Dead power supplies
GordonMcComb
Posts: 3,366
Everyone who woke up to a dead power supply on their computer, raise your hand.
(hand raised)
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No storm last night, so it was just one of those things. Fortunately I had an old frankenbox that I've been taking other parts from, so I already had the replacement.
As far as actually digging deep into a dead SMPS to locate a faulty component, no, I've never done that. I figured that everything in there is in some way dependant on the other stuff in there, so when a particular part goes Tango Uniform, other parts join in on the fun.
I got it second-hand, and it looked to be pretty-well used, so it's survived so far! (knocking on wood yet again). I might take your suggestion and get a spare PS now, though I'm also in the market for a new machine with more modern architecture (PCIe 3.x, for example). Currently I don't have anything extra running in it -- just a single Xeon, and the nVidia graphics card is original (and quite underwhelming).
Most common problem with switching supplies is the filter capacitors. The high current pulses will eventually cook even the best low esr capacitors eventually. Look for swelling or signs of overheating. When switchers were several hundreds of dollars I would replace all the front end electrolytics and that would get them working. With a $35.00 PC switcher the caps cost more than the supply so it's a new one.
-Phil
I'm with you there, Kwinn, like a lot of things, PC power supplies are not so economically repaired anymore. But hey! They are a good source of high power mosfets and various configurations of high current Schottky (sp?) diodes, inductors, heat sinks, not to mention a good supply of heavy duty wire.
Almost all my PC failures have been caused by Microcrap's Windoze and associated development software
This required re-installing Windoze regularly - used to be every 3 months. Thankfully this was greatly reduced with Windoze 97SE. It became rare with Windoze XP.
Next on the list of failures were viruses even though I was extremely careful not to open any email not from a trusted source and contained some explicit wording - I mean not a generic message. I didn't take floppies from any unknown source. Every virus I got could not be found by the virus software of the day. Usually the virus software took another 3 months to detect the virus I had. So the result was a complete software install on each occasion. Had about 5 of these, which wasn't bad I suppose considering I used PC's commercially on a daily basis.
Never had a failed power supply although recently I replaced a friend's failed power supply (using an old retired PC's power supply I had on hand). No data was lost. My mother had a fried motherboard once and I was able to rescue the HDD. Had a few fried color monitors fail in the 90's - I was using large monitors and the cheaper models tended to not last as long but I usually was ready for an upgrade in resolution/size when they failed.
Laptops originally were no reliable most likely due to not being able to dissipate the heat properly. But that changed more than 10 years ago.
I have and use regularly 4 Acer laptops, 2 from 1996 and 2 from 1997. I have replace one power brick, and one power connector on the motherboard (actually a little pcb) - cost for the connector was an expensive $6 on eBay.
My brother bought a Lenovo and it died after about 3 years - dead motherboard - recovered data from HDD.
I bought a Compaq in 2010 and died in 2014. HDD removed and put into external HDD USB box and data recovered.
Bought an Acer in 2015 and going strong.
BTW laptop batteries are a different matter. All 4 original Acer batteries have almost no life (5-10 mins max) but since I almost always have external power available, it's not a problem.
Needless to say, I like Acer Laptops.
Not that I personally favor compacts, but the Dell GX280 was perfect for fitting under the TV for Netflix, however the power supplies in these SFF computers go quickly. I brought my latest one back to life by simply recapping all the capacitors.
I switched the router over from the wall wart to a 3amp 5VDC switcher that was intended for industrial use. It seems to have more protection from power line problems.
Desktops, laptops, and such are all fine so far.
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I have had one S.M.A.R.T hard disk warning and swapped out the hard disk that seem to work fine before actual failure. And I have had DRAM fail.
http://freshinfos.com/2012/02/21/recycled-mini-ed-robot/
I no longer put machines on floors.
Oddly enough a few months later there was a torrential down pour of summer rain on a Friday night and that basement flooded two feet deep in horrid dirty water which left a inch of mud on the floor when it drained away. Nobody knew about any of this until they arrived back at work on the following Monday. Murphy had his say in all this, the cleaning lady had previously picked the water detector up from the floor and neatly coiled up it's cable so it hung halfway down the wall and she could clean the floor. There was no flood alarm.
Anyway the PCs were still humming away on their little tables.
And the moral of this fascinating tale? Never work in a basement, never put PC's on the floor, never allow a cleaning lady into your office, or something like that.
That layer of dust one allows to build up is thermal insulation.
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I don't dread basements so much as basements that require sump pumps. But considering how much torrential rain flooding I have seen here in Taiwan, maybe I should revise my thinking.... multi-story under ground parking lots pretty much fill to the brim from runoff on the wrong street.
And then everyone sells their car for a pitance, and buys a new one. I shocked a friend by explaining how little it actually costs to revive a sunken car. Mostly you just have to replace the interior --- carpet, headliner, and seat covers; and change the oil and battery.
My most remarkable experience with a failed power supply was in 1987 or so, with an original 128K Macintosh. I was a contributing editor to Macworld at the time, doing various product reviews, and one was for a 512K addon pack that literally hanged off the back of the machine. The added RAM pack was the size of a thick textbook.
Well, the thing is, Apple designed the PS for these Macs for its hardware; no more, no less. There was no expanding a Mac back then (yeah, like that's changed), and so it shouldn't have been a surprise that the additional RAM was a strain on the power supply. I was using the machine one day when yellow and white smoke *billowed* out the back. The little black and white screen slowly shrank from one side, until the picture was completely gone. Talk about letting the smoke out!
I toyed with the idea of fixing the PS, as the component(s) that went looked to be the big caps. But it was an excuse to get a new Mac. Twenty-five hundred freakin' dollars later I had a shining new (still monochrome) Macintosh. Woowee! I was living the high life back then.
It rusted out due to air pollution, tropical temperatures, and high humidity. Having a local steel industry provided high acidity in the air, and lots of graphite dust. Just looking inside the chassis was nightmarish, and I quickly was inspired to replace it with something better before it went up in smoke.
After that, I got into the annual cleaning mode and was able to afford air conditiion that brings down the ambient temperature and the humidity. Industrialized tropical climates are not computer friendly.