Re: Power Supply Cause of Crashes?

From: W. Watson (wolf_tracks_at_invalid.inv)
Date: 03/19/05 

Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 10:54:03 GMT

Floyd L. Davidson wrote:

> "W. Watson" <wolf_tracks@invalid.inv> wrote:
>
>>Does it seem reasonable that a faulty power supply might cause
>>my RHL 9 box to crash on occasion, once or twice a month? It
>>crashed once again, and now crashes every time I get to the
>>login after a reboot. I have to completely power down the
>>computer to reboot. That is, I have to make sure the red LED on
>>the motherboard is out, before attempting a reboot. Otherwise, I
>>can't even get it to reboot.
>
>
> I recently had obvious heat problems with a workstation
> rebooting now and then. I monitor and graph, using both
> lm_sensors and a Crystalfontz CFA633, all sorts of temperatures,
> and one that correlated was room temperature! I have a forced
> air furnace, and every time the box reset, it was right at the
> end of a heat cycle, when ambient room temperature peaked.
>
> The only parts in that box which are not monitored and graphed
> are the components inside the power supply. The fans were
> operating fine, the amount of heat coming out was about right,
> and the voltages graphs showed no anomalies. And when I opened
> up that power supply it wasn't particularly full of dust either.
>
> So I looked at each heat sink, and found one that had a fine
> layer of cat hair crossways on the fins, blocking air flow from
> the fans.
>
> I've blown 10 times that much dust out of a working power
> supply, but this time the dust was in just the right place.
>
See my post to Mike Castle about the potential for PS damage. 

-- 
              Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
                  (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
                   Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
              "I know that defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never
               studied the law of gravity." -- Bugs Bunny
                         Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>

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