- Joined
- Sep 30, 2001
- Location
- England, UK
Well a few months ago i bought a second hand Sparkle 400w from ebay. When i first got it the first thing i did was open it up and look inside, when i did i noticed one of the little circuit boards had a big black patch on it. But the PSU worked fine nice and stable, a few weeks ago my motherboard died, not completely it just went really unstable locking up all the time it did the same with another powersupply in it aswell. Im just wondering now if it was the PSu that caused the death of the motherboard, ive just got another motherboard but havnt used my sparkle PSU on it just incase. I know as soon as i noticed the burn mark i should of told the guy I bought it from and got a refund but i was too hastey and brushed it aside. The board with the burn mark on it is about 3*2" and it says PFC on it. I had a closer look lastnight at it and the burn mark comes from the under side and look like it was made by a large resistor that is there but the resistor its self has no marks on it, so im wondering if the PSU has been repaired in the past and that is why there are no marks on the resistor. I really dont have the money to replace the PSU and I know Sparkle are good PSU's but, is it safe to use? Does it sound like it has been repaired? What is the little board that is burnt that says PFC on it? I hope it is safe to use as like i said im really skint i just had to scrape the cash together to replace the motherboard
