---Taking Apart PSU---

Starfoxer

World's Biggest E-Thug

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Joined

Feb 9, 2002

Location

USA

• Aug 4, 2002

• #1

hey all, i was wondering if it was dangerous to take apart your
PSU....no not while running

i need to get the casing off so i can paint it. for the people that
have done this before, is there anything i need to be careful
about, any tips or percaussions i should take.

thanks!

 

The Spyder

Member

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Joined

Mar 25, 2002

Location

Oregon

• Aug 4, 2002

• #2

Dont touch the capasitors..... and thats it.......

 

JigPu

Inactive Pokémon Moderator

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Joined

Jun 20, 2001

Location

Vancouver, WA

• Aug 4, 2002

• #3

Yeah, the caps can hold a very large charge.... You definatly don't want to touch them. Also, the only power supply I've taken apart was REALLY hard to get apart. In fact, once I did, it wouldn't go back together again. You may want to just mask off the holes or something to paint it (hit the area around the holes with a paint brush I guess...).

JigPu

 

Ridenow

Sneaky Moderator

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Joined

Apr 17, 2001

Location

Springfield, IL

• Aug 5, 2002

• #4

One of the things I do is to plug the power cord into the PSU, then put a screwdriver across the contacts where it plugs into the wall. This should discharge the caps. It is possible that it will not discharge all of them, so you still need to be careful.

 

roYal

Member

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Joined

Jun 17, 2002

Location

Chicago, IL

• Aug 5, 2002

• #5

The capacitors have enough charge in them to kill you, so no matter what, DON'T TOUCH THEM.

 

thefly

Member

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Joined

May 16, 2001

Location

Montreal

• Aug 5, 2002

• #6

I've changed fans inside power supplies before.

The ones i've worked on have opened with ease.

As for the caps and the charge they hold, becareful.
JigPu's suggestion of masking the holes is probably the smartest safest idea.

 

MEMex

Member

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Joined

Jun 25, 2002

Location

Visalia, CA

• Aug 5, 2002

• #7

Are you saying that capacitors hold charges even when ther not plugged in???

Just woundering, i took about 5 to 6 psus apart for cleaning and maintences on fans...

I pretty much touched everything but the big coils... uh, wow i think i should realy pay attention to this post....


-=edited=-
omfg i'm so stupied! i almost killed myslef 6 times, 7 if you include the big 22" tv i took apart! i whippin the psu for the tv (bare) around the garage (next to the gasoline) wow, something i thought wasn't dangerous when it was unplugged seemed to be the most hazardous thing i coulda done...

Thx guys, you saved my life in future idiodic events for me! If i had a job with lots of money i woulda reward you with some dual p4 computers

I guess its a lessoned learned for me, 2nd to be exact from cutting a live power cord with siccors when i had paper above it ( don't ask )

 

Last edited: Aug 5, 2002

Penguin4x4

Are you my Daddy?

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Joined

May 28, 2002

Location

Sector 7G

• Aug 5, 2002

• #8

Capacitor - An electronic device that can store electrical charge. The charge stored Q in Coulombs is related to the capacitance C in Farads and the voltage V across the capacitor in Volts by Q = CV.

The basis of a dynamic RAM cell is a capacitor. They are also used for power-supply smoothing (or "decoupling"). This is especially important in digital circuits where a digital device switching between states causes a sudden demand for current. Without sufficient local power supply decoupling, this current "spike" cannot be supplied directly from the power supply due to the inductance of the connectors and so will cause a sharp drop in the power supply voltage near the switching device. This can cause other devices to malfunction resulting in hard to trace glitches.

They hold charge until grounded, or discharged. Ridenow hit it on the head.

 

MEMex

Member

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Joined

Jun 25, 2002

Location

Visalia, CA

• Aug 5, 2002

• #9

Thx penguine, i'm going to print that out and post it on my wall

I think i'm going to make a section of my wall of idiodic events and tack it right in the middle

 

M

Mr. Chambers

Member

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Joined

Feb 25, 2001

Location

Iowa

• Aug 5, 2002

• #10

oh my, so alls you have to do to get a nasty shock is to touch those coils?? i'm gonna be painting mine as well when i get it.. i'd better be extra freakin careful!

 

Penguin4x4

Are you my Daddy?

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Joined

May 28, 2002

Location

Sector 7G

• Aug 5, 2002

• #11

One of the things I do is to plug the power cord into the PSU, then put a screwdriver across the contacts where it plugs into the wall.

Click to expand...

MAKE SURE THE POWER SUPPLY SWITCH IS ON WHEN YOU DO THIS, OTHER WISE THE CAP'S WON'T DISCHARGE!

 

OP

Starfoxer

World's Biggest E-Thug

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Joined

Feb 9, 2002

Location

USA

• Aug 6, 2002

• Thread Starter
• #12

okay, cool. i'm off to paint my PSU! wish me luck and if i don't post
back in a couple hours....i died

 

RedDeathDrinker

Senior Aircraftsman IRL

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Joined

Jul 16, 2001

Location

Scotland - And don't you forget it!

• Aug 6, 2002

• #13

An even better mod is to replace your PSU cover with wire mesh. Helps greatly in cooling your PSU, and looks pretty damn good as well!

If I remember rightly Starfox, you've seen this mod before, but it may prove interesting to others...

More details here

 

larva

Inactive Moderator

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Joined

Jul 12, 2002

• Aug 6, 2002

• #14

Royal said:

The capacitors have enough charge in them to kill you, so no matter what, DON'T TOUCH THEM.

Click to expand...

lol...

The charge held by the capacitors leaks off in a few hours, and wouldn't kill a fly even at full strength. If you're really worried about it, just try to power up the system with the power cord disconnected. Whatever charge the caps have will be consumed. You need to be careful working in a CRT, as they can zap you pretty good, but even that is not fatal.

 

Last edited: Aug 6, 2002

MEMex

Member

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Joined

Jun 25, 2002

Location

Visalia, CA

• Aug 6, 2002

• #15

I guess it just depends on what type of PSU it is Oh well...

Lets just leave it at this, anything that an eletrical current travels through shouldn't be less respected, it could kill you, you never know

 

Last edited: Aug 6, 2002

Penguin4x4

Are you my Daddy?

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Joined

May 28, 2002

Location

Sector 7G

• Aug 6, 2002

• #16

*looks@watch* We'll miss you, Starfox.

 

MEMex

Member

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Joined

Jun 25, 2002

Location

Visalia, CA

• Aug 6, 2002

• #17

We should hold up a bet...

j/k... i'm not that mean

We did.... uh..... we umm.... we did tell him to unplug it right?

 

Penguin4x4

Are you my Daddy?

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Joined

May 28, 2002

Location

Sector 7G

• Aug 6, 2002

• #18

Ghetto Starfox said:

hey all, i was wondering if it was dangerous to take apart your
PSU....no not while running

Click to expand...

Maybe he forgot?

 

ThePerfectCore

Red Raccoon Dojo

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Joined

Mar 1, 2002

Location

Texas

• Aug 7, 2002

• #19

I dunno about PSU caps, but I do know that CRTs are powerful enough to kill a cow or other large animal.

 

MEMex

Member

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Joined

Jun 25, 2002

Location

Visalia, CA

• Aug 7, 2002

• #20

This reminds me of a story when i was in middle scool in sevenish grade...

During science we were conductin experiments with electricyity, we had like power cords with prongs on em still and the cord was cut up and spread out... a moron, one in every class, plugged it into a live outlet and attempted to stick it on his tounge, the teacher tackled him to the floor and he was suspeneded oh thats funny....