Alien Autopsy: The Death of an Alienware Powersupply

[Collinstheclown]

You don't have to make a post for every picture...




-CollinstheClown

[nevermind1534]

You don't have to make a post for every picture...




-CollinstheClown

I think he's taking a picture, uploading it, doing some more work, then repeats the process.

[Jarod997]

So, under the bottom plate we have a whole lot of Surface Mount Technology stuff. Again we check for signs of brown scorching, black carbony soot, burned out pieces. Nothing found off the bat. Again, no signs of fuses. And what's this goo again? Ah ha! This is insulative compound. They've put this goo on top of the solder connections for the aluminum heat blocks on the other side of the board. So, if they can't use plastic, they've used goo. The nice thing about goo is that it's easy to apply and thermally resistant (it won't break down with heat). The (insert choice of word here) bad thing about this goo is it's fairly permenant. I have a difficult time moving any of this goo without damaging the board, unless it's really thin.

[Jarod997]

I think he's taking a picture, uploading it, doing some more work, then repeats the process.

Actually, hehe, I did all the work first, did the photos in reverse, and now I'm posting them. I find it's easier to navigate and people can comment on any particular step if I break it up. But thanks for the advice.

[Jarod997]

Here we have the main exit cap, 180uF and 420V, good and solid. No visible signs of anything frying here.

Here we have the main exit coil - this looks very solid. Heck for 9 amps DC, you'd expect something like this. No visible signs of anything frying over here either.

There are a few power regulators bolted to aluminum heat blocks, could I take these all out and test them, ya I could but I think it's more work that this thing is worth at this point. Even then I might not have found all the damage.

Oh ya, more goo.

[Jarod997]

So, in the end, I didn't find any obvious signs of something blowing up. No components were visably brown or black, no charring, no obvious scent of "burn" or "dead fish". This power supply is also too complex to try and trace from AC to DC with a multi-meter. *sigh* At least it was fun.

IF you have an Alienware power supply (for a laptop), I would strongly suggest that you (or some techy type person you know) mod a nice big fan and slots into the case. You can pony the fan off the output with an appropriate resistor, OR (heh heh) get a 120VAC fan and pipe it off the input. Fan on the top, slots on the bottom or bottom sides. That's what I'm planning on doing once I get a replacement. Photos of that to come later... when my wife lets me use her mac again.

[Kayin]

The pic by pic is great for sending a link to what does what.

I've enjoyed this, I should show you the finger that's missing part of the tip because of one of these...

[Jarod997]

The pic by pic is great for sending a link to what does what.

I've enjoyed this, I should show you the finger that's missing part of the tip because of one of these...

I should show you the tip thats missing on my swiss army knife due to 120VAC and the tip that's missing on my multimeter probe from 12 VDC at about 1 amp.

[Jarod997]

Update: Well, I have the replacement brick on order along with two 70mm fans and a couple nice grills. I'll post that mod in the mod forums and provide a link... right here!

[Snowman]

I would check your output line for shorts or breaks that's what was wrong with my dell power brick and there was a slightly audible beeping when it would short.