Power supply results

I currently have my iMac in the shop for a power supply issue repair, for those of you who have had this repair done in the past what kind of results did you have? Was the computer good as new? Did you have more problems related to the power supply? Did the power supply fail again?
How many times does a mac have to be repaired before Apple will replace it?

Dagster-My computer was doing exactly what your computer is doing, shutting off on its own.
Here is the story, I'm sure you all have one of your own or have heard it before but here goes.
Last Tuesday the 30th the computer just started shutting off. So I called Applecare and the rep had me unplug the mac and restart it holding the power button, but that didn't fix it, and then cell phone cut out and I had to call back. The next rep told me that I wasn't eligable for phone support and it would cost money for him to help me. SO I hung up and got out the yellow pages. I found a local service center that wasn't an Apple Store.(I'm not opposed to the Apple Store, this location was simply closer) So I took the computer in Wednesday morning and they told me they would try to have a tech look at it before the weekend but if not, I was down for Monday for sure. Not 20 minutes later I get a call saying it sounded like a power supply issue and to call the SOS line and ask for a CS code because this is known problem and Apple will pay to fix it. I do that and I'm feeling better about my computer being in the shop. I don't hear from the shop I call Monday afternoon and the person I talk to tells me that the tech got busy and hadn't look at my computer yet, Ok, that happens I understand. So I call Wednesday afternoon and they tell me they didn't get it fixed yet and that the tech would try to look at it again Thurday(today) but if not, Friday for sure. HUMPF. I'm hoping that the added time for repairs means that they are doing a quality job. I also fine it odd they have only called me once, but the one time they did call it was a good thing. When I dropped off the computer the office didn't look like the type of place that would string you along for no reason so I am curious as to how they act once I get my computer back.

