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Old December 17th 08, 12:39 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
Ben Myers[_2_]
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Posts: 1,607
Default Unbelievable, 'sod's law' - power supply blows

poachedeggs wrote:
I've had assistance here lately with my Deskpro EN SFF 886. I had
been ignoring a sound like the hard drive switching itself on and off
for a little while now and tonight it sems the power supply has
blown. There was a small pop and a smell of burning and the green
light's out for good, with a fuse change in the plug doing nothing. I
can see a new supply will cost more than the machine, and there are no
used ones on ebay at the moment that fit. I will asks the
refurbishers to replace it but they are dodgy dealers who don't answer
emails and I don't expect to get anywhere.

I see there are 'no user-serviceable parts' inside these power
supplies - haven't they got a simple fuse in to replace? - and I've
heard rightly or wrongly that it's dangerous to open power supplies.
But, is is likely that the power supply blowing has taken anything out
with it? Like killing the motherboard? Because I've thought of
moving the hard drive, RAM, DVD rom drive and floppy drive to
something else, there being a few shops a short walk away that have
used and custom systems. What do you think? Should I be hopeful (I
will see if they have salvaged the same power supply first).

I was in the middle of giving the machine a new lease of life by
installing Linux Mint 2.2 (an Ubuntu derivative from only a few years
back that suited the spec very well), which looked good when viewing
the live CD and would get me round the problem of not being able to
use smooth fonts after much googling and experimentation, so I am
peeved after getting round a few problems with this machine that it
has blown. Worse, a cheque I've been waiting for for sixteen months
arrived this morning and is now probably earmarked for other things...
sigh.

Thanks in advance for any opinions, advice, suggestions, non-malicious
laughter, etc.


The usual replacement for a power supply is another power supply. A few
years ago, I opened up a custom power supply and replaced its fan,
because Compaq (or a 3rd party parts house) would charge over $US100 for
one... Ben Myers