Old dead PSU, resurrectable?

I have a PSU that died quite a long time ago, and after a good sorting of my room, I came across it again, and decided to check it out. With the good old short the green and black cables in the atx connector, i got it kind of starting, but i had to keep reconnecting the wire short repeatedly to keep the fans going inside it, and the power going. So what could be wrong with it? I had a look inside and it all looks fine.

It's an Enermax 550W PSU.

junk it. Its not worth the risk to put it back into actual use imo. If you want you could play around with it just as a project, but be smart about it.

Don't junk it because it probably has nothing wrong but a blown transistor or two, about $3 apiece and often available for free from PSUs that other people have tossed out (but verify parts ratings -- volts, amps, watts, and type, but often even PSUs rated for much less power have suitable parts). At the very least, give it to somebody who's willing to attempt a fix.

In my experience, let it go. You are playing with too much amperage with not enough electronice experience. You do the wrong thing and you could get zapped. It only takes a milliamp to kill you.

DanFraser said:

I had a look inside and it all looks fine.

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Check the capacitors on the secondary (output) side for bulging and leaking. From the sound of it, the protection circuitry is shutting it down.

soulfly1448 said:

In my experience, let it go. You are playing with too much amperage with not enough electronice experience. You do the wrong thing and you could get zapped. It only takes a milliamp to kill you.

Click to expand...

It's long been drained by the looks of it.

Oklahoma Wolf said:

Check the capacitors on the secondary (output) side for bulging and leaking. From the sound of it, the protection circuitry is shutting it down.

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You know, that actually sounds like it could be the problem!

Hook up a dummy load (HD, optical, etc). My Sparkle won't run for more than 2 seconds without a dummy load. If it works with the dummy, you just have to add a resistor to keep it running.