Similar Messages

Choosing the Right Power Supply

First things first. If you've got a poor-quality and/or faulty power supply, nothing else you do will work to solve your problems. Stick to the basics before you go further...The short answer is to buy a hi-powered, brand name supply, like the new ENERMAX line (430 W or higher) or ANTEC True550. Almost nothing else will do with today's computers. In over 30 years of electronic/computer service, I have found that 85% or more of problems were power-related.
If you want to know more, read on...
Choosing The Right Power Supply
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that one of my colleagues or I believe that you could be experiencing problems with your power supply, based upon the symptoms you mentioned in your post, and provided you with this link. Relax, you’re not alone. In 30 years of electronic and computer troubleshooting, I’d say that the majority of the electronic, mainframe, mini, and microcomputer problems I’ve diagnosed and repaired were with the basic power the problematic device was receiving. The symptoms often included random reboots, crashing, the BSOD, lockups, etc.
(As the national support technician for few major computer service companies, working US Defense contracts, I was often the person that had to fly in and correct the problem, or “walk through” the on-site technician as he closely followed my instructions. I achieved success in my career by carefully reading the manuals, knowing where to go for more information that was otherwise unavailable to me, and/or systematically troubleshooting until the problems were discovered and repaired. I never had the option of giving up.)
The most overlooked component when building or upgrading a PC is the power supply unit (PSU). Some people use their old case and PSU when they upgrade. Some use the PSU that came with their new case. Some people even buy a new PSU. And most inexperienced builders all make the same mistake: The PSU that they’re trying to use is simply inadequate for the job.
Suppose you’re upgrading to a new motherboard, CPU, ram, and video card, but still using the old case and PSU. It’s most likely that you’re upgrading in order to build a machine that is more powerful, faster, has a more colorful display, can number-crunch more quickly, play the latest games, etc. These gains in performance all have one thing in common: They require more raw power. However, have you thought about where that power comes from?
Suppose you’re building a new system with a new case and PSU. Has it occurred to you that the company that you bought the case/PSU from might make more money if they skimp on the supply, even if the supply has a large wattage rating? Most bulk power supply manufacturers don’t make good PSU’s. They use older, cheaper technology, and slap on labels that represent the PSU’s peak outputs, and not their continuous output rating. These companies are intentionally misleading you in order to sell you an inferior product. Brands I avoid when building/repairing my friends’ and family’s computers: Allied, Q-Tec, Chieftech, and many others.
For those of you who bought a power supply separately, did you know that you’re only supposed to run a power supply continuously at 30-70% (with 50% being optimal) of its continuous rating for maximum efficiency (which means less heat to you)? Most inexperienced builders either buy PSU’s that are matched to their equipment’s continuous power usage, or ones that are even less powerful than they need. Why? Because they’re trying to save money.
I mean, what’s the fun in a power supply? You don’t get any games with it, there’s no more storage, hardly ever any more bells and whistles, etc. A power supply is boring, and it’s supposed to be, because it’s supposed to provide a stable, reliable platform upon which the rest of the equipment can easily access the amount of power it needs, and when it’s needed. In almost EVERY review of powers supplies, the same point is stressed: Better safe than sorry.
But what does safe vs sorry mean? It can mean that you don’t have to waste money on the wrong PSU in the first place, but it can also mean that you don’t have to replace your expensive ram, CPU, video card, etc. NEEDLESSLY, or because your cheap PSU destroyed them. What? A cheap power supply can wreck your computer? YES IT CAN. A cheap power supply can cause thermal damage, not only from the heat it produces, but also the heat it can create in your components as well. RAM is especially sensitive to heat, and there’s RAM in your CPU, your video cards, and, well, your RAM too. A cheap switching power supply, run at its maximum, or peak, continuously can also destroy components by creating RF (Radio Frequency) signals on your power rails, signals which the components on your peripheral devices were not equipped to handle in the first place.
So this begs the question, how does one choose the right power supply? I’ll illustrate this using my own PC as the example. This is my setup that I use for video processing:
K7N2G-ILSR
Athlon 2500+ Barton @ 2125Mhz
AMD Retail Heatsink/Fan
2 - 512MB DDR333 w/Thermaltake Spreaders (slot 1&3)
MSI TV@nywhere Video Capture
ATI Radeon 9600
120GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 SATA
30GB Quantum IDE
TEAC DV-W50E DVD/CD-R/W
BTC DVD-ROM Drive
Artec CD-R/W
Using this Power Supply Calculator link:
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/
I plug in all my equipment values, but some of this can be a little tricky. For example, since I often run the CPU like an XP 3000, I choose the 3000 as my processor; it’s the same chip run at the faster rate. I also choose the ATI Radeon video card, and I select the RAM wattage for 2 sticks of DDR. I also choose every card I have, like my video capture card, but I also select the boxes for the separate cards that correspond to the functions that my ILSR provides as well (and that I use), like sound, USB, Firewire, NIC, etc. Although I use the onboard SATA controller, I don’t select the SCSI PCI card, because, in truth, I’ve probably made up for it by selecting all the other corresponding devices, including cards that the motherboard replaces. I check the boxes for the fans and drives I use, and I’m done, right?
Not yet.
I just remembered that I plan to upgrade soon, so I go back and change the values to reflect my impending changes. I mean, I want to make sure that I have enough power to begin with so that I don’t have to replace the power supply again, right?
Ok. Done. I look at the bottom and see that it tells me that I need a 468 watt PSU. So a 480 watt supply will do, right? Wrong.
Remember that, for efficiency, long-life, and less heat, you want your actual power consumption to fall between 30-70% of the PSU’s rating, so add 30% (minimum) to the 468, and you get 468 + (468*.30)= 608 Watts! Holy Cow!
However, I’d only need a 608-Watt supply if I was using all the devices at once, and I don’t. But, in truth, with video and audio processing, I often get close when I process, burn, and monitor at the same time. (Hardcore gamers also get close a lot, as they blast the sound and push that video to its limits.) So, let’s take off 10% (maximum) of 608, for a total of 541 Watts.
I need a 550 Watt supply, but not just ANY 550 watt PSU. I need a supply that can give me enough power on the critical 3.3, 5, and 12V rails combined. I also want a supply from a trusted, name-brand manufacturer, so I start hitting the many online reviews. Here are just two from Tom’s Hardware:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20030609/index.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/index.html
Read these in their entirety. I didn’t post them because they’re pretty links.
In the end, I chose Antec, because they’ve got the reputation, the recommendation, and because the Antec True550 has better specs than the rest of the 550 Watt competition. I also bought it from a reputable company I found on Pricegrabber.com, for the lowest price I could find, $95.00 shipped to my door. (In truth, I wanted two mini-redundant supplies, like the hospitals and military use, but they were too expensive.)
The result? Not only are the random reboots, crashing, the BSOD, lockups, etc., gone like magic, but I also now have “peace of mind” in that whatever might happen to my equipment in the future, I know almost for certain that the PSU is NOT the problem. I also bought an UPS, because the East Coast Blackout proved to me that even the Antec True550 isn’t going to provide me any power for emergency shutdown if it doesn’t get its power from somewhere.
Even if your problem doesn’t lie in the PSU completely, it gives you a GREAT platform for troubleshooting further. If you’re not reasonably certain that the supply is the cause, borrow one, or buy one that you can return once you’ve solved the problem. But, above all else, BUY THE RIGHT SUPPLY before you do anything else! Otherwise, you could be plugging and unplugging components, buying and blowing up expensive memory, and causing even further damage, until you give up or die.
I mean, I assume you built your own system to enjoy “more bang for your buck,” right? What’s the fun of a random reboot in the middle of Unreal Tournament 2003?
William Hopkins
Former Staff Sergeant, USAF
B.A., B.S., with Honors
The University of California, San Diego
[email protected]
P.S. It should be noted that while Enermax, ThermalTake, Zalman, Fortron, and others make great PSU’s, and I compared and considered them, the Antec still won out overall in my critical evaluation, like it did in so may others’ reviews. You’d probably be ok if you went with another reputable manufacturer as listed above, but pick a supply that gives you at least 230 watts on the 3.3 and 5V lines combined, and still meets the 30% criteria as stated above. Remember, if the manufacturers don’t give you maximum combined specs up front, they’re untrustworthy right off the bat. With power supplies, you definitely end up getting what you pay for. Don’t say nobody warned you.
P.P.S. Update! After recent developments, it looks like Enermax is the leader, but only the latest line of PSU's.

