Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Jeffrey D Angus wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:
I've seen more bad power supplies in HP
computers than any other brand I've worked on.

Well, HP bought Compaq, so I suppose it shouldn't
surprise me then that the PSU in that box went tits
up after about 2 years.


I bought a new Compaq computer in 1999. It didn't make it through the
warranty because of fake low ESR electrolytics on the motherboard. I
called for a warranty repair and told them it was rebooting constantly.
They told me to make sure the video cable was connected, and if that
didn't fix it, to take it to the nearest Radio Shack store. They told me
to copy my data from the computer, but if I opened the case the warranty
was void. I told them to stuff their company up their ass and bought a
new eMachines with Windows ME. That motherboard died after five years.
The power supply was still good and went into another model emachines
that needed the same odd shaped supply. I had installed a larger hard
drive before it died. That drive, with the original install of ME is now
in the fifth motherboard and works great for scanning photos and old
manuals.

I bought a used Compaq Evo once, I'd seen 'em in use at all kinds of
different businesses so figured they must be
'pretty good'. I had it a couple months and one day i left it powered
up while I went to do some errands. Came back after a couple hours
and immediately smelt that burned electronics smell as I walked in the
door; there was also an odd sound recurring in a steady rhythm coming
from the 'computer room'. I found that the power supply had smoked,
but didn't shut down completely, so it would bog down the UPS, then
the UPS would start to come back up and the smoked PSU would try to
start again which would again bog down the UPS - no telling how long
it did this before I got back. I immediately scrapped that effing
EVO.

The next morning when I turned on the main computer the UPS went out.
It was a shame, as it's an industrial quality NCR 1 kw unit from the
80's. Reading up on those EVO's after the fact, I came to agree with
one denizen of the web who proposed that EVO's are evil...