ATX power supplies keep blowing

  • Thread starter Thread starter le ténébreux
  • Start date Start date
~misfit~ said:
It seems like something is killing the 12v rail. Maybe one of
your old drives has an intermittent (the hardest to diagnose)
fault or short on the 12v rail?
Click to expand...

If that were the case, the first one I would suspect would
be the floppy disk. It's quite old, in fact it's the only thing
in my PC that has never been replaced, just moved from
one system to another. I've just taken it out and had a look
inside, and everything is covered in a thick layer of dust.
There could be anything going on in there.
 
If that were the case, the first one I would suspect would
be the floppy disk. It's quite old, in fact it's the only thing
in my PC that has never been replaced, just moved from
one system to another. I've just taken it out and had a look
inside, and everything is covered in a thick layer of dust.
There could be anything going on in there.
Click to expand...

The thing is, even if you had a short, the amount of power supplied is
finite, either the power supply can supply enough and works, or the
voltge folds back and when it goes under a certain amount, the power
supply should shut off. A malfunctioning component should at worst
immediately shut off the power supply or at best pose no problem, IF
the power supply is properly designed, not missing essential
functions.

If a component had it's 12V circuit shorting, it would most likely be
a fan, perhaps a HDD, but the device would show signs of problem
itself. If you have a TMD (tip-magnetic driven) fan, those ARE known
to short out in their eariler revison, it should be removed from the
system for external observation.


Dave
 
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