Ok, as an electrical engineer...I have to step in here! LOL
First, these amp rating are for 2 +12 rails. That is why you see a protection of around 15-18A on the +12 rail. That means each Rail is allowed up to 18A lets say for the new Enermax 1.2 version like the one I have.
Now, Lets say 18A for 12V....well as you know the Abit NF7-S uses the 12V for powering the CPU.
Lets say you have a Barton like me and you want it stable at around 2.4-2.5Ghz. You will have to put lets say around 2V to the cpu to get it stable at that kinda speed, specially if you have high FSB like I do. So 12V * 18Amps = 216W ....well the converter on the NFS-7 is really bad, its loss on the step down convertion is probably around 25% along with the PSU lost cuz its not running at 25oC (another 15%)....you will actually only get around 100-120W for the CPU.
Now, if you go into Sandra and see how much a Barton eats up at 2.4Ghz you will see its around 110Watts.
So, if you wanna push more, dont even think about it! Prime Power test fails and your +12 rail will drop as low as 11.60 Volts.
Now, lets say you got yourself a AMD 64 bit chip and you wanna overclock it....I bet it will need more than 110Watts.
So, what im saying is, dont buy nothing less than a 500 Watt PSU!
You really need around 20-22 A on the main +12 along with really really good cooling on the case and PSU so it is running at a 100%.
http://forums.amdmb.com/showindex.php?s=&threadid=287828
i found this quite interesting especially the bit re the power loss turning the 12v into 1.6v or what ever cpu needs

Power Supply Temperatures Running Hot! Mac Pro shuts down.

Hello,
First I will give machine/hardware specs of interest:
2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (pre 2009)
8 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 (running 2 displays)
Apple RAID Card/Controller
SMC Version: 1.25f4
*venting dimensions around computer: top=18", left side=3", right side=3" and back=18".
Software of interest currently running:
OS X 10.5.8
iStat Menu
SMC Fan Control
My machine has been shutting down spontaneously and I suspect either CPU or power supply overheating. In the 5 instances this has occurred, the room was very warm (AC was not on) and I was running HandBrake with CPU at full and an iStat reading of 145 F. Ambient was 77 F and I was not reading power supply temps at the time. I figured for sure this must be a CPU overheating issue. However, just a few hours ago I had another shutdown. The room was warm again but I was not running Handbrake, but StarCraft II. I have played a lot of Starcraft II with no problems until tonight.
I decided, this time, to check the temps on my power supplies. Power supply 1 = 147 F, and #2 is at 178 F. After many hours of searching forums I have concluded that these are crazy hot temps! I immediately installed SMC Fan Control to attempt to increase the fan speeds. I was successful in increasing all fans except the power supply (stuck at 599rpm). I have now turned the AC on in the house and the Ambient is down to 70, PS #1 145 and PS #2 169. All of these temps are a result of and idle machine running a browser.
The following may or may not be an issue, however, leave no stone unturned. I currently have 12 external devices running on USB. 4 WD passport drives, 1 DVD writer, 5 WD powered drives plus the keyboard and mouse. Also, the Mac Pro is plugged into a small UPS.
In all my forum searches, I just can't seem to answer some basic questions:
1. Can an overheated power supply shut the system down?
2. What are optimal (normal) running temps for Mac Pro's? (everyone seems to have opinions, but there doesn't appear to be a technical specification anywhere).
3. I thought the fans, especially CPU fans, were supposed to kick in when the heat rises. Why are mine staying at minimal rpm's?
Finally, does it look like I need new power supplies? Fans?
This machine was put into service in March of 2008 and has done very intensive rendering for the film industry...long nights...rendering for days sometimes. It has been retired for over a year now and is used at a lesser degree.
Thanks for reading this long post! I appreciate any input you can provide!
Other iStat reading of interest:
Power Supply 1 voltage = 12.28 V
Power Supply 1 current = 26.44 A
Power Supply 1 power = 316.75 W

Also, the Mac Pro is plugged into a small UPS.
Put your peripherals on that.
Don't share the same circuit for A/C as the Mac Pro, and put the Mac on 1300VA UPS at least.
As for all those external drives.... I'd consolidate into a good SATA case or two.
And yes in summer run with 3 of the fans up around 900 rpm.

