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Electronics Repair (sci.electronics.repair) Discussion of repairing electronic equipment. Topics include requests for assistance, where to obtain servicing information and parts, techniques for diagnosis and repair, and annecdotes about success, failures and problems. |
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#1
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Desktop PC power supply
I have an old PC that recently lost its PS. An identical one was hard
to find, but I didn't know the PC's power requirements, so I couldn't use a generic PS. I should say that I thought I couldn't use a generic one. I measured the PC's power use so next time I'll be ready. It was quite surprising - the PS is "400W", but the PC only uses 54W. And there's 40A of 5V available, but only 5A are used. Etc. The biggest surprise was the PS's efficiency, or lack thereof. A Kill-a-watt on the input showed 200w being used, and 54w output. 25% more or less. I thought that a SMPS would be way more efficient than that. Bob |
#2
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Desktop PC power supply
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#3
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Desktop PC power supply
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#4
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Desktop PC power supply
On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 09:58:26 -0500, Bob Engelhardt
wrote: The biggest surprise was the PS's efficiency, or lack thereof. A Kill-a-watt on the input showed 200w being used, and 54w output. 25% more or less. I thought that a SMPS would be way more efficient than that. I'll assume it's an ATX style power supply. http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2012/august/80-plus-platinum-what-does-it-mean-and-what-is-the-benefit-to-me "Intel’s ATX specification only requires that a power supply is 60% efficient at 50% load. Most decent quality power supplies made in the last decade are around 70% efficient at 50% load." If you're getting 25%, either something is wrong, but I can't tell if it's your measurements, a defective design, a failed power supply, or how you're measuring the efficiency. I've made similar measurements of an ATX power supply using a dummy load on the +5v and +12V lines, and a Kill-a-watt meter. Typically, I obtained 75% efficiency at about 50% of full load on a cheap ATX PS. As MJC mentioned, the heat has to go somewhere. If your efficiency at at 50% of maximum load (200 watts) is only 25%, then you should have 150 watts of hot air and flames coming out the back end of the PS with the temp controlled fan spinning furiously. Something is wrong. Photo of one of my loads: http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/slides/dummy-load-inductance.html -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
#5
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Desktop PC power supply
On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 08:13:54 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote: On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 09:58:26 -0500, Bob Engelhardt wrote: The biggest surprise was the PS's efficiency, or lack thereof. A Kill-a-watt on the input showed 200w being used, and 54w output. 25% more or less. I thought that a SMPS would be way more efficient than that. I'll assume it's an ATX style power supply. http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2012/august/80-plus-platinum-what-does-it-mean-and-what-is-the-benefit-to-me "Intel’s ATX specification only requires that a power supply is 60% efficient at 50% load. Most decent quality power supplies made in the last decade are around 70% efficient at 50% load." If you're getting 25%, either something is wrong, but I can't tell if it's your measurements, a defective design, a failed power supply, or how you're measuring the efficiency. I've made similar measurements of an ATX power supply using a dummy load on the +5v and +12V lines, and a Kill-a-watt meter. Typically, I obtained 75% efficiency at about 50% of full load on a cheap ATX PS. As MJC mentioned, the heat has to go somewhere. If your efficiency at at 50% of maximum load (200 watts) is only 25%, then you should have 150 watts of hot air and flames coming out the back end of the PS with the temp controlled fan spinning furiously. Something is wrong. Photo of one of my loads: http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/slides/dummy-load-inductance.html I was going to respond to the OP, but Jeff beat me to it. Switching supplies are notorious for having very poor power factors under light load. I looked up the specs on the kill-a-watt and it is supposed to read power factor correctly when seeing a pure sine wave. Of course, there is no guaranty the current waveform is a pure sine wave. It is more likely to have spikes all over the place. (That's one of the reasons switching supplies can cause RF noise.) My guess (and that's all it is) is your supply is using under well under 100 watts, but your kill-a-watt is confused by the strange current waveform and says it is using 200 watts. |
