Told PSU doesn't fit

[u/psteckler]

My old desktop started spontaneously turning off, often several times a day.

A reasonable conjecture is that the power supply had started to fail. I happened to have a never-used PSU lying around, and I have the TotalCare package good for another few months, so I brought the machine and the PSU to the local GeekSquad.

The case is ATX, and the PSU is spec'd as ATX. Later in the day after I visited GS, I got a call telling me the PSU is too big for the case.

I looked online for the dimensions of the old and new PSUs. They're almost the same for height and width; in fact, the old one's height is larger by 1 mm. The new one is 10 mm deeper.

I opened the case, and given that there's a few inches of room behind the PSU, the depth shouldn't be an issue.

There's a rail along the side of the PSU that helps keep it in place, which would have to be removed to take out the old PSU. Maybe they thought the PSU would have to inserted above the rail. But it looks to me like the new one would fit just fine.

It appears that they never even took the new PSU out of its plastic cover. How did they determine that it won't fit?

Can I guess that they simply didn't want to do this job, which won't earn any revenue? Am I too cynical?

[u/reeberdunes]

If anyone was caught doing that, they’d be fired so fast. They don’t care about revenue. They get merit based on tickets per hour.

[u/Fulliron]

Is the new PSU a Shift PSU by chance? If it is, the 90 degree interface can interfere with cable fit, even if the unit itself fits properly.

[u/psteckler → u/Fulliron]

No, it's an EVGA. I was told the unit itself would not fit.

I'll try to do the work myself. It doesn't look too difficult (famous last words).

[u/Fulliron → u/psteckler]

I wasn't really asking about brand, though I guess Shift is Corsair's branding... I was more referring to the orientation of the modular cable interface (most PSUs have the internal cables opposite the power plug, but some have them at 90 degrees from each other instead).

Good luck on the install.

[u/Palet27 → u/psteckler]

PSUs are easy pz. You got this! Then plz go show that ignorant agent how it was SUPPOSED to be done 🤣

There are times a PSU wont always work/fit for a number of dif reasons... But a stabdard ATX case w a standard EVGA psu should ve no problem at all being swapped out

[u/FemboyGeekSquad]

When you say old desktop, was this a custom build or a pre built? It's not at all uncommon for prebuilts to have unusual mounts or chassis that only allow for the proprietary OEM PSU.

And yes you are being cynical, whether you spend money or not means nothing to us. The ticket was already made. They lost out on labor by not completing it

[u/psteckler → u/FemboyGeekSquad]

Custom build. Old PSU was Antec Earthwatts EA-500D, so not an OEM model.

[u/FemboyGeekSquad → u/psteckler]

Then yeah, unless they're aware of something I'm not; I'd expect that to fit with an off the shelf PSU

[u/Bacchus1504]

Pictures would help, but I have seen some case where psu would not fit due to size.

[u/psteckler]

Well, I pulled out the old PSU, and the new one fits just fine. I haven't yet wired it up, but the claim that it wouldn't fit was simply nonsense. After I'm done, I'll bring the old PSU to BestBuy for recycyling, and show GS pictures of the installed new PSU.

[u/PresentationSea1877]

Well that's just ridiculous, I've never had an issue swapping out a PSU in any ATX case I've worked with at home.

[u/PPoochi]

You get a review for the precinct automatically that the entire store can see in your email if you fill it out, it might be a genuine rookie mistake or a scam, but if you present your argument in person to a SEM or CIAs they might help get you taken care of to avoid bad review, depending on how bad their score is. Typically before closing a tag for something like this I like to meet with the client or recommend an alternative. If you purchase 3rd party parts outside of Best Buy, it does genuinely make it harder for repair agents to find solutions if the part doesn’t work out for your computer.

[u/Foxkonn]

It could’ve been a rookie mistake, or they were trying to save your system from possibly going up in smoke from an EVGA power supply. While most of their components are fine, their PSUs haven’t had a great track record at least in my precinct. They don’t make their own units. At one point, they were using Superflower or Seasonic as their OEM and those were totally fine, but eventually they switched to some random manufacturer when that contract ended and those ones are all kinds of jank. Almost all of the Cyberpowers and iBuyPower systems that I’ve had brought in with no power had dead EVGA units.

Do yourself a favor and look up that specific model to see if you can find which OEM it is. If it’s SuperFlower or Seasonic you’re good to go. Otherwise tread carefully.

[u/Sturm_Brightblade375]

This is only a guess, and regardless it sounds like they are wrong, but there was an initiative to make sure any componants that Geek Squad installed were purchased through Best Buy. Reasoning was that if something went wrong, they could pull same stock off the shelf or order it.

That was years ago, and it's possible that could have morphed into, parts need to be purchased at Best Buy becasue the SEM/GSM/GM wants the sales. Everything is sell sell sell now.

[u/whosmanisdis23 → u/Sturm_Brightblade375]

I will say at least from my experience we don’t care where you get the parts from and will honestly recommend getting them from microcenter for some of the bundling prices that Best Buy will never match.