[TriLUG] More hardware woes

[Jim Ray]

don't screw around with board level work on a motherboard.  all that
stuff is surface mount ultra dinky need-a-microscope-to-see-it wizardry.
exchange motherboards, power supplies or whatever until it works.

hth,

/jim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Thompson [mailto:thompson at easternrad.com]
> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 3:04 PM
> To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] More hardware woes
> 
> 
> Is it a transistor or maybe a small power regulator that 
> melted?  Either
> way, I'd be weary of the new power supply.  It might be defective.  I
> haven't seen this very often, but it does happen once in a while.  ;)
> I'm not sure how to test the power supply out of circuit, IIRC those
> switching power supplies need a load to operate, so just 
> testing with a
> multimeter will not give you accurate readings.  Maybe someone else on
> the list knows a way to do this.
> 
> I would also check to make sure that there isn't anything 
> that can short
> any of the components on the board.
> 
> Then again, whatever damaged the first power supply may have also
> damaged, shorted or weakened components on your motherboard, causing
> additional damage after applying a fresh new power source.
> 
> Just a few ideas,
> 
> --mike  :)
> 
> > On Thu, Aug 14, 2003 at 11:02:29AM -0400, Andrew Perrin wrote:
> > > OK - so I put in the new power supply, along with a new 
> fan I had been
> > > waiting to install, and turned it on. Everything came up 
> beautifully - the
> > > system started doing an fsck because it had been poorly 
> brought down when
> > > the power supply died.
> > > 
> > > Suddenly... nothing. Screen died, fans and drives stayed 
> on, no keyboard
> > > LED's.  I smell burning plastic.  Yank the power cable, 
> open up the case,
> > > and now I can turn it on to the point of getting fans and 
> drives to spin
> > > up, and power LED's on, but no video and no system beeps. 
>  Furthermore,
> > > there's a transistor that's visibly melted on the 
> motherboard. (Yikes!)
> > > 
> > > The MB is under warranty, so I'm going to get it 
> replaced. My question for
> > > y'all is: can you think of something I might have done to 
> cause this? I'd
> > > rather not plop in the new MB, just to have it melt again.
> > > 
> > > The MB was installed in November, it's a Gigabyte GA-7VAX.
> > > 
> > > ap
> > > 
> 
>