Fixing my PC PSU

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Okay, let's take five. Okay, so I have a bit of a tragedy here. I know it's not the fact that I've got pictures of Tails all over my wall. This is my main computer, which has been acting up for a while. It would power cycle a few times when I turn it on and then eventually post and boot.

[00:00:19]Turn it on today and it just would not power up properly at all. It was making weird noises, the lights on the thing were flashing all over the place.

[00:00:28]I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is.

[00:00:31]I think the problem is in here. So, that's what I'm going to be fixing today.

[00:00:36]All right, let's see what's inside. I'm telling you I pulled out five screwdrivers before I finally found one that's got a Phillips head, so let's take a look inside. I think what we're going to see is bulging or leaking capacitors.

[00:00:50]Leaking corrosive goo over everything, so yeah. If that is the case, they've got to come out right [snorts] now.

[00:00:57]The only thing I am concerned about is whether I'll be able to find any replacements.

[00:01:02]I mean, I think the power cycling thing for a few minutes was well, not a few minutes, but maybe a minute or so. I think that's just where the capacitors reform cuz, you know, if you have capacitors off, they start degrading, but when you power them back on, they start reforming and uh this time they didn't reform all the way.

[00:01:21]Now, let's see if we can get this thing open.

[00:01:23]Um is there anything other screws hidden? Yes, cuz I've got this bit off.

[00:01:28]All right, so I finally figured out how to take it apart.

[00:01:31]So, it turns out that there were labels hiding the screws on each side. And I was tugging and tugging and tugging at this thing trying [snorts] to figure out why it wouldn't come apart. Anyway, [clears throat] I um think uh which side actually comes out? I think it's this side.

[00:01:48]Get this open and take a look at what's going on inside.

[00:01:53]You can see some of my futile attempts at trying to get this apart, not knowing that there was screws holding it in.

[00:02:00]Yeah, those four screws are removed. All they were doing was holding the fan in place. Okay, so I think this is our culprit right here. Of course, it could be some of the capacitors on the output side, but um won't know that for sure until I've gone further into this thing. Well, that was a lot more trouble than I really wanted to go through with, but we have a 400 V 330 microfarad capacitor. It's our main filter capacitor there. And yes, I did make sure it was discharged. I'm not a bugger to get out because they put on this silicone stuff around it. I know it's just there to hold it in place, but I need to get that out and replace it with a new one. Okay, so I found a suitable replacement in one of my older projects, so I've had to sacrifice that just to get the capacitor out of it, but it's got a bit more chunk to it, but I think we can fit that in.

[00:02:57]Okay, yeah, it's definitely the capacitor. Let me just zoom in. So, this is the old capacitor, and this is the one that's going to replace it. So, let's just measure them. So, they're both They're both 400 V 330 microfarad capacitors. Let's measure this one. Just get that on there. In a minute, we should see There we go. It's measuring about 290 microfarads. That's somewhat within tolerance. As this one, the original one, I'll stick the leads across that and it's only reading 6.something.

[00:03:32]Yes, 6.92 nanofarads. So, no wonder. All right, that's in. Make sure it's in the right way around. All that's needed to do now is to solder it in place, and I think we should be in business.

[00:03:46]Well, this is as good as repaired.

[00:03:50]All that's left is to put it back together.

[00:03:54]Well, here is one repaired power supply.

[00:03:57]As with all my fixes, I do have lost a screw or two, but I don't think that's going to be too much of an issue. The main problem with it is fixed. Now, let's stick it in the computer and see if it works. All right, so I've got it plugged in. Got it plugged into power and HDMI. At the moment, we're seeing the other computer's display, which is running Linux Mint. So, at least I have some backup for playing YouTube when this computer is not working. So, turn this on.

[00:04:29]Okay, power's on, I think. Just making sure we've got lights and stuff. Yep, we've got a little light coming on in there.

[00:04:38]Let's see if it works.

[00:04:41]Let's turn it on and see if it works.

[00:04:47]Oh, yeah, a little bit of dust flew out there, but doesn't appear to be power cycling.

[00:04:57]Or maybe not, as the case goes.

[00:05:07]It's not making weird noises, so that's good.

[00:05:13]I wanted it to just go, "Yeah!"

[00:05:24]Still power cycling, though, even after I replaced that capacitor, which is weird.

[00:05:30]But, we should have Fedora come up in a second.

[00:05:39]All right, here we go.

[00:05:40]It's loading the OS.

[00:05:46]So, I'm sure what's doing the power cycling thing. It might even be the fact that this is running Fedora.

[00:05:52]Might even be misconfigured settings in the BIOS.

[00:05:57]>> [snorts] >> I haven't really looked into that.

[00:06:00]But, yeah, we we is in business. I'm going to plug a mouse and a keyboard into this so I can actually do But, yeah, this is going to go back under the bench.

[00:06:10]But, firstly, yeah, I'm just going to let this sit for a while and make sure everything's good. So, this is going to go back under the bench and connect it up to all the crap that I normally have it connected up to.

[00:06:21]But, first, I think some cleaning and some cable management is in order. I mean, under the CPU cooler is dust bunny city under there. So, yeah, we've got to do something about that. But, so far, so good. Okay, we're all back in. I have to apologize for the mess in this room. I've only had time to tidy up. Anyway, let's [clears throat] switch over to the other computer, you know, the more powerful computer. And, let's switch it on and see if it works. And, hopefully, a minute or so, we'd see it post and then load Fedora. Bear in mind that this power supply is going to be replaced ASAP, but this is just a temporary fix. At least it is providing stable voltage now. You know what? I had that little menu come up. It's never done that before. I didn't even know this thing had grub. But, yeah, I think we're in business. All right, final attempt to stop this thing power cycling. So, I've added a capacitor to the 12-V rail, and hopefully this is going to do something. Also, capped off the ends of these wires there so they don't short out on anything. So, I'm going to plug this in, try it again, and if it continues to power cycle with this added capacitor, I'll know it's not that. I know this may seem like a bit of a hack job, and that's not the best way to add a capacitor, but I'm not taking this thing apart again.

[00:07:48]This will have to do.

[00:07:52]Okay, power's on.

[00:07:54]Hopefully none of the cables unplug themselves.

[00:08:00]No, it's still doing that boot looping thing.

[00:08:16]So, it might not be the power supply.

[00:08:20]Although it does seem to be doing it less.

[00:08:26]Almost said then it just did it again.

[00:08:28]>> [clears throat] >> Is it going to boot?

[00:08:44]Okay, it's booting.

[00:08:52]Well, it only did it four times that time, so that's that's an improvement.

[00:09:00]Okay, so I'm going to leave it there.

[00:09:01]So, if anybody knows just what the issue is with my computer, do I need to replace the Is it the power supply? Is it something else?

[00:09:12]At this point, I don't know.