Weird PSU Story

EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
edited December 2003 in Hardware
Friend of mine at school had an interesting debacle with his power supply. He's documented what-all happened and how he fixed it (cool pics), but the root of the problem is still a mystery.
The synopsis is: Way low 5V rail but no system trouble, then later totally melted ATX pins (all related to 5V line); fix was new PSU and ATX mobo connector; still don't know whether it was the fault of the mobo or PSU, but the rail voltage is doing better now.

http://home.comcast.net/~jdprice1/moborepair.html

Any reactions or, better, explanations?

Comments

  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited December 2003
    Explanation: Dying PSes do strange things sometimes
    Moral of the story: Buy a decent PS in the first place.
  • dodododo Landisville, PA
    edited December 2003
    Lower voltage = higher current
    Could be the cause.

    ~dodo
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited December 2003
    dodo wrote:
    Lower voltage = higher current
    Could be the cause.

    ~dodo

    Just what I was thinking. Either the ATX connector on the el cheapo psu or the connector on the mobo had some bad fitting pins on the 5v rail, making extra resistance at the plug. Resistance =heat and over time the heat, combined with the failing caps, got high enough to melt the pins on the 5v rails on the connectors. They actually have a good thread about low 5v rails over at the overclockers.com forums and they also talk about ways to fix the problem.
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