IMac G5 20" power supply problem

The power supply on my 20" G5 recently fried. Somehow I had the activity monitor showing that the "FaxJobMgr" was using about 70% of my cpu. I had had that problem before and the computer was very warm. I quit that process but shortly after that there was an acrid smell that I ultimately found was coming from the power supply. When I re-started everything came up to the desktop but then it shut down just as if the plug were pulled. I see that there were many issues with the power supply on this first generation G5. I took it to the Apple Store and they say it is the power supply AND there appears to also be damage to the logic board. $734. I'm wondering if maybe its only the power supply and they are just being cautious that there might be damage to the logic board so just replace it or buy a new computer. I thought I might try to replace the power supply only, but then that seems to be about a $120 that might be gone. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Generally speaking, the defects which affect a logic board and power supply in that family of products are similar, but there typically exists no causal link between them. It is possible to have a logic board affected by the defective electrolytic capacitor issue, a defective power supply, or both.
You can readily determine if the logic board is defective by examining the clusters of capacitors on the logic board for bloating, distended tops or leakage. If they exhibit such symptoms, your logic board can be repaired for $ 189.00 by contacting this company.
You may also need to replace the power supply, thought that determination is best made once the logic board as been verified as good or bad, and replaced, if you elect to do so. Power supplies for this product family generally cost roughly $ 139.00, and are user replaceable. Replacing the supply in a unit which exhibits the defective capacitor issue will not correct the logic board related problem, and may—under relatively rare circumstances—cause the eventual failure of the replacement supply.
*I may receive compensation as a result of parts or services being ordered by users specified at the link shown in this message.

The Power Supply Fan is still working, but does not appear to respond to increased loads, and its speed cannot be increased using SMCFanControl. Any suggestions?

Hi all - My mac pro 1,1 has an enigmatic problem. It's quad-core, 3Ghz, running OS X 10.7.5. The problem began some months back, when running HD video conferences, HD streaming videos and some other graphics-moderate (I won't say intense) uses, such as slide shows in Just Looking. My machine has an ATY, RadeonX1900 card and 2 monitors - both Apple displays, one being 30 inch 2560x1600, the other being 24 inch 1920x1200.
When I start those types of graphics-moderate apps, after about 5 minutes, something would crash (the monitors making a noise as it did) and the displays would both go black. The power did not appear to be fully cut off from the monitors. I think that the underlying applications, however, did not crash. So, I could still hear and speak to people during video conferences, and I could hear the sound tracks of videos.
Attempts to restart the computer and get the monitors back did not immediately work to undo the problem, if done straight away. The only way to correct the problem (so as to have the monitors work) was to wait for a few minutes and then restart.
After a lot of puzzled looking at console logs (and I confess that I am not an expert), I ran into a blank.
But, because of the timing of the crashes (after ~5minutes use) and restarts (after some minutes wait), I reasoned that the problem might be temperature related.
Once on that path of thought, I found this article:
http://worldtv.com/blog/guides_tutorials/fixing_an_overheating_mac_pro_no_expens e_required.php
I installed both Temperature Monitor and SMCFanControl. And I experimented, and got interesting results:
Now to the puzzling bit: SMCFanControl shows that the speed of the Power Supply Fan doesn't vary much, even if I use SMCFanControl to ramp fan speeds right up. All of the other fans react to SMCFanControl, going up to and above 2500rpm when commanded. But the Power Supply Fan does not. Having watched it for a few days now, the Power Supply Fan, according to AFCFanControl, never varies outside of a range from about 600-640 rpm, regardless of what I do with AFCFanControl.
Also (and not surprisingly), whenever the graphics-moderate apps run, when I ramp all the fan speeds up using SMCFanControl, Temperature Monitor shows that the all of the temperatures within the machine plummet, except in the power supply locations. Power Supply Location 2 is the worst affected. Because the Power Supply Fan does not react as the other fans do, the "crashes" still occur.
I could post some screen shots of the read outs of SMCFanControl and Temperature Monitor, although I think I have covered the key points in this post.
It seems that the Power Supply Fan is still working, but does not respond to increased loads.
Instinctively, I'm worried that if that's right, it might be a hard problem to fix. Any suggestions? Help! I would really appreciate them!
Cheers
P

Thanks for your response Grant. I had already read about, and I think excluded, dust in graphics card/fan/assembly as a cause. The entire inside of the computer, including the graphics card/fan/assembly, is as clean as a whistle. It looks clean. I've cleaned the dust out every now and then (including a few days ago). Also, my undersanding (derived from the article, linked in my first post) is that I might expect to see high temperatures in the Northbridge and memory module B if the graphics card was overheating. According to Temperature Monitor, however, locations do not increase in temperature when I run the relevant apps. Finally, the graphics card/assembly does not feel too hot to touch.
It is strange that SMCFanControl lists the Power Supply Fan as being software controllable, if that fan is not. Still, your comments are consistent with my observations, as the fan simply does not respond to software control.
There are two upsides: First, I've something of a work-around. I've worked out what temperature must be achieved in Power Supply Location 2 for a crash to occur, and I can watch that location in Temperature Monitor, terminating the process before that treshold is reached. Of course, that's not ideal. Second, ramping all the other fans up does significantly delay the onset of the problem, and makes recovery time much quicker.
Is there any donwside to peridically ramping up the other fans when running the relevant apps? Given that it causes all of the other locations to cool significantly, could this lessesn the life expecancy of the mahcine? (I don't want to run the fans up all the time - that's like sitting next to a jet ready for take off!)
Also, a correction to my first post: Yesterday, with all the other fans running on full and running an HD streaming video, the Power Supply Fan did, eventually, slowly, come up to ~740rpm, which is much higher than the ~640rpm maximum I had previously seen, and this may have aided delaying the onset of the problem.
I'm not sure where this leaves me? The problem might now be able managed. Well, sort-of. But it's not eliminated.

