On 10 Aug 2003 08:28:24 -0700, (Krow) wrote:

Many thanks to everyone for their posts!

I took alook at the model/make of the power supply and its a KME 230W
ATX branded capacity. This was installed 4 years ago or so, (I live in
the UK btw) and I really don't know how good it is. The guy did
mention that it had burnt the capacitors or something like that, and
I'm pretty sure its the power supply that has gone. Besides, I'm a bit
worried about opening up the power supply as I don't have the right
equipment and skills to do it. But I still don't understand why the
burn-out happened when the only thing I did was turn off the
wall-socket switch and then turning it back on again after I finished
hoovering from another wall-socket.

Powering up a component is the most stressful time for it, especially
where you might have a device that can short-out based on physical
state like a cap.

I could be mistaken but "think" I"ve seen a KME power supply before,
and it wasn't utter junk but not great either, perhaps average for a
computer shop build, though of course different makes and models vary
over the years so it's hard to say.


He said that the power supply burn-out had caused the motherboard to
go as well (mentioned transistors/capacitors/technical stuff) This
wasn't the same shop that quoted 100-200 GBP for a power supply. This
shop said the p-s was around 20-30 pounds (I think the make was
'Q-Tec')

More detail might be needed, like "how" he knew the motherboard went
as well, exactly what he remembers. Without the motherboard working
it would seem more like speculation that anything else, that he "knew"
the motherboard was bad, unless he actually tried another power supply
at the time or there's visible evidence of failure on the board
itself.

Q-Tec isn't all that great, you'd be better off with a popular
name-brand... don't know what's available on your side of the pond
nor how the pricing compares, but often a Sparkle/Fortron is a good
value here, especially in the 230-250W range they're VERY reasonably
priced now that modern systems are often using higher wattages.


He seemed pretty decent, and didn't push a sale of another system, so
I'm assuming that he must have done an ok job testing everything... oh
yes, with ref to 'CMOS via jumper' - where would I find a manual or
book or site that would show me what to do?


You'd need the make and model of motherboard to download the manual if
it's not there on a CD or in printed form. Typically an educated
guess can be made though, it's usually very near the battery, three
pins alone with a jumper already on two of the pins, needing moved one
position so it's covering the middle and vacant pin... the jumper
should be moved there while the system is unplugged, for just a few
seconds, then returned to the original position. If you can't locate
the jumper (or sometimes there is no jumper, just a difficult to find
pair of solder pads) then just unplug the system, pull the battery out
and wait 10 minutes or so.

I suppose the question is how much time it's worth to revive this
system... at over 4 years old it's probably 400MHz CPU and
relatively small hard drive, memory, etc. Here in the states a
similar used system might be found for under $150, sometimes even
being thrown away in part or as a whole.


Dave