#6
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Desktop PC power supply
In sci.electronics.repair, on Thu, 02 Mar 2017 08:13:54 -0800, Jeff
Liebermann wrote: On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 09:58:26 -0500, Bob Engelhardt wrote: The biggest surprise was the PS's efficiency, or lack thereof. A Kill-a-watt on the input showed 200w being used, and 54w output. 25% more or less. I thought that a SMPS would be way more efficient than that. I'll assume it's an ATX style power supply. http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2012/august/80-plus-platinum-what-does-it-mean-and-what-is-the-benefit-to-me "Intel’s ATX specification only requires that a power supply is 60% efficient at 50% load. Most decent quality power supplies made in the last decade are around 70% efficient at 50% load." If you're getting 25%, either something is wrong, but I can't tell if it's your measurements, a defective design, a failed power supply, or how you're measuring the efficiency. I've made similar measurements of an ATX power supply using a dummy load on the +5v and +12V lines, and a Kill-a-watt meter. Typically, I obtained 75% efficiency at about 50% of full load on a cheap ATX PS. As MJC mentioned, the heat has to go somewhere. If your efficiency at at 50% of maximum load (200 watts) is only 25%, then you should have 150 watts of hot air and flames coming out the back end of the PS with the temp controlled fan spinning furiously. Something is wrong. Photo of one of my loads: http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/slides/dummy-load-inductance.html Wow. I want one of those. The meter I mean. It's a shame I have no use for it. In all these years I've never wanted to measure inductance and I've never needed to measure capacitance. But what is the diff between these two things: https://www.amazon.com/AideTek-multi...4070+lcr+meter and https://www.amazon.com/AideTek-multi...4070+lcr+meter Same brand, same model, but one is 2 1/2 times the price! Interestingly, the more expensive one takes much longer to ship, has no ratings, and only one picture, compared to 7. Different vendor. How do they hope to sell it. (I didnt' mean these differences. I thought maybe they're not actually the same.) They both save Vici in the upper right but afaict, yours doesn't. |
#7
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Desktop PC power supply
On 3/2/2017 10:13 AM, MJC wrote:
The energy has to go somewhere. If your measurement is to be trusted (real RMS?) then the PSU fan must be working like a hairdryer! It would take a very long time to dry your hair with it. 150w vs 1500w in hair dryer. Yeah, the PSU exhaust is warm, but 150w is pretty easy to blow away. And what do you mean "lost its PS"? It vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving not even a specification plate behind? It died. The problem was matching ALL the name plate specs. There are a lot of combinations. |
#8
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Desktop PC power supply
On 3/2/2017 10:50 AM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
I don't have a Kill-O-Watt but do have a meter similar to it. That one reads out Volts, Amps,and Watts. I have noticed that if I hookit to a resistive load like a heat gun the volts and amps are very close to the watts. If I hook it to a reactive load there is a big difference in the Watts vers the volts times amps. That I understand. I have not paid any attention to a switching supply that way. Is it possiable the the watts and the V times I are not the same for your meter ? I assumed that the Kill-a-watt does true rms, but possibly not. |
#9
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Desktop PC power supply
On 3/2/2017 11:13 AM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
I'll assume it's an ATX style power supply. http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2012/august/80-plus-platinum-what-does-it-mean-and-what-is-the-benefit-to-me "Intel’s ATX specification only requires that a power supply is 60% efficient at 50% load. Most decent quality power supplies made in the last decade are around 70% efficient at 50% load." If you're getting 25%, either something is wrong, but I can't tell if it's your measurements, a defective design, a failed power supply, or how you're measuring the efficiency. I've made similar measurements of an ATX power supply using a dummy load on the +5v and +12V lines, and a Kill-a-watt meter. Typically, I obtained 75% efficiency at about 50% of full load on a cheap ATX PS. As MJC mentioned, the heat has to go somewhere. If your efficiency at at 50% of maximum load (200 watts) is only 25%, then you should have 150 watts of hot air and flames coming out the back end of the PS with the temp controlled fan spinning furiously. Something is wrong. Photo of one of my loads: http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/slides/dummy-load-inductance.html I measured the current (inline meter) on all the MB power lines and the hard drives power lines. As I posted, the input was from a Kill-a-watt. One divided by the other for efficiency. Although the PSU is using 200w, it's rated for 400w output, so my 54W is only 13% of rated power. (The name plate input is 10A at 115v). Maybe efficiency goes to hell for really small loads. My intuition is that 2 75W light bulbs in a box could be cooled by a PSU fan. Without flames. It's kinda wonky, but not crazily so. Bob |