HP Z400 Workstation Power Supply not Supported

Good Day All,
I would like to seek help on the issue that i am currently facing.
Currently, I am using an HP Z400 Workstation and decided to switch to a bigger casing. I Bought a Full tower and casing and just realized that i am unable to move the power supply (425 Watts) as well due to the cables are too short to reach the CPU main Powers.
So I bought a separate Power Supply (Cooler Master M2 Silent Pro 850 Watts).The cables are perfectly enough to reach the CPU main power source. After putting everything the pc won’t turn on……
I thought my newly power supply was defective and got a replacement at the same day. I tried the new Power supply and simply does not want to turn on… this is getting frustrating as I am unable to figure out what is really causing the issue.
I also tried to just plugging the cables at the Main power and removed all the additional devices just to test but still no luck….
I started checking forums… there is only one post regarding about unable to change any other third party Power Supply for this HP Z400 Workstation. I guess it apply to all HP Branded as well as Dell.
Guys I need your help as I don’t want to make a mistake again on considering to build another machine just because this one was not working… Maybe there is one there that manages to bypass or have a resolution on how I can successfully upgrade my Power supply using the same HP Motherboard.
Here is my Current Specs..
Processor
Intel® Xeon® Quad-Core Processor W3565 (3.20 GHz, 8 MB cache, 1066 MHz memory)
Chipset Intel® X58 Express
Here is the link for the full details of the specs
http://www8.hp.com/sg/en/products/workstations/product-detail.html?oid=3718668
Here is the power supply I want to replace http://h20464.www2.hp.com/results.htm?SID=3718668&MEID=368CA2BE-30F2-40AE-8929-DBF4AF2ADC21
Will wait for your kind reply,
Thanks

The reason it won't turn on is because pins 21 and 23 are not in the standard ATX PSU configuration. Your motherboard works with an HP configured ground on pin 21 and +12 VDC instead of the ATX (ATX12V v2.01)standard unused pin and +5VDC respectively.
Z400 PSU connector
Standard ATX PSU connector
I have not seen a non HP PSU available that would work without modification.
Not all HP's are built with propietary PSU connections most newer, non-business models use the standard ATX PSU configuration.
****Please click on Accept As Solution if a suggestion solves your problem. It helps others facing the same problem to find a solution easily****
2015 Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience Consumer

Mac Pro 2,1 Spontaneous Restart with No Boot - Power Supply PSU Problem?

One day I was working away on my Mac Pro 2,1 Quad Core 3.0 (2007) with 8 gb ram running Lion and it just shut itself off like someone pulled the power cord (but no one did of course). Then it attempted to restart, but wouldn't boot. Basically I haven't been able to use it since as I can't get the computer to stay on for any length of time.
I'm thinking its either the power supply or the, oh no, logic board.
Symptoms have been like this so far:
Initially I would get a chime and a boot start but then I would find the computer would shut itself off somewhere in the process and try to restart. Usually the next time I would get no chime and a horrible repeated clicking of my optical drive with a rythmic fan whirring up and down on the original ATI x1900 xt graphics card. I would have to manually power off with the power button to make it stop. Sometimes it would try to restart again anyway. The only way I could get a chime again was to unplug and wait (longer the better). But even if i got a chime and a start of a boot, invariably the computer would turn off again.
I couldn't boot from another source, I couldn't run apple hardware test, I couldn't run diagnostic,... it just wouldn't stay on to do it.
I hauled my mac pro (out of warranty) to the apple store genius bar and the problem presented itself, continuously. The gent was able to get fsck to work long enough to determine my hard drive was ok and said it was one of three things - the power supply, the graphics card, or the logic board. He said because the comp powered on and then shut off, and because there was intermittent chiming, he didn't think it was the power supply. He thought it was the graphics card and said I could leave my Mac for 10 days and they could take a looksy, or I could just install a new graphics card on my own.
I chose the latter, bought a ATI Radeon 5770 from the apple online store for $275 and installed it.
Problem persists.Exactly the same as before. Got initial chime, then next time no chime, optical drives clicking and graphics card fan whirring up and down rhythmically.
I had a touch of time to disconnect everything and I get a chime consistently now when I have my boot drive, graphics card, 4 gb ram, and monitor attached. (As well as wireless mouse, keyboard, trackpad). I even got to logon once only to have a prompt shut off and restart attempt. also I verified it was at least one optical drive clicking (when I removed them both) during these boot attempts.
The improvement in chiming seemed to be when I unseated one ram riser ( I have to with 2 x 2g ram modules each).
I also checked the diagnostic leds on the logic board and all was as it should be... says I got trickle power and rail power etc.
Is there anything else I can do to determine what's wrong? What do you guys think is wrong? Could it be bad RAM? Power Supply? Logic Board?
All your help is massively appreciated in advance!

