Cheap PSU finally failed, temporaily.

In march of 2004 I bought the cheapest 600W PSU I could find because the
400W I had wouldn't power up my New A64 3000+ system. A couple of people
here bet me it wouldn't last a year, Since that time I added 4 HDTV tuner
cards and a pata raid card to the box filling all 5 PCI slots. recently
changed MB to an AM2 X2 and moved the HDTV cards into it. Yeah, this
system really sucks the juice. Yesterday about 6pm the system crashed.
Rebooted only to have it shut itself down after about 30 seconds. this
happened several times. Checked the PSU fan on back and it was blowing
fine. A little puzzled and suspecting that the PSu gave up the ghost
I opened the case to find the second PSU fan wasn't coming on. tried
getting it to start by flipping with my finger, but it wouldn't start.
Anyway, unplugging the power cord, I took the screws out and let the PSU
hang out the side while I took it apart and then opened the tab on stuck
fan and dropped in a drop of brake fluid and started working the fan blade
around. This usually frees it pretty fast, but this one was stuborn.
Finally turned the PSU on and started helping it move and it finally took
off slowly. After about 5 minutes of running the fan finally took off at
full speed. Yeah, I had extra fans, but why bother changing it. So put it
back together and all is well again. So do I have to count this as a PSU
failure?:-)

Really just posted this for people that may have similar problems with
sytem turning off by themselves. Check your PSU fans.

--
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Next the voltages go low. Or it kills some components.
Hopefully not.
After I replaced the fan in my cheapo it was lowering its voltages. That's
what the psu before it did.
Haven't trusted a cheapo again.
--
Ed Light

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On Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:44:15 -0700, Ed Light wrote:

Next the voltages go low. Or it kills some components.
Hopefully not.

LOL. OK, I'll let you know when that happens. Will probably be a few more
years though.:-)

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Thus spake Wes Newell:
On Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:44:15 -0700, Ed Light wrote:

Next the voltages go low. Or it kills some components.
Hopefully not.

LOL. OK, I'll let you know when that happens. Will probably be a few
more years though.:-)

--
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As an occasional visitor here Wes, I'm well aware of your reluctance to
spend out on PSUs I have a different criteria - quietness, both from new
& after substantial use. Fortunately, My XP-M2500+ is modest in its power
requirements as is my FX5200, so my 400W Q Technology is probably overkill.

--
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'basically'!

"Wes Newell" wrote in message
news:MnNNg.3851$xr.3516@trnddc03...
On Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:44:15 -0700, Ed Light wrote:

Next the voltages go low. Or it kills some components.
Hopefully not.

LOL. OK, I'll let you know when that happens. Will probably be a few more
years though.:-)

Yeah, it could work out ok.
I'd check the voltages under load every now and then.

--
Ed Light

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"Paul B" wrote

I have a different criteria - quietness, both from new & after substantial
use. Fortunately, My XP-M2500+ is modest in its power requirements as is
my FX5200, so my 400W Q Technology is probably overkill.

Then you'd probably enjoy http://silentpcreview.com

--
Ed Light

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On Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:39:09 -0700, Ed Light wrote:


"Wes Newell" wrote in message
news:MnNNg.3851$xr.3516@trnddc03...
On Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:44:15 -0700, Ed Light wrote:

Next the voltages go low. Or it kills some components.
Hopefully not.

LOL. OK, I'll let you know when that happens. Will probably be a few more
years though.:-)

Yeah, it could work out ok.
I'd check the voltages under load every now and then.

Not worried about it. I've fixed many failed fans in PSU's. There's
nothing inherent between that and PSU failure.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm