless case. I'll have to have another go at getting an RMA from the retailer (overclockers.co.uk) or from Antec.

In the NF7 manual (section 2-4) there is a note that 20Amps on the +5v is recommended; the NeoHE 430 only provides 14A on 5v line. This could be a factor?

Thanks to this forum, last month I chickened out of getting the P150 for my NF7-S and settled for the SLK3000B & a Zalman ZM460.
Cheers,
Dennis

well, I just got my shiny new NeoHE 500 as a replacement for my 430.

the warranty seal is allready open. SN is 0511, which are supposed to work (unlike my old 0509 or 08, i cant remember)

unfortunately i have no way of testing it as my A8N-Premium is on its way to newegg to be replaced also

EDIT: After further investigation (thanks for not mentioning any of these URLs in any of your posts, guys ), I managed to find the following semi-consolidated pieces of information:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article273-page5.html#ps2
http://www.antec.com/us/support_roductInfo_FAQ.php?Qnumber=1&FAQno=22

NeoHE models affected appear to be **ALL** models.

Antec's official statement is to try a BIOS upgrade (give me a break...), and if that doesn't work, contact their Technical Support folk and specifically mention the "Asus motherboard problem".

Antec's Support contact information is here: http://www.antec.com/us/supportRMA.html

Antec has stated that "in the future" there will be some way to discern the difference between a fixed PSU and a broken one, using some sort-of sticker or visual indicator. I have seen absolutely no evidence of that in this thread. I would love Antec to come forth and state what that indicator is, so that end-users will KNOW when they open the box whether or not their PSU suffers from this engineering flaw or not.

I hope this post of mine helps new visitors in their quest for a solution to this absolutely incredible problem. It's funny to think about, really... we're in the 21st century, yet our computing problems are getting WORSE rather than BETTER. Antec, next time I recommend you do more thorough QA.

Two points:

1) This is not the first time a new Antec PSU has had major teething troubles (see Antec Phantom review).

2) Antec can only sell bad products if people buy them. If you buy a NeoHE, knowing full well that there have been incompatibility problems between your motherboard and the PSU, you cannot totally exonerate yourself from blame.

I’ve been reading a lot here, and on other forums about Antec Neo HE series PSU compatibility issues with Asus boards. As some have observed, these “compatibilityâ€

why add noisy fans? why not add a simple extra load with a resistor? or multiple resistors if more neohe powerlines need extra load? is there a special reason to use fans?

That was what ASUS recommended after we started working with them. Initial testing of that (updating the BIOS) seemed to indicate that problem solved. However after we started telling people that we still had customers with issues which is why we had to revise the NeoHE.

I still find it difficult to believe how an update in the BIOS on the mobo will make a power supply work!
A PSU is to provide power to the various voltage rails. If changing the BIOS can make it work, it is still something to do with the current loading on the voltage rails - what else can it be???

The Neo HE is a good power supply, I do not understand why Antec plays and hide (the problem) this way. They can simply admit:
-- the PSU will mistrigger the protective circuit if the (12V1 ??) is underloaded, or overloaded??
-- the 3.3V or 5V output may not be high enough for certain mobo/CPU.

This will clear the mistery and many of us who like the PSU will be able to determine if the problem affect us or not.
If it is an underload & protective circuit problem, many of us can put in the extra fans or resistive loads to make them work and avoid the RMAs.

Why won't Antec tell us what the problem is and the way they fix it (unless they still do not know how to fix the problem)!!

BTW: I have a Neo HE430 and have no problem with my mobo. It is a good PSU! I am just very annoyed at the way Antec handle the problem.

Well, Antec, it's time to cough up a new NeoHE for me. I tested my power supply on my friend's Athlon 64/ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe rig, plugging it into everything the other power supply (a ghetto Raidmax unit) was plugged into. It did the same thing - fans spun up for a second, and then everything shut off.

This power supply is not meeting the ATX12V 2.2 specification, and it IS Antec's fault. If the problem were the ASUS board, then plenty of other power supplies that were ATX12V 2.2 compliant would also be having problems. Antec, you'll be hearing from me by telephone on Monday. I hope that my replacement power supply will be tested to verify that it works before it is sent to me.

Thos power supply is amazing: totally silent fan, 3x12v rails, and modualar cabling. With nothing but this psu, a gfx and a cpu/mobo in a case, the gfx is the only thing u can hear, TOTALLY SILENT