Dead in Brazil...

[kabu24]

It put up a bit of a fight, but the fight's over a week since it began.

After having it shipped “fragile” from Canada to Brazil, I ran into two instances of it shutting off on me. Both times, seemingly random (no over-heating, quietly humming away, guarded behind its surge protector- low voltage, by the way (Brazil has both low and high systems)). Both times after it shut off, it automatically tried to come back to life again, first stumbling after 4 seconds, then after 3 seconds, then 2, and then cutting out after a mere second or so of life, over and over. Both times, I was able to to remedy this impasse by shutting it off at the back, and leaving it off for about 15 or so seconds. Once I turned it on, my motherboard would lecture me about the overclocking settings- something about voltage or something- and gave me the option to go by the defaults... which I always have, so I wrote that comment off as "irrelevant" (I assume it didn’t have some virsus that changed any of that, or something). After I chose the default settings, it carried on like nothing ever happened...

But then this morning, it just wouldn’t turn on... at all! I opened up the case and looked around, but couldn’t see any signs of life... what looks like a little green LED on my MOBO isn’t giving off any light, even.

Oh... there was one sign of life- not the kind I was looking for, though. After sticking my head into the tower in an attempt to locate any access to the back of the front power button, I felt a sharp sting on my nose. It turns out my cases gets charged up, when the psu's plugged in and... "on", I think (I'm not sure if it's worth verifying this). I spent a little while touching the drive brackets, feeling the current run into my fingers. It took me a while to realize that I was probably feeling it even with the rear-switch shut off, because the charge doesn’t dissapate right away.

So does this sound like a clear case of a messed up power supply?

This is my computer:

Case/Powersupply: Anetec Sonata 380W Truepower/True380s
Motherboard: Asus A8V Deluxe Motherboard ATHLON64
Video Card: eVGA E-Geforce 6800 Ultra 256MB DDR3 AGP
CPU: AMD Opteron 175 Dual Core Processor
Hard Drives: WD RAPTOR 74GB & WD Caviar SE16 250GB
Memory: 2 X Corsair Value Select PC3200 1GB & 2 X Corsair Value Select PC3200 512MB
Sound Card: Audigy 2 ZS
Media Players: Pioneer DVD+-RW & Samsung Writemaster
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Intellimouse

I recently switched my single-core for a dual, added 2GB of RAM, plus an extra hard drive. I’m thinking I should have upgraded the power supply as well?

Any help would be appreciated... I don’t have many tools to work with, as it is. I’m away from home, here, and will be for quite some time.

Lucky for me, I’ve got this backup computer- sort of a frankenstein- kicking around...

 

[lamely_named]

sounds like a short from your motherboard to the casing.

try to take out the motherboard and put it on a piece of cloth/plastic, connect everything outside of the casing (just lay them on the table) and power it on.

if it works, it's a short. You'll need plastic standoffs or find the source of the short and deal with it (layer it with something non conductive).

 

[kabu24]

Thanks, I'll give that a shot. I've removed the power supply and found a new battery for my voltmeter, so I can at least test the power supply itself, now.

I noticed that both computers get charged, actually. Most 120V electrical systems in Brazil just run on two wires, so they can't accomodate that third ground wire, forcing you to convert the computer's power line into a two wire system... I'm not sure where a hot wire/point is touching the casing, exactly, but considering the mess, that wouldn't be hard. And without that third wire, there's nothing to prevent the tower from getting charged.

There's nothing I can do other than incase everything, eh?

I guess this computer that I'm on right now has survived with a hot case for a couple years, now. That calms my worries over whether or not the hot casing has destroyed any of my other parts...

 

[kabu24]

I isolated the psu and can only get sporadic spurts of power, as indicated by the two fans. I also got some nice burning action where I rejoined two severed wires that connect to a couple front LEDs on the tower. May I have done something wrong, or is this indicative of a shot power supply?

 

[lamely_named]

so you did the green to black wire trick to power up the PSU?

if you did that and the PSU doesnt run well, or run at all, it's a shotty PSU.

hmmm, two wires, are you saying you dont have grounding in brazil? THat's interesting ... and very dangerous.

 

[unhappy_mage]

I noticed that both computers get charged, actually. Most 120V electrical systems in Brazil just run on two wires, so they can't accomodate that third ground wire, forcing you to convert the computer's power line into a two wire system... I'm not sure where a hot wire/point is touching the casing, exactly, but considering the mess, that wouldn't be hard. And without that third wire, there's nothing to prevent the tower from getting charged.

You could wire a ground to the outlet you use for your computer. Run a good thick wire to a water pipe or a ground rod that you hammer into the ground. Consult an electrician for further information, but most of the work you could do yourself, I imagine. You could even wire a ground for your whole house in relative ease; ground the breaker panel and make sure your outlets are connected to it by all three wires.

I isolated the psu and can only get sporadic spurts of power, as indicated by the two fans. I also got some nice burning action where I rejoined two severed wires that connect to a couple front LEDs on the tower. May I have done something wrong, or is this indicative of a shot power supply?

You may have wired the LED backwards and caused it to die. If you push too much current through LEDs they become Smoke Emitting Diodes followed immediately by becoming Dark Emitting Diodes. At that point they are DED

 

[dekard]

UM's point is a good one. You can easily ground your house, or at least your computer. All you need is a length of pipe, copper tubing, whatever. Drive several feet of it into the ground. Connect a very large wire and they run that into your electrical outlet. Of course, consult an electrician or Google before you do that.

Sorry to hear about your computer.

 

[kabu24]

You may have wired the LED backwards and caused it to die. If you push too much current through LEDs they become Smoke Emitting Diodes followed immediately by becoming Dark Emitting Diodes. At that point they are DED

I actually didn't rewire the LEDs, but instead, just tied the wires together, completing the circuit.

Thanks for the suggestions, mage and dekard. I'm up on the second floor of a house that's not mine, though, and the walls are brick and the floor- there aren't lawns, here in the city of Sao Paulo- is all concrete, so it'll be a lot of work to tie into a ground rod.

As for tying into a water pipe, I guess I could do that, temporarily... I remember when I was younger, I had the job of hooking people's water services up to new the mains that my crew had just laid, and once time I, I got shocked after breaking a connection to the old main! I few people have die doing just that, actually.