[Tfug] power supplies & motherboards

[erich]

OK,
        Thanks. The person I had the conversation with was a non-technical
hear-say person.
         My first attempt to resuscitate  this box  ended in failure because
it was later determined that the "new" power supply was bad. My friend
has assured me that another "new" power supply  will be tested first
before it enters my shop. If this 2nd attempt fails then I will end up
with an uninstalled power supply and a motherboard that is e-waste.
         It is difficult to test a power supply stand-alone. The new ones
have many sensing feedback controls that work only in the
appropriate environment.

                                                                                            
Erich
Harry McGregor wrote:
> Hi,
>
> erich wrote:
>   
>> OK,
>>        I have a vintage 2004 tower that had a power supply failure.
>> At least I'm pretty sure it was the power supply: the smell
>> of burnt components came from the power supply. The
>> motherboard smells/shows no signs of damage.
>>
>>        Then I heard a rather disturbing thing in a conversation.
>> Power supplies have been known to fail on some models
>> of computers and take out the motherboard with them.
>>
>>         So I have two questions:
>>
>>            1) If a power supply fails, is there a chance that
>> it will take out a motherboard?
>>     
>
> This can of course happen, depending on the failure in the power
> supply.  I have seen far far more power supply failures that did NOT
> kill the motherboard, but I have seen a couple that did...
>
>   
>>            2) If a motherboard is suspected to have failed.
>> will it take out a power supply?
>>
>>     
> Unlikely, power supplies have short protection built in, about the worst
> you could do is try to draw more power than the PS can provide, but that
> would most likely be noticeable ahead of time.
>
> I would suggest getting a cheap power supply (I know, in general, not a
> great idea), and if it works with that, get a good power supply, and
> keep the cheap one as a bench supply for testing.
>
>
>                    Harry
>
>
>   
>>                                                                   Erich
>>
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