Opening PSU's. |
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 LtKer guandi 
okay, i have been reading through the forum and everyone is saying not to open PSU's becouse of the dreaded Ka'pa'SiToor monster that lives within, and could get your with its electro tenticles. nurp. (READ NO FURTHER IF YOU ARE OF A COMPLETLY CLUELESS STATE AS TO USING A SCREWDRIVER (flat head *and* philips..) OR ARE TOTALLY UNABLE TO COMPREHEND SIMPLE COMPUTER MAINTANANCE.) i open the PSU on all 5 of my comps at least once every 4 months to check for dust build up and any wire/component damage, and this is often of great help as it prevents early component falure due to dodgy power supply. I must stress, if your computer or PSU is still under warrenty this will void it and if you screw up, you will probably have to buy a new one, heres what you do. turn off your computer, unplug everything, then locate the little power indication LED on the motherboard, and press the power button. the light should come on again, but only for a few seconds before fading out. thats the excess charge in the capacitors disipating. unplug all the power cables from their devices (you may have to get some pliers and gently wiggle them out, and be wary of the little clip on the mobo plug, that can take soem force to free) and make sure there are no cable ties or anything holding that sucka in and haul it out. you now have a grey metalic box with tenticles. there are four screws on the top of the PSU, you will need a small philips head screwdriver for these, undo the case and slide it straight up and off the main chassis. wow. thats alot of dust. (just think, most of that is dead skin cells..) get the hoover, and a soft paint brush and get to work dusting that baby off. all done coughing your guts up and annoying the neighbours with your 1980's Suck-O-Matic? good. get yourself a multimeter, one that can do cicuit testing (if you havnt got one and cant get one, use a battery and bulb from a torch, some wire and tape to make a partial circuit, and complete the circuit with what you want to test) what you want to test is the wires, first make sure that all the solder joints for the wires from the Printed Circuit Board look good and healthy (dont worry if they have a white powder on them, thats normal corrosion in older supply's and is only surface deep) and that no wires are missing any of their plastic coating. take your red(+) multimeter probe and touch the base of one of the wires in teh PSU and see if you can find the corresponding on the other end of the bundle of wires. if they are all responding and you can waggle the wires about without losing the signal, all is good. all that remains now is to do a visual check for any scorch marks on the PCB and components, and to make sure the fan is okay. get the hoover again, and put it against the fan so it spins up, then turn the hoover off and listen to the fan... nice and quiet? no...? uh oh. if its rattling like a Ford model 7 you need a new fan, easy enough. go and purchase a good quality 12V DC Ball bearing fan from your computer store and replace it with your old one (make sure you get it the right way round, and make sure you join the wire properly with crimpers, or a screw joint, NOT TAPE!!! (you can use solder, then wrap with tape tho). now just replace the lid, replace the four screws, put a date on the lid if you like to keep a regular service schedule and whack it in your comp. you may want to go round a few other essentials with that brush and hoover while your at it, the fan on that GFX card is dustier than my grandads pr0n collection and your CPU heatsink is worse than my mothers sense of humour. now, plug all the little plugs back in where they come from and your all set :) (yes.. this is what i do at 5am when i could be in bed cuddling with my bestest friend) ~Laura~ Replies:
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2003-07-01 11:04:57