#10
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Desktop PC power supply
On 3/2/2017 11:45 AM, Pat wrote:
I was going to respond to the OP, but Jeff beat me to it. Switching supplies are notorious for having very poor power factors under light load. I looked up the specs on the kill-a-watt and it is supposed to read power factor correctly when seeing a pure sine wave. Of course, there is no guaranty the current waveform is a pure sine wave. It is more likely to have spikes all over the place. (That's one of the reasons switching supplies can cause RF noise.) My guess (and that's all it is) is your supply is using under well under 100 watts, but your kill-a-watt is confused by the strange current waveform and says it is using 200 watts. So, "maybe, maybe not" on the Kill-a-watt number. My scope is packed away waiting for its once-a-year use or I'd look at the PSU input current. |
#11
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Desktop PC power supply
On Thursday, March 2, 2017 at 6:58:36 AM UTC-8, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
I have an old PC that recently lost its PS. An identical one was hard to find, ... the PS is "400W", but the PC only uses 54W. The biggest surprise was the PS's efficiency, or lack thereof. A Kill-a-watt on the input showed 200w being used, and 54w output. 25% more or less. I thought that a SMPS would be way more efficient than that. Unless your machine is a loud-fans-and-multiple-XEONs type, 54W is a likely power draw, and 200W is unlikely. It is possible (on old Apple computers, it's common) to repair a dead power supply. They're cramped and sometimes have unlabeled tiny chips, but a check for burst capacitors and shorted rectifiers, and of course fuses, will often bring 'em back to life. If you find shorted power FETs, be aware that there's a gate drive which might have failed, too; those repairs get complicated. |
#12
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Desktop PC power supply
On 3/2/2017 7:34 PM, whit3rd wrote:
Unless your machine is a loud-fans-and-multiple-XEONs type, 54W is a likely power draw, and 200W is unlikely. Very modest machine. And I'm much more confident about the output measurements. It is possible (on old Apple computers, it's common) to repair a dead power supply. They're cramped and sometimes have unlabeled tiny chips, but a check for burst capacitors and shorted rectifiers, and of course fuses, will often bring 'em back to life. If you find shorted power FETs, be aware that there's a gate drive which might have failed, too; those repairs get complicated. I did actually try to repair the old one. I don't remember many specifics except that when I got a big spark and a burned trace I gave up. |
#13
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Desktop PC power supply
Bob Engelhardt wrote:
The biggest surprise was the PS's efficiency, or lack thereof. A Kill-a-watt on the input showed 200w being used, and 54w output. ** A Kill-A-Watt reads "watts", power factor and "VA". What does yours give for PF & VA ? ...... Phil |
#14
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Desktop PC power supply
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#15
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Desktop PC power supply
On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 19:12:38 -0500, Bob Engelhardt
wrote: I measured the current (inline meter) on all the MB power lines and the hard drives power lines. As I posted, the input was from a Kill-a-watt. One divided by the other for efficiency. Although the PSU is using 200w, it's rated for 400w output, so my 54W is only 13% of rated power. (The name plate input is 10A at 115v). Maybe efficiency goes to hell for really small loads. I didn't have time for a proper test today. I just stuffed the kill-a-watt meter into the bench power strip and used it to power an HP 8200 Elite SFF desktop. Something like this with an i3 CPU: http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c03412787 http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docLocale=en_US&docId=emr_na-c02781555 I think it has power factor correction for: 320 W active PFC 87%/90%/87% efficient at 20%/50%/100% load. The input power consumption varied from 30 watts to 70 watts depending on what the machine was doing. Eyeball average was about 50 watts. Playing a video burned 70 watts. The power factor varied from 0.90 