How do I choose a power supply
11 years ago
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- 11 years ago
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power supply died
Comments (6)This thread reminds me of a story, please forgive the length. Someone I know (a Silicon Valley engineer, actually) liked to putz around with the innards of his PCs, although his professional expertise involved non-PC products. Being an engineer, his view was that most problems and issues in the world were easily understood and could be resolved by simple application of his finely-honed problem solving skills. The guy isn't frugal, he's cheap. Also completely lacking in common sense (as you'll soon see demonstrated). He bought a used desktop, and found after awhile that he'd failed to consider that the hard drive was too small. So he added whatever was needed to connect a spare one he had lying around. Still not enough, so he bought a USB hard drive that he kept connected. Some time passed, he started to do some new things on the PC and found he didn't have enough memory, so he added more. And the stock graphics processor was inadequate for the video work he wanted to do, so he added a graphics board that a friend of his had. The PC started shutting itself down periodically, he figured it was overheating. So he rigged up internal and external fans. He talked to someone who suggested maybe he needed a bigger power supply, so he bought that. His PC setup was in his home "office", a room he had added on some years back. He'd hired someone to do the actual hammer and nail construction work (an unlicensed worker), but he did the electrical wiring himself because, of course, he's an engineer and can understand anything. After installing the new power supply, the circuit breaker started to trip off regularly, like several times a day. After trial and error, he remembered he'd wired the office plugs into a kitchen circuit and the breaker tripped when the fridge started. (There were other things on the circuit too because all the plugs in the office were on one line). Easy enough, he put a larger circuit breaker into his panel. Only a few days later, while working at his desk one morning, there was a flash and smoke started out of his PC. The whole thing got fried. Likely, he figured, a result of his not being careful enough with the various hardware customizations he'd done. At his wife's insistence, his DIY PC building and troubleshooting days are over. He buys new ones and replaces them when they have problems. Also at his wife's insistence....See Morepower supply question
Comments (10)A higher wattage power supply offers the option of added external gadgets that would be powered through the USB connection with far less fear of failure. For anyone who might be curious about their power needs here is a chart to fill in to see your minimum needs for power. Newer and more powerful computers need larger wattage in power supplies to run smoothly. However the quality of the power supply is also important. This is one of those cases where heavier is better because you would have more substantial components in the heavier PS. A few years ago eMachines had terrible power supplies and when they failed at an alarming rate there were many that took out the motherboard with them making the computer useless because replacement motherboards were not available....See Morehelp!!!! i think i damaged my power supply for outside ac unit.
Comments (3)If you saw a spark, you might have popped the transformer located in the indoor unit. I would go inside, turn the fan switch on the thermostat from "Auto" to "On", wait a few minutes and see if your indoor fan comes on. The transformer drops the line voltage down to 24 volts to run things like the thermostat, relays & contactor and if it is burned up, nothing will come on. Hope this helps...See MoreHow do I identify residue in water supply
Comments (3)Within a municipality both the water supplier and the sewage treatment facilities are required to repeatedly test the potable water in the municipal supply or the discharge water from the waste treatment facility throughout the day, and to that end they have their own inhouse testing labs. In most jurisdictions those labs also perform private well water tests for the county Health department to certify private wells in areas outside the municipal water district. Call you local health department and tell them you would like to get a test and they can set it up for you or tell you who to contact. I just worked on a house that had been vacant for 3 years with water in the system so we decided to have the water tested to see if we could sanitize the system before startup. The county healt department told us to call the lab at the sewage treatment plant. The lab had us come to their location and pick up sterilized sample bottles. They carefully explained how to flush the system then take the samples and return the samples to the lab. Two days later I had an extrememly thorough test report, all for the exhorbitant sum of $29....See More- 11 years agolast modified: 11 years ago
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- 11 years agolast modified: 11 years ago
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- 11 years agolast modified: 11 years ago
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- 11 years agolast modified: 11 years ago
- 11 years agolast modified: 11 years ago
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