Well I ran as many tests as I could with no definitive results to the point I would have to start buying replacement parts and testing that way. I opted to take it back to the apple store and they said it's (dun dun dun dunnnnn) the logic board.

I have a 1st Gen Time Capsule 1tb. It turns on, boots up and turns green for 5-10 mins, but then turns solid orange and then blinks orange. I have removed the hard drive and replaced the power supply . . . still the same problem. Suggestions?

I purchased a used 1st Gen Time Capsule with a 1 tb hard drive.
When I plugged it in and did the initial setup, it worked fine, but gave me a hard drive error. A few minutes later the green light turned solid orange, then blinking orange, then the status light went off. The lights in back stayed on.
I removed the hard drive and rebooted, it turned green for 5-10 minutes then reverted back to a solid orange, blinking orange, then went off.
Next I purchased a remanufactured internal power supply, and installed it (without the hard drive in). It turned green almost immediately. After about 15-20 minutes, I decided to try to install the hard drive again, booted it up, and tried to erase the hard drive with was working properly according to the software. It stopped erasing the disc after about 20 minutes and turned solid orange again, then blinking, then no status light (but back lights were still lit).
I'm a bit flabbergasted at this point, any suggestions on what to do next? I think i've pretty much replaced everything except the logic board, but can't seem to find any information on the symptoms of a logic board malfunction.
Thanks!!!!!!!

A Gen3 is identical board to a Gen4 although they have some differences in firmware and wireless card was updated on every model.. but a Gen3 is substantially faster than Gen1, Gen2 which also have identical boards.
You can with careful shopping get a Gen3 pretty cheap.
Most use a delta power supply which I think is a lot better than the flextronics used in most Gen1/2
You can sell back the parts to ebay.. people still would buy the power supply etc. Even just the case can be useful to a repairer.
But if the board is gone.. it is hard to repair.. not impossible.. but hard.
Gen 3 and Gen 4 are not without faults.
See this page.
https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modem s/apple-time-capsule-repair/new-issue-with-a1355-gen-3-tc
I have fixed it a different way.. by using the small converters you can buy in bulk from ebay for $1 each.. KIS3R33 .. they produce 3.3V at 2A peaking at 3A.. amazing.. I keep using them to replace onboard power converters by removing the inductor and simply power directly.. the end result has worked great. You can simply change the resistors around and get any output from 1v to 20v depending on input.
Is it worth doing it .. no of course not.. it will waste many more hours than $50 is worth.. but it is kind of fun that you can actually make things work again.
Here is a pic of the Gen 3 totally powered by me. All onboard power removed.
This was to track down the fault in the Gen3.. but I am kind of pleased that it ended up neat enough and reliable enough to work for more than a year.. the Gen3 still serves as a way to get Netflix via network for a friend running 24/7.
The units supply (from left to right)
1v, 1.1v, 3.3v, 5v, 1.8v
It is feed by 12v supply which is also directly connected to the hard disk.
So it is possible to fix.. !! Only got to be a bit crazy.

17"display with extern power supply won´t work

Hi there,
my second display a 17"apple studio display (CRT with VGA) just works every now and then. Can´t locate what´s wrong, I already changed the graphic card, no result. In system profiler both displays are listed mostly, also in the display menue on the topbar, though as soon as I tell to recognize the displays only the main display remains. The 17" display has the extern power supply, but it´s a original apple as well. Thought it might be a bad contact, but can´t find anything. Living here in spain I nearly have no chance to check the display by a dealer. I would be grateful for some help, Michael.
G5 Mac OS X (10.3.8)

Try an SMC reset:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319

Power Supply Mislead

I have the top of the line PowerMac G5 from 2005. I had recently been having shutdowns for no reason. Not knowing these systems I called Apple that led me to going to being sent to the Apple store. I undid all the connections to my mac, took out my main hard drive , put this 50 pd giant on a dolly and wheeled it through a mall to the Apple store. After waiting a long time the AG put it up on the desk and said it was either the power supply or the logic board and that they dont fix them . He handed me a list of "Apple Approved Repair Servicers" and said goodbye.
I went home and watched lots of video's on how to change your own 600w power supply. How to remove the processors to get to the supply. At 200 dollars I was going to do it myself, I'm that way. I stripped the machine down to the watercololed processor that was totally pristine. Not a singlle leak anywhere. Everything was immaculate. Then I came across and article on the PMU. Power Management Utility and how it can become corrupt. How it causes havoc coupled with the Energy Saver Utility that allows the power button to put the computer to sleep. Then it dawned on me, I had noticed that pressing the power button resulted in an instant shut down. There was no 5 second wait. That was what had happened, it must be.
Long story short I reset the PMU. Power Management Utility. It no longer did a instant shut off and I disabled the "allow power button to put the computer to sleep". No moore shut downs, this runs perfectly. You would think that would be the first thing a AG would do but apparently not. I think I will go back there and mention it. Would be good to try first before suggesting the rest.

