[GLLUG] Holy Crap, My power-supply broke.

[Michael Rudas]

Steven Sayers wrote:

> It was an $80 case and imo until now a really nice one. Could be a defect
> with the power supply.

There has been a problem with a certain style of electrolytic
capacitors (low-ESR-- where ESR = equivalent series resistance) in
electronics made between about 2000 and 2005-- which mostly affected
motherboards and, yes, power supplies.  Personally, I've seen about a
dozen motherboards and four or five PSs go south this way, including
two of each of my own.

Another common problem is a dead fan.  With no airflow, power supplies
quickly bake to death.  Yours did a power-on twitch, so it's probably
OK-- in fact, I would salvage the fan when I trash the supply, since
they're always useful.

Being an experienced repair technician, it was practical for me to fix
a few of these-- for end users, not so much...

-- Mikey