to 0.96. However, I was unable to obtain VA and watt reading pairs to determine if the PF was for real. However, I had no way to measure the current at the motherboard and drives. I also couldn't find my ATX dummy load. I'll throw something together this weekend if I have time. My intuition is that 2 75W light bulbs in a box could be cooled by a PSU fan. Without flames. I don't use light bulbs as loads (except for UPS testing). Mostly, I use power resistors and head sinks. My load is intended to simulate a game machine, which typically burns about 350 watts with a high end video card installed. At that power level, I need either a fan or a bucket of water to cool the heat sink. It's kinda wonky, but not crazily so. Well, like I suggested... something is wrong. It's unlikely that your PS has PF correction or is highly efficient. However, it shouldn't be as low as 13%. Something is wrong, but I can't tell where from here. If you have the time and inclination, you might try testing a known good ATX power supply and see if the numbers magically improve. If the efficiency is fairly high, then the original power supply is broken somewhere. However, if it too shows 13% efficiency, then there's something wrong with either your instruments, or your methodology. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
#16
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Desktop PC power supply
On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 18:51:08 -0500, micky
wrote: Wow. I want one of those. The meter I mean. I think I bought it from this vendor probably 3 years ago: http://www.ebay.com/itm/322363697016 It's a tolerable LCR meter. I bought it for a specific project (inductive vehicle detector) and then bought 2 more (for my office and vehicle). It's a shame I have no use for it. In all these years I've never wanted to measure inductance and I've never needed to measure capacitance. You must live a sheltered life. Haven't you ever made your own inductors or capacitors and needed to measure the inductance or capacitance? In RF, that's common practice. Even simple things like estimating the length of coax cable or CAT5 by measuring the capacitance and dividing by capacitance per foot, is useful. Then there are loading coils, filters, drifting caps, etc. Also, if you trust the values printed on the parts, you might be in for a rude surprise when you test them. Incidentally, I also use an earlier version of one of these M328 meters: http://www.ebay.com/itm/252290685197 http://www.banggood.com/M328-LCD-12864-Transistor-Tester-DIY-Kit-Diode-Triode-Capacitance-LCR-ESR-Meter-p-1041588.html I prefer a curve tracer for testing and matching active devices, but this is good enough for a quick test. It also does LCR. There are many variations. Google for "M328": https://www.google.com/search?q=m328&tbm=isch -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
#17
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Desktop PC power supply
On 3/2/2017 10:51 PM, Phil Allison wrote:
** A Kill-A-Watt reads "watts", power factor and "VA". What does yours give for PF & VA ? It's consistent: VA = 310+-, PF=.69, W=210+-. So, it knows that there's difference & it knows how to divide, but it still might not know how to do true RMS power. |
#18
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Desktop PC power supply
On 3/3/2017 12:48 AM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 19:12:38 -0500, Bob Engelhardt wrote: ... HP 8200 Elite SFF desktop. ... The input power consumption varied from 30 watts to 70 watts depending on what the machine was doing. Eyeball average was about 50 watts. ... It's highly improbable that your machine is weaker than mine, so your 50W in versus my 200W means that mine is way too high. Unless my Kill-a-watt is wonky. My intuition is that 2 75W light bulbs in a box could be cooled by a PSU fan. Without flames. I don't use light bulbs as loads (except for UPS testing). ... I just used the light bulbs as a common example of power. I have an intuitive feel for the power of a light bulb & if it could be kept in limit with a fan. Not so much a ceramic power resistor. It's kinda wonky, but not crazily so. Well, like I suggested... something is wrong. It's unlikely that your PS has PF correction or is highly efficient. However, it shouldn't be as low as 13%. Something is wrong, but I can't tell where from here. ... My 13% is my 54W draw versus the 400W rating of the PSU. The PSU name plate ratings: 1200W in (10A), 400W out. I'm using 200W in, 54W out (25% efficient). 54 / 400 = 13% rated load. But even at 12% rated load, the efficiency shouldn't be 25%. BTW - I don't really care, I'm just curious. |
#19
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#20
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Desktop PC power supply
On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 01:46:08 -0500, Bob Engelhardt
