On 10 Jun 2004 at 9:08, Frantisek Vlcek wrote: > Hi Rob, > > that's interesting. Would you please share some power supply knowledge > with us? As it is not so much OT by now many people archive their > pictures digitally.
Hi Frantisek, I guess it's closer to on topic than Triumps :-) For anyone not interested now is the time to hit the delete key. For the remainder following is a basic PC power supply guide, YMMV but I hope it helps. > Is there anything one can do to minimise chance of > such catastrophic failure? Without getting toooo technical, electronics fail, often without provocation but more likely due to preventable causes so I guess this is what you are asking about. Firstly as I mentioned the best way to ensure the safety of your data is to remove it from the system using CD or any other media with suitable storage capacity/longevity. Now before even talking about power supply units (PSU) you need to be aware that many PSU failures are cause by mains borne power surges and other interference, occasionally even a momentary loss of power can fry a PSU. So the first line of defence should be mains filtering or if you can afford it a power conditioner or optimally a battery backed UPS (uninterruptible power supply). Most UPS will maintain a system without mains power for 15 minutes or so and most can couple with the OS to enable automated shut-down should the mains failure be prolonged. Most also contain quite good mains filters too, I personally use APC UPS on all my critical computers and peripherals components (scanners, modems, external drive/burner, network hubs/switches etc) and in over 10 years I've never had mains based equipment failure and this includes the day that 33kV was imposed on our 240VAC local mains power. http://www.apc.com Many PSUs in lesser brand PCs (and even some of the main-stream brands) are pretty poor, they often contain under-rated components, have underrated out- puts, flaky wiring and connectors, poor cooling fans and inefficient component heat-sinking. Sometimes even unexplained reboots or software failures can be traced to poor power supplies, unfortunately they tend to be the most overlooked component in a system. Some of the things that you can do to check your PSU are to ensure that the rear cooling exhaust always remains unimpeded, check for airflow and exhaust temperature, The PSU or case shouldn't be hot or be blowing hot air only warm. Often when the supply is stressed due to lack of adequate cooling, overload or impending electronic failures it may also emit a burnt smell. On the software front there are a few software based diagnostic tools which will interrogate the power supply sensors on the mother-board and report back actual power supply voltages and warn if these are out of specification. Otherwise most modern PC allow the user to monitor the power supply voltages within the boot BIOS pages. Power supply specifications can be found here http://www.formfactors.org/DeveloperResources.asp If you are really keen you can always install an appropriately specificed high performance after-market PSU like the ones covered in the following review. http://www.amdmb.com/article-display.php?ArticleID=270&PageID=1 I'm running RAIDMax supplies in my work-stations and server and they have proved to be reliable, quiet and they have great electrical performance. Cheers, Rob Studdert HURSTVILLE AUSTRALIA Tel +61-2-9554-4110 UTC(GMT) +10 Hours [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.ozemail.com.au/~distudio/publications/ Pentax user since 1986, PDMLer since 1998
