ATX power supply capacitor identification.

There was a power surge at the customer's house. PG&E said their neutral line failed. The computer now has an ATX power supply that smells quite crispy. The 6.3 amp fuse was blown. I replaced it, then shorted pins 13 and

14 together on the main connector to test it outside of the box. I brought the voltage up slowly with a variac and 100W bulb in series. The fan came on but the bulb was a bit bright. I removed the bulb and tried it with just the variac. The fan came on, then smoke came pouring out of one component which was shorted. It's located between the largest two capacitors on the board which are 470uF @ 200V. I was able to peel off the heat shrink and it appears to be a ceramic disk capacitor. The part number starts with 241k. I cannot read the other numbers that follow. I'm guessing it's 240pF but at what voltage? It's wired in parallel to the previously mentioned largest capacitor on the board. Any idea what the voltage rating should be on this cap? Is it even necessary to replace it? The power supply works fine now that the short has been removed.

Thanks for your reply.

--
David Farber 
Los Osos, CA
Reply to
David Farber
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"David Farber" wrote in news:ldoue5$o9d$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Its *NOT* a cap, its a varistor and is supposed to clip any spikes on the AC in. Replace it with one rated for continuous operation at your local supply voltage or the next time there's a surge the PSU will puke its guts and is quite likely to take out the motherboard and/or hard drive. There may be one across the other big cap as well and if so they should be replaced as a pair. Its essential to replace the heatshrink (and make sure its non-flamable) or the next failure will deposit a conductive coating over the rest of the PSU.

--
Ian Malcolm.   London, ENGLAND.  (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)  
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk  
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Reply to
Ian Malcolm

Thanks for that info. I'll remove it from the pc until I get the correct parts. You are correct, there is another one of these across the other big cap.

--
David Farber 
Los Osos, CA
Reply to
David Farber

"Ian Malcolm"

** Nonsense.

Large electros kill spikes just like sledgehammers kill flies.

A bridge rectifier followed by a filter electro is the best spike suppressor you will ever see.

** All they do is make the fuse blow if the electros are overvoltaged by connection to a too high AC supply.

.... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

Our buddy Phill composed, in an unusually non-berating way today thusly :

And they got better aim. As long as you have full wave rectification, and t he rectifiers can handle alot of peak current, they are quite effective. Ho wever they are not effective so much against having simple overvoltage appl ied.

You are not in the US, if the power there is like the UK or whatever it is different. While you have 240 coming in referenced to neutral, in the US i t is half that. The line is balanced with two 120 volt legs out of phase. A lmost all smaller appliiances run from one leg to neutral. If the neutral l oses continuity it can apply as much as double the effective, peak to peak, RMS and whatever other way you want to measure it - voltage to your applia nce.

This cannot happen in the good countries but I am not here to bitch. At the moment...

At any rate, I have seen a bunch of equipment saved by these MOVs over the years and in fact at one time I did install them as an option on repair job s. When I worked where they sold service contracts, I should have installed them as a matter of standard operating procedure.

Of course this does not necessarily apply in other countries.

I have also noticed a few tings that actually switch themself. What most of them do is to simply rectify without doubling and then kick it up with a c hopper circuit, the usual boost thing. When the incoming is well above the

160 rectified the booster simply shuts down and passes the juice.

A long time ago I worked on a bunch of little TVs for a limo service that a ctually ran on 24 volts but had an upconvertor for use on 12 volts. The ups ide to these little Sonys (who else ?) was that they could be simply connec ted into 24 volt systems (tractor trailers/lorries) with zero modifications . You could fuse it a little lower but that wasn't all that bad.

I think as soon as Edison's body was cold they should have made it 240, yes center tapped like it is, but made all the outlets and appliances 240 all the time. they also should have changed the frequency to 400 Hz. (CPS LOL) Or better yet, maybe 360 or something to make it easier to make electric cl ocks. Synchronous motors would be a little more complex but think of all th e speeds you could have.

Enough, I am not drunk enough to write more right now... lol.

Reply to
jurb6006

Our buddy Phill composed, in an unusually non-berating way today thusly :

And they got better aim. As long as you have full wave rectification, and the rectifiers can handle alot of peak current, they are quite effective. However they are not effective so much against having simple overvoltage applied.

You are not in the US, if the power there is like the UK or whatever it is different. While you have 240 coming in referenced to neutral, in the US it is half that. The line is balanced with two 120 volt legs out of phase. Almost all smaller appliiances run from one leg to neutral. If the neutral loses continuity it can apply as much as double the effective, peak to peak, RMS and whatever other way you want to measure it - voltage to your appliance.

** The 120V leg with the greater load will drop voltage when the neutral is lost - so the other leg goes up until something goes bang.

This cannot happen in the good countries but I am not here to bitch.

** It happens now and then in live entertainment venues when 3 phase power is used.

Same reason, no neutral exists or loss of the of neutral conductor.

.... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

You are already too drunk to make sense. There were a lot of 25 Hz power plants for rialroads, mines and other places that required low speeds and very high starting torque. Also, 400 hz would reduce the size of a power grid segments, before the losses become excessive. This would require a lot more HV AC to DC and DC to AC conversion for distribution between grid segments. That also lowers the overall grid efficiency, which will raise your electric bill. This is why no one asked your opinion of our power distribution systems.

--
Anyone wanting to run for any political office in the US should have to 
have a DD214, and a honorable discharge.
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

"Ian Malcolm"

** There is no such " self inductance" with electros or other wound foil capacitors.

FYI:

The inductance of the PCB traces is far more than that of typical capacitors.

You are clutching at straws - pal.

.... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

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