wrote: On 3/3/2017 12:48 AM, Jeff Liebermann wrote: On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 19:12:38 -0500, Bob Engelhardt wrote: ... HP 8200 Elite SFF desktop. ... The input power consumption varied from 30 watts to 70 watts depending on what the machine was doing. Eyeball average was about 50 watts. ... It's highly improbable that your machine is weaker than mine, so your 50W in versus my 200W means that mine is way too high. Unless my Kill-a-watt is wonky. That's a possibility. I have several kill-a-watt meters. When I upgraded to the latest greatest, I took them apart to determine the difference. http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/drivel/slides/kill-a-watt.html Much the same except for the clock crystal, 5 instead of 4 buttons, different uP, and some beefier components. However, I was having problems with erratic readings with the old model (top photo) which I traced to marginal soldering on the AC power connector pins and current sense "resistance wire". I resoldered everything that looked suspicious and the problems disappeared. You might want to disassemble yours and check for similar soldering problems. Incidentally, the marginal soldering in the later unit (bottom photo) is stock. I later went through it and resoldered all the rough conections. That's when I found that the ground pin on the AC power plug had a cold solder connection. That should have any effect on the readings, but it does suggest that the soldering problem might be common. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
#21
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Desktop PC power supply
Bob Engelhardt wrote:
It's highly improbable that your machine is weaker than mine, so your 50W in versus my 200W means that mine is way too high. Unless my Kill-a-watt is wonky. I think it HAS to be that the Kill-a-Watt is not measuring a non-linear load properly. If the PS was burning 150 W internally, a small fan would NOT be able to cool the hot components effectively. Saying that 2 75 W bulbs in the housing would not burn up is not germane. There are several components in the PS that will be generating all the heat. Switching transistors, diodes and maybe transformers are what will get hot. Real Kill-a-Watt meters are SUPPOSED to properly measure non-linear loads up to some reasonable crest factor, like 10. Probably most non-PFC corrected power supplies won't be too much worse than a crest factor of 10 (I hope). So, you might check this with a real electromagnetic wattmeter or a Kill-a- Watt that is known to handle non-linear loads accurately. Or, if you want to go nuts, get a digital scope or other scope, digitize the current waveform and numerically integrate the true power draw. Jon |
#22
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Desktop PC power supply
On 3/3/2017 11:31 AM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Fri, 03 Mar 2017 01:46:08 -0500, Bob Engelhardt wrote: Unless my Kill-a-watt is wonky. That's a possibility. I have several kill-a-watt meters. ... I checked my Kill-a-watt against my Fluke "True RMS" clamp-on. They read the same current, so that gives me a lot more confidence in the Kill-a-watt. Now, for the "I'm feeling really stupid" part: in the maze of cables under my desk, I had put the Kill-a-watt on the wrong one! I was measuring the power on everything: PC, printer, modem, etc. When I used the right cable & measured just the PC, the power was 155W+-. Versus the 200W previously. So my PSU efficiency is 33%+- (54/155). Better than the previous/wrong 25%, but not dramatically so. Thanks to all the commenters. Bob |
#23
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Desktop PC power supply
On Thu, 02 Mar 2017 09:58:26 -0500, Bob Engelhardt
wrote: I have an old PC that recently lost its PS. An identical one was hard to find, but I didn't know the PC's power requirements, so I couldn't use a generic PS. I should say that I thought I couldn't use a generic one. I measured the PC's power use so next time I'll be ready. It was quite surprising - the PS is "400W", but the PC only uses 54W. And there's 40A of 5V available, but only 5A are used. Etc. The biggest surprise was the PS's efficiency, or lack thereof. A Kill-a-watt on the input showed 200w being used, and 54w output. 25% more or less. I thought that a SMPS would be way more efficient than that. Bob I had an older Pentium computer that came with a 100W PS. It worked fien until I added more RAM and an extra Harddrive. Then it would randomly crash or just do a reboot for no reason. Shortly afterwards, the PS just died. I bought a 350W PS and never had another problem with that computer. It's called RESERVE POWER. Under normal use, it only uses 54W, but add a few drives and run it real hard, and the power use demand rises. This is about the same as an audio amplifier. You may have the output tubes or transistors that will pump out 100W, but if your power supply cant furnish the reserve power on high demand heavy bass loads, you will hear a lot of distortion, or lose power, or worse.... |
#24
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