[Cialug] Burned out power supply

[bofh at visi.com]

One other item brought up was the possibility of a poor 
quality power supply.  That is a major problem for many 
systems (especially discount systems).  Which brand are 
you using?



On Mon, 1 Mar 2010 12:01:15 -0600
  <murraymckee at wellsfargo.com> wrote:
> 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 
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