🚀 go-pugleaf

sam@stdavids.picker.com (Sam Goldwasser) wrote:

>In article <870507200snz@longley.demon.co.uk> David@longley.demon.co.uk (David Longley) writes:
>
>>   My  PC  Has recently begun to just switch off soon  after  having 
>>   been switched on. Leaving it 2 mins and then powering on seems to  
>>   correct this, but it's a little disconcerting. Any ideas?
>
>Do you mean all power goes off?  It is the normal main power switch?
>
>If so, this sounds like a power supply problem. Either its overload
>sensing is defective or you have a marginal load condition (like 10 disk
>drives :-)  ), bad connections inside, or other power supply fault.
>Replacing the PS may be best or see the SMPS and PC power supply repair
>FAQs.

Also, (Sam you might put this in the FAQ) you can often buy an old 286
from the 80s for $10.00 to $30.00 (With monitor and all acc).  Usually
the cases are really tough and the power supplies were made for the
old MFM/RLL behemoths, therefore much higher capacity, protection and
power-on surge limiting than modern supplies.  My next 686 NT system
is going to be run from a 12 year old 230 watt power monster (I had to
replace the cooling fan in it years ago, only service I ever did to
it).  This baby has powered three systems through their useful
lifespan and sat through more thunderstorms and brownouts and hot
summer days with nary a glitch.  In fact in a brownout it is the ONLY
thing in the house that doesn't need to be reset.  By comparison a
Packard Bell 386 I bought for scrap has a teeny tiny 60 Watt PS that
might be a good bench supply for low current experiments but you
couldn't pay me to stick it in a computer again!

Mark