Topton Mini PC stopped working after 6 months (occasionally works after draining capacitors)

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fr0zt

New Member
Apr 14, 2023
2
0
1
Hello,

I purchased this Topton mini pc 6 months ago off aliexpress and it suddenly stopped functioning.

Details:
  • Purchased April 20, 2023
  • Motherboard model: GF-1338NP-12
  • RAM: Crucial Vengeance 2x16GB
The PC was running fine for 6 months. Then one day I saw it powered off. I tried the following:
  1. I tried powering it on. No lights, no post
  2. I removed m.2 drive and ram. Connected to power. Light turned on and one long, 3 short beeps (meaning no memory). This reproduces consistently
  3. I tried adding both memory modules. Connected to power. Nothing
  4. I switched to one memory module. Nothing
  5. I tried "draining the capacitors" by long-pressing the power button while disconnected from power. This caused it to very occasionally succeed (maybe 1/20 times, but only ever with one memory module)
  6. I moved the AUTO PWR ON jumper from the default ON to OFF. This increased the success rate slightly. For a while I could get it to frequently boot with one memory module (either module in either slot), and only after also draining the capacitors, but this is no longer replicable.
  7. I reset bios settings. I've removed CMOS battery for 10 minutes and reinstalled. No change.
Does anyone know what might be the issue? Does Topton / aliexpress have any kind of warranty?
 

Bryn

New Member
Sep 10, 2024
1
0
1
Hi,

Did you ever get find a fix for this?

Mine has just stopped turning on. I havnt got the same device but similar. It was working, I held the power button down as it crashed, then nothing from the device at all.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

Thanks
 

misterben

New Member
Sep 10, 2024
3
0
1
Hi guys !

definitely feel your pain ..
mine just stopped working last week, exactly 1 day before the 1 year mark since order date on aliexpress.
Device : topton n100 4x2.5g 16gb 512gb

- tried another power adapter at a shop : nothing
- removed cmos battery for a while : nothing
- pressed power button for a few seconds : nothing

as soon as I plug the power cable, there is a buzzing sound coming from the power adapter (and I don’t think that happened before when it was working fine).

Pressing on/off button multiple times doesn’t do anything. it just doesn’t turn on anymore.

i told the seller it’s within warranty (since it was before the 1 year mark - by the way, does topton offer 1y or “3y warranty“ as displayed on their official website ?)
seller replied I have to send back to china, and only for repair, not a replacement.

I’m considering shipping it without the ssd (so I could plug it back in next unit and everything would be back there ?)

Do you guys have any recommendation or any thoughts about that ?
Or anything that could be done to make it work again ?

in meantime, I put back the ISP router … not great. I need to find a solution or replacement.

thanks in advance !
 

slybunda

Active Member
Jan 30, 2023
157
88
28
buzzing from power adapter is not good. can you get multimeter onto the power adapters jack and check the voltage its giving out. if its massive out of spec then may have more of an idea on what could be broken on the mobo.
 

misterben

New Member
Sep 10, 2024
3
0
1
I measured yesterday and it was 12v at the output of the DC charger.

Actually the sound is more like a ticking noise (like a swatch) at a frequency of 5-6 Hz, as soon as I plug it to the mini pc.

Does this help ?
Very hard to find results on google, but seems like some kind of protection on dc charger side due to an issue on the device it is plugged to ? A short circuit somewhere on it ?
 

RageBone

Active Member
Jul 11, 2017
680
175
43
Actually the sound is more like a ticking noise (like a swatch) at a frequency of 5-6 Hz, as soon as I plug it to the mini pc.

Does this help ?
Very hard to find results on google, but seems like some kind of protection on dc charger side due to an issue on the device it is plugged to ? A short circuit somewhere on it ?

Reads like the PSU is tripping OCP.
Likely a short on the board.
You can confirm this by measuring the resistance on the DCin pin of the power jack to GND.
 

misterben

New Member
Sep 10, 2024
3
0
1
@RageBone :
3.28 M ohms between DCin pin and ground (Everything unplugged) and 14 M ohms when plugged.

@slybunda :
0.6v when plugged to psu

Really appreciate your quick replies on that to help identify the issue. If anything else you think of, happy to try.

I don’t think this can be solved easily on my side, first for finding the faulty component and then even replacing it. Kinda disappointed that it happened randomly last week.

