Do not trust ATX-Power-Supplies!
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 4:28 pm
Recently, we've had 4 computers which were known to run without problems, but one day their Power-supply (PSU) died.
We only had 2 ATX PSUs for testing purposes. We tried starting one of the machines using the first PSU. It didn't boot. The power-LED was blinking, but nothing else happened.
Tried the second PSU - the machine booted, but hung soon afterwards. Tried another machine: booted 'sometimes'. -STRANGE-
Tried a third machine: Booted fine, froze during Windows-installation. -WEIRD-
When trying BOTH PSUs on the fourth machine, we discovered that it wouldn't boot AT ALL (only the Power-LED was blinking (familiar?)).
...so we took a 3rd PSU from a running computer, attached it to the 4th machine: Perfect!
Of course, we tried this PSU with the rest (the 'flakey' ones) and ALL of them worked fine! voila!
We only had 2 ATX PSUs for testing purposes. We tried starting one of the machines using the first PSU. It didn't boot. The power-LED was blinking, but nothing else happened.
Tried the second PSU - the machine booted, but hung soon afterwards. Tried another machine: booted 'sometimes'. -STRANGE-
Tried a third machine: Booted fine, froze during Windows-installation. -WEIRD-
When trying BOTH PSUs on the fourth machine, we discovered that it wouldn't boot AT ALL (only the Power-LED was blinking (familiar?)).
...so we took a 3rd PSU from a running computer, attached it to the 4th machine: Perfect!
Of course, we tried this PSU with the rest (the 'flakey' ones) and ALL of them worked fine! voila!