Getting Ghetto with it!

A

Andhar

Console Gamerz Rulez
Joined
Mar 25, 2007
Messages
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A few months ago I picked up 2 Coolermaster Extreme power 550W PSUs.

I stashed one in the closet and installed one in my file server..Today I woke up to a rattling noise which I narrowed to the PSU... turns out its a ceased fan some el cheapo crap made by ADDA bah!

PSU tested good SOOOO haha I tried to adapt a 3 pin to the 2 pin plug it requires... no luck so I hit newegg and couldn't find a 2 pin so I did the next best thing. :D

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I put a 78CFM Thermaltake Thunder Series fan into it.. powered by the regular molex connector..

Just felt like sharing.
 
i have done that multiple times, i just run the molex through where the psu wires go, it used to do that even more often than i do now cause i would buy the clear psu mods and put lighted fans in.

works fine..hell if not better than the original
 
Glad it works great, but it's pretty dangerous to be messing with the power supply. I just had to drop that note before somebody reads this and blows their face off. ;)
 
Manaknight said:
i have done that multiple times, i just run the molex through where the psu wires go, it used to do that even more often than i do now cause i would buy the clear psu mods and put lighted fans in.

works fine..hell if not better than the original
Click to expand...

Thats actually a good idea I didnt think to run the wire thru there at all. next time I get in there I will thanks.

And yes kids it is dangerous so contact a quailified Geek Carder holder before opening your PSUs(yes I am serious!).
 
Nice work! Be careful as this is dangerous and we don't want you losing your pron hand.
 
seriously, just want to stress this more. Capacitors hold a charge a lot longer than some may expect. Proceed with extreme caution.
 
Andhar said:
Thats actually a good idea I didnt think to run the wire thru there at all. next time I get in there I will thanks.

And yes kids it is dangerous so contact a quailified Geek Carder holder before opening your PSUs(yes I am serious!).
Click to expand...

I suggest opening it up and sticking your tongue on it to ground it out.... :p
 
Just wondering, how exactly is it that you can get zapped when the PSU is disconnected from everything - and this is not meant to be sarcastic in any way. Caps store a charge for an extended period of time? And even then what would you have to poke at to get zapped and how bad would it be.
 
most caps are 50% discharged after 15 minutes. what you can do is unplug the power source from the psu(obviously not just hit the switch on back) and hold the power button for 30 seconds. That should discharge most energy. I'd still wait an hour or longer though before cracking open the psu casing.
 
vsboxerboy said:
Just wondering, how exactly is it that you can get zapped when the PSU is disconnected from everything - and this is not meant to be sarcastic in any way. Caps store a charge for an extended period of time? And even then what would you have to poke at to get zapped and how bad would it be.
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From what I hear, PSU caps can discharge some mighty nasty power. I would say it could easily be lethal. And yes, capacitors store a charge for a long while unless they are grounded out. Don't even ask about grounding one out, it's something you want to avoid. As everyone has stated before, don't take apart your PSU unless you are an experienced electrician IMO. I have no problem working on 120V and have taken 60V currents off the back of a PSU in a building with bad grounding and still will probably never take apart a power supply. Just one of those things! :eek:
 
Capacitors used in power supplies are a lot larger than ones on, say, motherboards. Check out the size of them in the first pic in the original post, near the lower part of the PSU. When converting AC voltage to DC, there needs to be something to supply voltage between the peaks of the AC waveform. This is the function the capacitors perform, and they need to be large or else there will be a lot of DC ripple.

And even then what would you have to poke at to get zapped and how bad would it be.
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I believe capacitors used in power supplies store 120V, so you could potentially get shocked with 60V after the 50% discharge period occurs as described above. If fully charged, might as well be as bad as the wall outlet for an instantaneous amount of time.

If you are going into the PSU to fix a fan, shy away from basically every circuit component. Touching the case is fine. After all this though, you might as well just wait for it to discharge.
 
Until you've been shocked (read: thrown across the room) by the ginormous caps in an original IBM XT or a 1960s/70s Pioneer 300 watt in to 6 channel receiver... don't come bitching to me. ;)
 
What you do, is you pull the plug while it's running, or you disconnect the power plug but keep the psu on, then you turn on the computer a few times with the power button. The fan should spin, then it will not. Then it's safe.
 
Manaknight said:
i have done that multiple times, i just run the molex through where the psu wires go, it used to do that even more often than i do now cause i would buy the clear psu mods and put lighted fans in.

works fine..hell if not better than the original
Click to expand...

That's what I do when I have a bad fan in a good PSU. He is talking about being ghetto after all :).
 
I replaced the ADDA fan in my power supply a couple months ago. I just spliced the plug from the original fan onto the new one, though.
 
Rabid Badger said:
I replaced the ADDA fan in my power supply a couple months ago. I just spliced the plug from the original fan onto the new one, though.
Click to expand...

You could solder it where the original one was. I've never soldered anything before so I didn't try that.
 
A bit off topic, but the guts of that PSU look very feeble for a 550watt unit.
 
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