Fried a power supply

M

Mint

I was careless and did not tape up some exposed wires for one of my
power leads that I was using to power a fan in a computer.

Red wire met black wire.

Computer shut down immediately.

Hope I didn't toast the whole computer.

The P.S. is a Liteon Model # PS-6161-2H1 that puts out 188 watts.

I have another good 250 Watt power supply but it doesn't have one
connection that powers the power supply fan and it is also a little
bigger.

Do you think it would work ?

Thanks.
 
P

Paul

Mint said:
I was careless and did not tape up some exposed wires for one of my
power leads that I was using to power a fan in a computer.

Red wire met black wire.

Computer shut down immediately.

Hope I didn't toast the whole computer.

The P.S. is a Liteon Model # PS-6161-2H1 that puts out 188 watts.

I have another good 250 Watt power supply but it doesn't have one
connection that powers the power supply fan and it is also a little
bigger.

Do you think it would work ?

Thanks.

Is there something to this story we're missing ?

I can't find a picture of the power supply label, so can't
verify anything about it. Too many companies advertise
generic replacements for that model number, for me to see
an actual picture of an original one.

If the power supply has OCP (over current protection),
then after you switch it off at the mains, wait 2 minutes,
switch it back on, it should be ready to go.

If it no longer starts, then don't torture the thing.
If you've removed mains power, and applied power to it
again, and it won't start, then replace it. Some power
supplies have a "mains" fuse on the primary side, a slow
blow, and you may have popped that. If the unit has OCP,
OCP on the secondary side, eliminates the load before
there is time to pop the fuse on the primary side. If
the unit had no protection except for a fuse, that
increases the odds that the fuse could go.

(In this schematic, the fuse is "F1 T5A/250V" in the upper left)

http://www.pavouk.org/hw/en_atxps.html

There are some goofy designs, where there is a connector for
the power supply fan, which plugs into the motherboard. And
the motherboard then provides +12V to run the cooling inside
the power supply. Modern supplies no longer do it that way.
Modern supplies power the internal fan directly from the PSU
itself.

The advantage of routing the PSU fan power, down to the
motherboard, is so the motherboard can change the fan speed.
If you use a more modern supply, the difference will be that
the PSU controls the fan speed, rather than the motherboard.
Which is just fine. The PSU fan will tend to run at a
constant speed - but modern PSU fans run at a much lower
RPM, and can be close to silent. One reason for this,
is some power supplies are now 80% efficient, so they
don't create a lot of waste heat. Older supplies are
only 68% efficient and create more waste heat.

As far as I know, your 250W would work fine. But if it
doesn't fit, then it won't be a very nice solution.

Note that, modern supplies have way too many SATA connectors
on them, and not enough Molex 1x4. You'll need to spend
a little extra time, looking at adverts, until you find
a nice one, with enough Molex on it. The last supply I bought,
an SPI (Sparkle), I didn't bother to check, and it only had three
Molex on it. I needed it for a ten year old computer, and it
wasn't such a good choice because of that.

Paul
 
M

Mint

One other thing just came to mind. Your computer may be small enough and
low power enough, that they're using the power supply fan to cool the
whole computer. If that is the case, you'd better be careful about
your system cooling. If the new power supply doesn't move enough air
for you, you may need to add a second (case) cooling fan.

My first computer is like that. There is no room on the back of the
computer, for an 80mm or 120mm fan for case cooling. The power supply
provides the only cooling fan. To fix that, I bolted an intake fan to
the front of the computer.

     Paul

I only need 3 molex connections.

There is a separate fan than is close to the CPU fan and it draws it's
heat
out the back.

Looks like I will have to buy or make a new case.

Even after taking out the floppy drive and it's controller, it's still
pretty crammed
in there.

Andy
 
P

Paul

Mint said:
I only need 3 molex connections.

There is a separate fan than is close to the CPU fan and it draws it's
heat
out the back.

Looks like I will have to buy or make a new case.

Even after taking out the floppy drive and it's controller, it's still
pretty crammed
in there.

Andy

You can buy microATX power supplies. They're smaller.

You have to be very careful with those. Check *all* the mechanical
details. Some have fans on the exterior of the supply. Some have
flanges or tabs in weird places. They're not nearly as standard
as regular ATX supplies. On the regular ATX, two dimensions are
fixed, and the length of the supply varies with power output.
On microATX, you have to watch *everything*.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...activatedMark=False&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=58

Paul
 
M

Mint

You can buy microATX power supplies. They're smaller.

You have to be very careful with those. Check *all* the mechanical
details. Some have fans on the exterior of the supply. Some have
flanges or tabs in weird places. They're not nearly as standard
as regular ATX supplies. On the regular ATX, two dimensions are
fixed, and the length of the supply varies with power output.
On microATX, you have to watch *everything*.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007657....

    Paul

Thanks.

Your right about watching everything.

The picture of the rear has all the cables bunched up.

So you can't tell how many cables there are.

If I got a new M.B. my XP would probably not work anymore even if I
put the
original CPU back in along with the other original cards.

It's an old P-4.
 
G

GlowingBlueMist

I was careless and did not tape up some exposed wires for one of my
power leads that I was using to power a fan in a computer.

Red wire met black wire.

Computer shut down immediately.

Hope I didn't toast the whole computer.

The P.S. is a Liteon Model # PS-6161-2H1 that puts out 188 watts.

I have another good 250 Watt power supply but it doesn't have one
connection that powers the power supply fan and it is also a little
bigger.

Do you think it would work ?

Thanks.
Here is a link showing what is reported to be power supplies using the
same part number you mentioned. Some for around $10.00 which makes them
possibly worth contention as a replacement. Many give dimensions and
such to help verify it will fit.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=PS-6161-2H1&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Hope the above link gives you what you want.
 
M

Mint

Here is a link showing what is reported to be power supplies using the
same part number you mentioned.  Some for around $10.00 which makes them
possibly worth contention as a replacement.  Many give dimensions and
such to help verify it will fit.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=PS-6161-2H1&_sacat=...

Hope the above link gives you what you want.

Thanks, I checked it out.

I think it would be better to get a new bigger case since they are
pretty cheap.

Andy
 
P

Paul

GMAN said:
Zen master Paul, you didnt summon your google skills!!!!

Right here
http://www.recycledgoods.com/product_images/m/250/s_p_25727_2__64556_zoom.jpg

Good catch!

There's barely enough 12V current on there, to run hard drives.
I also like the "3.4V" output. But that's what standards are for :)

*******

Your average search engine now, is nothing but crap. They may be
"fine tuning" the search engines, but it's going in the wrong
direction. Hell, I can't even find posts I've made on
a particular topic, which should still be out there
somewhere.

Paul
 
M

Mint

That's the one. :)

I may see if a 250 watt DPS 250QB - 4B will fit.

The original was mounted on a swing out door.

Andy

I upgraded my mother's computer from RAM from 256 Mb to 512 Mb that
uses an AMD 850 Mhz chip.

The speed increase was nominal.

I think it was because the CPU is maxed out at close to 100 % much of
the time.

I was able to use an ATX power supply to replace the original 188 Watt
P.S. that I shorted out.

I was very pleased that it fit well.

I thought I would have to get an ATX case for it to fit.

Take care,

Andy
 

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