Computer room static blowing server power supplies

T · 2006-04-04T20:41:57+00:00

A raised floor server room with 6 servers, fiber optic patch panels, large control system cabinets and large UPS system, has been recently been plagued by computer power supply failures. The supplies fail when apparently many tens of thousands of volts jump from inside the PS around the switching regulators to the chassis of the supply taking out all the components. This has happened to 8 supplies so far. A visible blue flash has been witnessed several times by pewrsons in the room.The servers so far affected are all sitting on the raised computer center floor. What ususally happens seems to be when a person enters the 12x20ft room or gets near a server a large snap is heard and the server is on the backup redundant PS, if it has not already failed.We have been adding grounding bonding from all computer case to the bldg steel, raised floor structure, etc to try to stop this. Its still happening. The computers are various brands and varoious ages, from 1 week old to 5 years old. The probelm began occuring 2 months ago. The data center was built 12 years ago.We are at a loss to figure out how the charge is building up on the inside of the power supplies. I am thinking about the common power source, via the power cords Hot, Neutral and Ground conductor.The green wire should be bonded to the PC case. Apparently the PS regulator board floats above chassis potential. Apparently a large potential differnce is building. It jumps a 1 inch gap to the chassis. Burn marks from repeated arc overs are evindent (the arc that makes it fail is not the 1st time it occurs!)The Hot and Nuetral..how could a charge be coming in on these conductors and getting past the MOVs to build a potential on the boards.Any ideas would be appreciated.TJS

Apr 04, 2006 21 Replies

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Rich Grise, but drunk 20 years ago

Poltergeists.

Cheers! Rich

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GAT(E P) dpu s: a++ C++@ P+ L++>+ !E W+ N++ o? K? w-- !O !M !V PS+++ PE Y+ PGP- t 5+++)-; X- R- tv+ b+ DI++++>+ D-? G e+$ h+ r-- z+ ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

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Franc Zabkar 20 years ago

On Fri, 07 Apr 2006 22:56:16 GMT, Rich Grise put finger to keyboard and composed:

The OP states that "the failures/arcs in our supplies have all arced from the 120vac chopper regulator collector to the PS case."

I would have thought that zinc whiskers would result in random faults.

- Franc Zabkar

Please remove one \'i\' from my address when replying by email.

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