Uncreative Labs

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 2:28 am

I had my modern power supply die on me today. Everything on the power supply shows complete short, and the power supply won't turn on. I think it saved my motherboard by shutting off, but I'm not sure. How can I test the motherboard so I don't blow a replacement power supply?

Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 11 Location: Pheonix, Arizona

Look for any blistered or melted chips/mofsets on the mobo (check your hard drive as well)

Well, you could get a replacement power supply, and if it blows return it =/

What kind of PSU was it? (make, model, wattage)
and what do you mean by "shows complete short"?

can you pop the top off of that PSU and snap a pic?

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 6:43 pm

From the only sticker:

"ATX SWITCHING POWER SUPPLY"

AC INPUT 115/230V 10A/6A 60/50Hz
DC OUTPUT
+3.3 26 A
+5 35 a
+12 15 A
-12 .8A
-5 .5A
+5 VSB
2A
MAX COMBINED WATTS 450

I can't pop the top off the PSU due to a sticker between the two halves. No sense in ruining my warranty claim trying to determine if I need a replacement MB.

"Shows complete short" means that. Take any two leads, say the HD power connector. Put an ohm meter on the +12V and GND connections and the meter reads 0 ohms. Same as GND to GND. Same way with +5V and GND on those connectors.

I'll do a little more detailed analysis of the board in a bit. I hope it's just the PSU that blew and nothing else.

Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 11 Location: Pheonix, Arizona

so no brand name on the psu? how heavy is it roughly?

the reason I ask these silly questions is that quite a few PSU's are known for blowing themselves out without taking the mobo, while others the opposite...

Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 11:20 pm

Here's the link to the case and power supply combo:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BLU-CP702-3&cat=CAS

Looks the the PS model number is LP-8850B. It weighs about 2 lbs by itself.

Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 11 Location: Pheonix, Arizona

You have a PowMax PSU, one of the worse ones out there (at least for blowing up)
most times they just take themselves out, so I would think it would be an acceptible risk to try a new one on that system-

Although I would reccomend that for that first firing you only have the motherboard, a single stick of ram, the cpu, the cpu fan plugged in, a crappy vid card if you have one to spare, and everything else removed just in case...
(so disconnect (as in power and data cable) any hdd's or optical drives, remove any add on cards, and disconnect any irreplacible (ei vintage) hardware)

Good luck.

(and if you are buying a replacement, get an Enermax, Zippy, or a PC Power and Cooling as those are among the only brands who use decent capacitors in their PSU's, as well as build them decently enough)

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 2:32 am

Well, it's under warranty so to fix it they're going to want to send me the same one. I'll have to see if they will let me upgrade to a better power supply.

Thanks for your help.

Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 1:14 am

How are Antec power supplies?

Joined: 02 May 2006 Posts: 11 Location: Pheonix, Arizona

As far as Antec's go, I dislike them since they made the truepower series and went to a Channel Well Tech psu design, as well as start using crummy electrolytic capacitors...

I've had so many of those things with blown caps it was silly, all with tri-vent pos "fuhjyyo" capacitors, all with a nice rusty-like goop coming out of the center, all giving off really bad power quality wise =(

someone told me the units built for Antec by seasonic are decent, but antec has already broken the trust I had in them...