[clug] Slightly OT: disk/psu issue

[Rod Tunks]

Hi Nathan,
 If the connector has got hot enough to discolour the nylon like that 
its shot.  The solder connection under the board may not be real flash 
anymore either (vibration + heat + possibly dodgy soldering) so it would 
be worth pulling the power PCB out and checking under the connector.  If 
you're comfortable wielding a soldering iron you have a couple of cheap 
options :-

1. Replacement of  both the PCB and cable connectors (as long as you do 
a good job with the crimps) as both have suffered from excessive heat.

2. Remove the connector from the PCB and solder the power lead directly 
into the PCB.  Then apply a blob of silastic the size of a marble to the 
spot the wires enter the PCB.  This will give both good strain relief 
and insulation if you get it right.  Make sure you trim the leads on the 
other side of the PCB so they dont protrude to far.

My choice would be 2. as long as you dont see an issue with not being 
able to disconnect the power cord later on.

cheers
-Rod

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Nathan Rickerby wrote:
> I recently started hearing unusual disk noises coming from my
> mini-itx machine and I was getting a few device timeout errors when
> trying to access the disk.
>
> Further investigation lead me to suspect the power supply.  Jiggling
> the connector between the external AC adapter and the internal PSU
> caused the same noise and errors.  I think the disk may have been
> losing power temporarily.
>
> Then I noticed the connector had brown spots on it, like it had
> been burnt.  http://rickerby.googlepages.com/psu.jpg
>
> After unplugging the connector and plugging it back in, the disk
> seems to be working fine.
>
> I'm still not sure what happened to it though.  I'm left wondering,
> is it safe, do I need a new AC adapter or PSU, where did those brown
> spots come from, was the connector just loose?
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
> Nathan
>