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PSU Question

F

Fatal

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Messages
438
Should I even bother discharging the capacitators? Will I damage them if I use a screw driver to do it? Or should I just be careful and not discharge them?
 
You should always discharge the capacitors, if only as a good habit in case you get careless. Simply shut off the computer using your OS, unplug the AC power cable, and press the power button on your case. You might notice an LED flicker or a fan twitch. That happens because the capacitors and inductors are "drained." Now it is pretty safe to open up your power supply. Don't ever use a screwdriver to short a capacitor. It can ruin the capacitor and/or screwdriver!
 
meh... a little power never hur... meh... maybe thats why i cant hold my hands still... hrmm

but ya the caps in psus dont hold a charge for very long anyway, but the pressing the power switch after unplugging it should do the trick
 
I did this but I had to try and turn it on just as i pulled the plug out from the back, everything flickered and I was g2g
 
What can I use to short the capacitators, for safety reasons, even after pressing the power switch button?
 
Just press the power button a couple of times then you will be fine. Hell I took PSU's apart without doing that and touched every possible thing and I'm still alive:D
 
I don't know whether it matters or not, but it seems to me that because the power button is soft power, not a real switch to turn on the juice, it's better to have the system running and kill the AC, rather than trying to start the machine with no AC. Think about it this way: Since the mobo uses +5VSB for powereing on, if the capacators feeding the +5VSB are dischaged before the other ones, the system will not start, yet still might have some un-discharged capacitors for other rails.
 
if you really want to discharge the caps go out and get yourself a nice big resistor....

something in the range of 150 ohm and 10 watts should do it....

hook up some leads to each end of the resistor and then to the cap...

the resistor will get mighty warm, so be careful not to burn yourself


this should do it
 
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