Bad ATX PSU's

[TechguyUK]

Is it just me or is there a big reliability problem with (older) ATX PSU's.

I see more PSU failures than any other fault except malware and my workshop has a steady mountain of these dull metal boxes growing in the corner.

I had a PSU fail spectacularly this morning, tripping the electrics in the workshop and this was right in the middle of imaging the customers hard drive - not impressed. The other day I was delivering a repaired system back to a customer, I plugged it in and switched it on to show the customer their problem was resolved and...bang! it didn't half make the customer jump

What do others do with them - simply throw them in the trash or dismantle them for the fans and components....does anyone actually repair them ?

 

[iisjman07]

The other day I was delivering a repaired system back to a customer, I plugged it in and switched it on to show the customer their problem was resolved and...bang! it didn't half make the customer jump

Are you sure the little voltage switch was correct: http://www.highpowersupply.com/ps/fl5000/ioswitchlite2.jpg (the picture is pretty big to put here).

Relating back to the post, I see a fair number of desktops that have bad PSU's, but I see far more laptops with faults adaptors; my guess is because the laptops get moved around and this probably won't do it much good...

 

[TechguyUK]

Yeah the little switch was fine it had never moved from its 220vac position.

 

[JosephLeo]

First off, how unfortunate to hear that your client had to see that.

I personally recycle all unusable materials that I receive. For power supplies I usually strip the copper out (Coils, Cables, etc), throw that in its own separate pile, take the board out and place it in the "PCB" junk pile and then the housing is finally thrown in the steel scrap pile. Any plastic is thrown in a plastic pile as well.

At the end of the month I sell off the scrap piles and get a decent buck for them. One month I had 25lbs. of copper and got $60, PCB junk was about 10lbs. and got $10, scrap steel and plastic was taken away from me as a courtesy. But still...$70 for something that most people would throw away is pretty good in my eye.