Question Seasonic coil whine - warranty even worth it?

Jul 12, 2020
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I have a Seasonic SS-400FL. It always had the coil whine. Now I got rid of my last HDD and the PSU is the loudest component. The PSU works fine from an electrical point.
So I decided to request an RMA (warranty should be till 2023). the unit was purchased in 2016
But the way their RMA works is that I have to pay for shipping it back and will be out of a PSU (and out of one of my PCs) for the time. I temporarily "stole" a PSU from a media PC. It isn't clear if the RMA proces will be 2 weeks, 2 months, or what. Especially with the COVID shortage of PSUs. I almost think I have to buy a new PSU before sending this. There is also the danger, I send it in at my cost, and they determine it is not a warranty case since it works (even at more than the advertised 0 dB).

some questions to someone who may have experience with Seasonic warranty:
  • Do they typically warranty coil whining? Especially on a 4 year old unit.
  • what is a typical turnaround time? (I'm in the US)

I wish I would have returned it when it was new, but with two 7200 rpm HDD back then the PSU noise was there, but not the significant noise. But here we are....
I did what they recommend for BIOS update and changed settings (my board didn't have settings for what they said). No avail and I think that is a lame excuse anyway since a much cheaper OCZ PSU I have doesn't create coil noise on the same mobo. I also have a 300w Seasonic OEM PSU with no coil whine, so that unit really is faulty IMHO.

If we conclude they might not honor warranty, I rather put that shipping cost towards a new PSU. I can use that fanless PSU in a Media PC where the noise doesn't matter due to watching stuff when the PC is on. right now isn't a great time for buying PSUs....
 
They should rma it. When I did an rma with them, you had to give an explanation, so explain well enough and I doubt you'll have issues.
It took about two weeks to get a replacement unit back, you might want to avoid shipping with usps at this present time if you want a replacement in a timely manner.

I recall coil whine issues on the x series units, so if you get a replacement, I wouldn't be too surprised if it also had coil wine.



I rma'd 4 times on a s12II 620, which is a very different psu then yours(random shutdowns with a powered gpu), each replacement had the same issue, so after paying for shipping 4 times I gave up(sometimes the rma was under 2 weeks). I still have the psu, with a slot powered gpu. That's my personal experience, but if I were to have another seasonic psu that was faulty, I'd still rma it, but only 2 times instead of 4, lol.
 

Zerk2012

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Make a video of the sound and include that on the Email it helps for them to speed it up.

Never had to warranty a Seasonic product but I have a MSI board and they let me pay for the new board with a CC so they shipped the new one to me as I was shipping the bad one back, when they approved the warranty after receiving the board they credited the money back to my CC might see if they offer something like that. Total time was like 5 days but that was before the current problems.
 
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Jul 12, 2020
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I guess I learned how much the Seasonic warranty is worth.... I had requested RMA last Friday before I my OP. I still haven't received a reply. Luckily this PSU works and this isn't my only PC down.

I will make some effort looking for a new PSU. Unfortunately the good ones (yes, i read the PSU 101 and recommended list) in the ~400W range aren't really available. I also want to take into account how good RMA actually works.
 
Jul 12, 2020
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Some good news. On another forum I had commented regarding this and a Seasonic rep contacted me there. They said to re-apply for the RMA. This time they actually approved my RMA and are sending me a new PSU. Well, I had to pay $75 deposit and hope to get this back once they receive the old unit. Tracking indicates it arrives next week, and then I will see how well the complete procedure works.
 
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Jul 12, 2020
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To bring this to an end, the final update.
I received the new PSU, and NO COIL WHINING!

It took me some time to ship the old PSU back. but a day after Seasonic received it, they refunded me my money. I lost a few $ in that process since that went through Seasonic in Europe and turned into euros, and now the Euro seems to be worth a bit less.

So you end up with the shipping cost, and some currency exchange losses.

So once they actually accept the RMA, they are quick. My only suggestion for improvement would b e to not let the customer deal with return shipping. I'm sure they get a huge UPS/FedEx discount and could include a return label with the new PSU.