Great work on your part, & thanks for the post/tip!

M78 power supply replacement

Hi,
I need to replace one of my business' desktop PCs and I'm thinking about getting a an M78 (2111C3U) model.
I read online where the power supply has a proprietary connector, so I was wondering if anyone has the part number or knows what a replacement will cost.
My reason for asking is that I had a Dell lap top once with a proprietary power supply that went bad. It turned out to be a very common problem that even caused a few fires. Dell would not work with us for a reasonable solution (lap top was out of warranty) so I'd like to know in advance what I'm getting into if I go with this power supply.
My bad experience with Dell was 6 PCs ago. As result, I've been Dell "problem-free" for a while now and I've really enjoyed it.
thanks

The hardware maintenance manual may be of help to you:
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/thinkcentre_pdf/m78_hmm.pdf
From what I've seen, Lenovo business-focused systems, the ThinkCenter, are more reliable than the average consumer system.

[845 Series] 845E MAx2: CPU cooler and power supply stop when power cable plugged in to HDD

Board: MSI 845E Max2
BIOS: 6398E V.1
UPDATED BIOS: 6398IMS V.5.7 040203
CPU: Intel Celeron 1,7GHz
RAM: 512GB Infineon
Power: ATX 300W
Hard Disks: WD and Maxtor 10GB-30GB
Hi all,
whenever I plug in the power cable to the hard disk computer shuts down after 2-5 seconds. If I try to start it again nothing happens. So I need to plug off and on the ATX-connector again so that the power supply works and the CPU-fan spins. However, as long as a hard drive is attached (it does not even need to be connected to any of the IDE-controller; having connected to the power supply is sufficient) it shuts down.
Following tests were done:
1- other hard disks were used
2- other power supply resources were used
3- computer was started with short connecting the power switch through the respective pins
Still the same result. If no hard disk is plugged in, system starts fine.
So I flashed the bios to A6398ims.570 without connecting the hard disks (since no hard disk drives were available the win98 start diskette created a c drive in the physical memory - afaiu - and I flashed the bios via this generated c drive). But nothing is changed!
Does anyone have an idea?

Hi again,
after reading the PSU guide I used a HDD which was 20GB (an older one of app. 4 years) and system booted normally. It seems that the PSU of 300W was having a difficulty of serving the relative newer HDD with power. I will test it with a min. 400W PSU and let you know if the problem is completely solved.
Thanks for your helpful comments.

What do you think-Power Supply or Logic Board??

I came across a used dual 1.0 GHz MDD G4 that will not start. When the power button is pressed, the power LED will light and then go out. There is no chime and the fans all come on incredibly loud and fast. The logic board has a small red LED between the CPU and RAM slots. Does the red light mean the board is working or good?
I've swapped CPUs and got the same result. If it was a power supply issue, would the fans and logic board power up like they do? I've put a disc in the drive and can hear activity, but nothing ever happens. Also the power supply looks to be smaller than the other MDDs I've used. It also has a large separate fan at the end towards the front/speaker area.
At the same time since the logic board has the red light, it would seem that it's working also. Right? I just need help deciding what to replace next. Thanks in advance.

Here is a link to the front panel issues in general:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/MDDps_mods/MDD_PSMods.html
The front panel with the mirror doors was off. I used a small screw driver to >push the small start up button
Thus you did not disconnect the front panel BOARD. It has it's own connector to the motherboard. If you disconnect it and then short the green lead (Powerup) on the PSU connector to the adjacent black one (GND) you are bypassing the front panel button for booting. Do this only at your own risk if you have a solid electronic experience.
Here is a helpful pinout scheme:
http://www.smalldog.com/newsarchive/techtails_display.php?id=44
Hans

NI-Visa - Timeout during initialize of power supply

Hello, I'm having an issue initializing a power supply using the NI-Visa libraries. After creating the session, the 1st call to Initialize() always fails. If I call it once again, it always succeeds. Adding a delay between the session creation and the init call did not help.
An oddity is that running SPY causes the problem to go away. I tried this a few times while recording and never saw the timeout. However, once SPY was stopped the same timeout behavior could be seen again. Does SPY add some type of latency within the NI-Visa libraries?
Any suggestions or troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated. Below are some setup notes in no particular order. Thanks.
1. Power supply: Lamda 40-85, Genesys 3.3kW
2. Issue: Initialize() must be called twice before returning successful
3. Visa error: Timeout expired before operation completed.
4. Steps to recreate:
4.1. Create session
4.2. Call initialize, results in a timeout
4.3. Call initialize, returns success
5. Setup details:
5.1. NI Visa libraries
5.2. Visual Studio 2010, C#, .NET 4.0
5.3. Reference libraries:
5.3.1. ivi.dcpwr.interop, runtime version v1.0.3705, version 2.0.0.0
5.3.2. ivi.driver.interop, runtime version v1.0.3705, version 1.0.0.0
5.3.3. ivi.sessionfactory.interop, runtime version v1.0.3705, version 1.0.0.0
5.4. NI PXI Chassis, Windows XP
5.5. GPIB interface

