[Cialug] Burned out power supply

[Nathan C. Smith]

I'm going to weigh in on this too.  I've had the same thing happen in the past, even with a UPS connected to the power supply.

I believe the capacitors in the power supplies have a limited life span.  Three-years? 10 years? - I don't know, but finite.

I think that inexpensive power supplies and those included with many white-box style machines and cases are not expected to be run 24x7 as many of us like to do.  (I'm not saying the one in question was inexpensive either - I don't know).

I think even good power supplies have the potential to die after a time and take the motherboard with them - I don't know why there isn't some kind of built-in motherboard protection - or better protection.  

I think the best you can do is protect your system with a UPS and spend way more than you should have to on a good or better power supply.  

Another option is a power regulator, APC, Tripp-Lite, and some other manufacturers make some that can clip high voltages and boost low ones.  Less expensive than a UPS and the batteries never fail, but not quite the same protection.

-Nate

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org 
> [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On Behalf Of 
> murraymckee at wellsfargo.com
> Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 12:01 PM
> To: cialug at cialug.org
> Subject: [Cialug] Burned out power supply
> 
> I bought a new computer 2 1/2 years ago, summer '07.  After 
> 18 months, about Christmas time '08, the power supply went 
> out (smoke rises from the back of the computer) and fried the 
> mother board.  This Christmas ('09) the same thing happened 
> again.  (Well, almost.  There was an electrical hot smell and 
> I went over and powered down the computer.  It was running 
> fine at the time and shut down normally.  I thought I'd 
> gotten it down before the mother board was damaged, but 
> apparently no such luck.)  A new power supply didn't solve 
> the problem.  (It wouldn't even boot far enough to display 
> the info about what is connected that is displayed before the 
> OS is engaged.)  With both a new mobo and power supply and 
> I'm back in business again.
> 
> I run this computer 24 X 7 to record some radio shows and put 
> them on an MP3 player for my wife to listen to when she has 
> the time.  
> 
> There is not a lot in this system.  1 CD/DVD writer, a 3 1/4 
> floppy, and 1 hard drive.  Well, physically there are two 
> hard drives, but the second one is not connected to either 
> the power or data cables.  I do have a modem board in a slot. 
>  (We live out in the country so no cable or DSL available.)  
> Other than the connectors built into the mother board, that's 
> all that is in the box.  
> 
> On the outside there is a keyboard & mouse, the USB radio for 
> the afore mentioned recordings (when ever I've touched it the 
> USB memory stick sized device has felt like room 
> temperature), and a parallel printer plugged into the 
> parallel port.  Oh yes, speakers and microphone are plugged 
> in.  And the USB MP3 player is plugged in to transfer the 
> data and recharge the battery about 1 night a week.
> 
> I'm not seeing anything that appears to me to be a big power 
> user here.  The case has room for several more 3 1/4 hard 
> drives and 2 more 5 1/2 drives.  (OK, capacity and ability 
> are not necessarily the same thing.)  But one of each 
> shouldn't be beyond what is expected of a machine like this.
> 
> Aren't power supplies capable of running for more than a 
> year?  Yes, I replaced the surge suppressor power strip when 
> I replaced the power supply the first time.
> 
> The first one may have been my fault as there was a fair 
> collection of lint over the air inlet grill of the computer 
> which obviously restricted the air flow, but I've been 
> vacuuming it off every three or four months since the first 
> time I replaced the power supply and there has never been any 
> significant accumulation this time.  While not pristine, 
> there wasn't much dust and lint inside the case either when I 
> opened it up.
> 
> What can I do to prevent the power supply from burning out again?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Murray McKee
> Operating Systems Engineer
> WFFIS - Wells Fargo Financial Information Systems 800 Walnut 
> Street MAC F4030-037 Des Moines, IA 50309-3605 WORK 
> (515)557-6127 Cell (NEW) (515) 343-6630  FAX (515) 557-6046 
> MurrayMcKee at WellsFargo.com "This message may contain 
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