Shipping it back to China won’t cost me too much so I give myself a few days before doing it. And hopefully the aliexpress seller will follow up with repair (as it seems warranty return would get a repair instead of direct replacement).
 

slybunda

Active Member
Jan 30, 2023
157
88
28
so voltage is 12v unloaded but when plugged into the computer the power adapters voltage drops to 0.6v?

that means either a short on the mobo or the psu is dead.
 

alasia

New Member
Mar 18, 2023
3
0
1
Hello,

I purchased this Topton mini pc 6 months ago off aliexpress and it suddenly stopped functioning.

Details:
  • Purchased April 20, 2023
  • Motherboard model: GF-1338NP-12
  • RAM: Crucial Vengeance 2x16GB
The PC was running fine for 6 months. Then one day I saw it powered off. I tried the following:
  1. I tried powering it on. No lights, no post
  2. I removed m.2 drive and ram. Connected to power. Light turned on and one long, 3 short beeps (meaning no memory). This reproduces consistently
  3. I tried adding both memory modules. Connected to power. Nothing
  4. I switched to one memory module. Nothing
  5. I tried "draining the capacitors" by long-pressing the power button while disconnected from power. This caused it to very occasionally succeed (maybe 1/20 times, but only ever with one memory module)
  6. I moved the AUTO PWR ON jumper from the default ON to OFF. This increased the success rate slightly. For a while I could get it to frequently boot with one memory module (either module in either slot), and only after also draining the capacitors, but this is no longer replicable.
  7. I reset bios settings. I've removed CMOS battery for 10 minutes and reinstalled. No change.
Does anyone know what might be the issue? Does Topton / aliexpress have any kind of warranty?
I have the same thing... damn. Too bad that there is no fix to this.
 

KevinR

Member
Jul 3, 2024
59
21
8
A thought just struck me. If people are using these devices as routers or nas and so they are on 24/7 we may be seeing the same thing that kills a lot of domestic adsl routers. That is *electrolytic capacitor lifespan*.

You may all recall a rash of pc motherboards that got built with cheap bodged capacitors - maybe 10 years ago? - those aged really fast even if they weren't on 24/7. Like months.

However in the router case the problem has been the 24/7 on time. If you do the math then a 5000 hour lifespan is only 208 days. I certainly went through some years where routers would just die after a year or three. Now it seems if the caps are kept cooler they can last longer, and hotter less time. In real life that also depends on what temperature they're rated at. Quality expensive ones might be 10000 hours at 105C, and so much longer as lower temps. Cheap economy ones might be a lot shorter lived. And we know some parts of these MiniPCs run quite warm.

It would be worth looking at the bigger caps on the failed board to see if there is any evidence of failure. If you Google "failed electrolytic capacitors" there are loads of videos showing what to look for.

Edit: in fact I just found an old thread (I wrote) about this in 2010. Even quality panasonic caps could be rated as low as 1000 hrs @ 105C (eg FC 100mF). That's 41 days. Now you typically get twice the life for every 10c cooler. So at 65C those would be rated to last 11 months, still not that long. Cheaper Panasonic were rated at 85c so would need 45C for 11 months. Cheaper caps could be worse than that in real life and need lower temps to survive. Back then even name brand routers were using much cheaper caps. What do we think CWWK and BKHD are using....?
 
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alasia

New Member
Mar 18, 2023
3
0
1
A thought just struck me. If people are using these devices as routers or nas and so they are on 24/7 we may be seeing the same thing that kills a lot of domestic adsl routers. That is *electrolytic capacitor lifespan*.

You may all recall a rash of pc motherboards that got built with cheap bodged capacitors - maybe 10 years ago? - those aged really fast even if they weren't on 24/7. Like months.

However in the router case the problem has been the 24/7 on time. If you do the math then a 5000 hour lifespan is only 208 days. I certainly went through some years where routers would just die after a year or three. Now it seems if the caps are kept cooler they can last longer, and hotter less time. In real life that also depends on what temperature they're rated at. Quality expensive ones might be 10000 hours at 105C, and so much longer as lower temps. Cheap economy ones might be a lot shorter lived. And we know some parts of these MiniPCs run quite warm.

It would be worth looking at the bigger caps on the failed board to see if there is any evidence of failure. If you Google "failed electrolytic capacitors" there are loads of videos showing what to look for.