I tried the updated dll's, actually only "ivi.sessionfactory.interop.dll" was newer, but received the same behavior.
I also sent the "*IDN?" message using the communicator,but was unable to reproduce the behavior no matter how many times I queried the power supply. However, there is a discrepancy between sending the "Initiate" command from within code versus using the communicator and sending "*IDN?", so I am unsure how to replicate the same steps. My previous post detailed the SPY log in response to sending the "Initiate" command, while sending "*IDN?" results in:
1. ibwrt(UD0, "*IDN?", 5 (0x5))
Process ID: 0x00000F58         Thread ID: 0x00000330
Start Time: 16:25:12.437       Call Duration 00:00:00.000
ibsta: 0x100       iberr: 0             ibcntl: 5(0x5)
2. ibrd(UD0, "LAMBDA,GEN40-...", 2000 (0x7D0))
Process ID: 0x00000F58         Thread ID: 0x00000330
Start Time: 16:25:12.437       Call Duration 00:00:00.359
ibsta: 0x2100       iberr: 0             ibcntl: 45(0x2d)
My app uses VISA commands while the communicator uses "ibwrt", etc. How do I go about simulating the "Initiate" call while using the Communicator? My code is posted at the bottom of this reply for clarity.
An oddity that is that, after a failed attempt to initiate the device which results in a timeout exception, the communicator can be used to read the standard response to the "*IDN?" command. This is the case even if the "idQuery" boolean of the "initiate" method is set to false. If idQuery=true, how is the resulting name supposed to be read back? The initiate function does not have a return value or any way of passing by reference. I tried all four combinations of the two flags, "idQuery" and "Reset", but nothing seemed to change in any configuration.
In response to your question about the firmware version, I pulled this from the spy file: "LAMBDA,GEN40-85-IEMD,S/N:xxxxxxx,REV:2U:3.0-D-". The reply appears to be truncated so I'll double check the response on Monday once I'm at the computer with the SPY file.
Again, thank you for input and attention. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. It will be sometime next week until I will be able to perform any more troubleshooting unfortunately. Do you see anything wrong with the "Initiate" method call, especially the name used? I'm curious if I should use the full name instead of the alias, but if that is the case why does the "initiate" call work the 2nd time? Oh well, I'll give it a try. Thanks again.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Ivi.DCPwr.Interop;
using Ivi.SessionFactory.Interop;
namespace IviDcPower
    public partial class Form1 : Form
        IIviDCPwr _DcPwrSession;
        IIviDCPwrOutput _IiviDcPwrOutput;
        public Form1()
            InitializeComponent();
        private void btnCreateSession_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
            try
                IIviSessionFactory factory = new IviSessionFactoryClass();
                // Ask the session factory to create an instance of
                // the appropriate driver based on a logical name
                _DcPwrSession = (IIviDCPwr)factory.CreateDriver("ProgDCPS");
                addText("Session created");
            catch (Exception ex)
                addText(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().ToString() + "\r\n" + ex.ToString());
        private void btnInitialize_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
            try
                addText("Initializing...");
                _DcPwrSession.Initialize("ProgDCPS", cbQueryID.Checked, cbReset.Checked, "");
                if (_DcPwrSession.Initialized)
                    // Use IIviDcPwrOutput class-compliant interfaces, interchangeable code
                    _IiviDcPwrOutput = _DcPwrSession.Outputs.get_Item("");
                    addText("Success");
            catch (Exception ex)
                addText(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().ToString() + "\r\n" + ex.ToString());
                addText("Failed (Exception)");
        private void addText(string text)
            textBox1.Text = text + "\r\n\r\n" + textBox1.Text;
        private void btnCloseSession_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
            try
                _DcPwrSession.Close();
                addText("Session closed");
            catch (Exception ex)
                addText(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().ToString() + "\r\n" + ex.ToString());

Power supply for HP Pavilion m7-1015dx Entertainment Notebook PC

I have a HP Pavilion m7-1015dx Entertainment Notebook PC.
The power supply (AC adaptor) that it comes with is HP part number 608428-002.
I also have a different power supply (AC adaptor) that came with a much older HP Pavilion notebook. This older power supply is HP part number 519329-003.
Is the HP Pavilion m7-1015dx compatible with the older power supply (part number 519329-003)?
Thanks!
Mike

519329-003 is definitely the right part number. I just double-checked, and that's what's written on the hardware. If you do a google search for "hp part 519329-003", you get a ton of results.
The older HP notebook has another power supply, with HP part number 608428‑002 608428‑002 608428‑002 608428-002. So I know that 608428-002 and 519329-003 are equivalent.
Is the newer notebook (the HP Pavilion m7-1015dx) compatible with the power supply that has HP part number 608428-002?

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