Edit: in fact I just found an old thread (I wrote) about this in 2010. Even quality panasonic caps could be rated as low as 1000 hrs @ 105C (eg FC 100mF). That's 41 days. Now you typically get twice the life for every 10c cooler. So at 65C those would be rated to last 11 months, still not that long. Cheaper Panasonic were rated at 85c so would need 45C for 11 months. Cheaper caps could be worse than that in real life and need lower temps to survive. Back then even name brand routers were using much cheaper caps. What do we think CWWK and BKHD are using....?
That would probably be my last resort. I'm in contact with the seller, I'm in the comfortable position in be a EU consumer with 2 years warranty. And yes, that also counts on aliexpress: https://sale.aliexpress.com/__mobile/QnoLFBVfqY.htm?spm=a2g01.11914174.d596f98.1.515d7c14TsAE0I
I bought some new ram to see if it fixes it (doubt it).

Let's see how this plays out :)
 

blunden

Active Member
Nov 29, 2019
729
237
43
A thought just struck me. If people are using these devices as routers or nas and so they are on 24/7 we may be seeing the same thing that kills a lot of domestic adsl routers. That is *electrolytic capacitor lifespan*.

You may all recall a rash of pc motherboards that got built with cheap bodged capacitors - maybe 10 years ago? - those aged really fast even if they weren't on 24/7. Like months.

However in the router case the problem has been the 24/7 on time. If you do the math then a 5000 hour lifespan is only 208 days. I certainly went through some years where routers would just die after a year or three. Now it seems if the caps are kept cooler they can last longer, and hotter less time. In real life that also depends on what temperature they're rated at. Quality expensive ones might be 10000 hours at 105C, and so much longer as lower temps. Cheap economy ones might be a lot shorter lived. And we know some parts of these MiniPCs run quite warm.
It's possible, yes. However, these are sold for use cases where they are intended to run 24/7 so using such cheap components that are likely to cause premature failure doesn't make financial sense if the company hopes to survive more than a year or two.

If you are talking about the electrolytic capacitor death of the early 2000s, that was supposedly caused by failed industrial espionage. It is not normal.
 

KevinR

Member
Jul 3, 2024
59
21
8
I looked at some board images today, the mini pcs don't appear to have any classic electrolytics, though I think some modern caps turn up in surface mount formats. The nas motherboards have quite a few shiny metal barrels.

There are two examples of the poor capacitor life. 1) As you say the "fail in days" fake caps that were like an electronics pandemic. 2) a general problem with very low quality caps as discussed on the BadCaps.net website. All through the 2000s, 2010, and still the poor brands (and there were many), rarely met their specified life even under good conditions. And were happily used in branded equipment.

My point also was that even the highest quality have a guaranteed life that relies on the "cooler temps" formula to get them into 24/7 territory. So Panasonics best could be 43 days at 105c. Only if you kept them below 65c did even those get into multi year territory.

If we assume the Chinese brands are buying cheaper components then anything is possible. And if it's not electrolytics then perhaps it's dodgy tantalum or ceramics. Or poor soldering. I was especially struck that we'd heard of multiple mini pcs failing around the one year mark which was a sour spot for domestic routers.
 

blunden

Active Member
Nov 29, 2019
729
237
43
If we assume the Chinese brands are buying cheaper components then anything is possible. And if it's not electrolytics then perhaps it's dodgy tantalum or ceramics. Or poor soldering. I was especially struck that we'd heard of multiple mini pcs failing around the one year mark which was a sour spot for domestic routers.
We shouldn't necessarily assume these brands are buying cheaper components. Although the brands aren't well known, the PCs are made by ODM and OEM manufacturers producing models for other brands.

Depending on how many units they've sold, a handful of failing units is either perfectly normal or potentially problematic. I think you might be reading too much into it. :)
 

RageBone

Active Member
Jul 11, 2017
680
175
43
And until someone with fitting skills looks at the failed ones, no purpose in speculation.

If you have a broken one in Germany or the EU in general, i can hazard a look.
 
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bugacha

Active Member
Sep 21, 2024
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My Topton i5-1240U stopped power on after about 1-1.2 years of use. It has been inactive (powered off) for about 1 month and now it doesn't turn on. I already tried different power adapter, no luck.
 
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Phence

New Member
May 16, 2024
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We shouldn't necessarily assume these brands are buying cheaper components. Although the brands aren't well known, the PCs are made by ODM and OEM manufacturers producing models for other brands.

Depending on how many units they've sold, a handful of failing units is either perfectly normal or potentially problematic. I think you might be reading too much into it. :)
Chinese brands have lower quality control and less time in firmware support. Which is why I steer clear of them, but they are tempting as they have some very unique designs and price often.