Warning

FallingDownMan

And bearing in mind PSUs start at around £6, most people would have to spend more on the soldering iron and replacement parts to do this

Personally, I thinks it's nuts to bother trying to repair a PSU unless it's a high-quality one that is worth a lot of money. Most times, you'd end up have a better quality one by spending £6 at eBuyer rather than repair the one that came with the PC.

toasterman

My sister had a replacement dvd player when hers broke, and the manufacturer sent her one from another country, with a non-uk power lead. Not sure which country it was but it had two main pins in the same place as ours, but no middle/earth one. Because of this, the plug wouldn't go into a normal UK mains socket.

When she phoned up to complain, someone in their customer service call centre suggested she could get the plug to go into a UK socket by poking something into the earth hole on the socket, while pushing the other two pins in!!
What sort of crazy call centre suggests something like that to a random member of the public? :eek:

If I recall, it was Medion...Aldi/Lidl job

Ems*Honie

Is it safe to hoover inside the tower, I had planned to do this today (comp shop rec) but now you've scared me

tomsolomon

Ems*honie yea sorry didnt mean to scare anyone lol. The last thing we wanted to do was put people off repairing and maintaining there own computers. Here check out this thread post numbers 24 and 25.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=556300&page=2

There are just some jobs that shouldnt be attempted, if your not sure what you need to carry out the job safely. Hope we havent put you off to much

Ems*Honie

Thanks Tomsolomon.

I popped down to the village comp shop this morning, they charge £15 to cealn it through, so I will probably drop it in to them on Friday morning (when the tearoom has a charity coffee morning, lord I sound like a stepford wife) I think they would do a far better job than me, I read the post you linked to and I laughed, I would have just opened it and shoved the hoover hose in

On an aside, my hard drive blew in my Dell when it was a week old, Dell techs had me messing about inside it for a good half an hour with just phone instructions, scary.

mascherano

tomsolomon wrote: »

The capacitors in a PSU arent anywhere near the size of what you would find in a television or monitor, but still worth steering clear of.
Some of the tv and monitor capacitors are well capable of dismembering your digits.

Talk about patronising. Whats next? Dont make cups of tea because the water is so hot it could scald your skin leaving you scarred for life.

FallingDownMan

This is a bit more serious, mascherano.

There's no way someone who doesn't know about electrics (as opposed to electronics) should open up high-voltage or mains equipment. PSUs are sealed for this reason and they usually clearly state that there are no user-servicable parts inside.

Yes, someone who does know can fix them, but for the vast, vast majority they should not open them up and go poking inside. It really is potentially dangerous - if not for the individual while they're doing it, for their house if they do something wrong.

Usually, a fuse blows for a reason. If someone decides to bypass this somehow it can be serious.

You have to look at this in balance: the majority of PC users are not skilled in electrical repairs and need to be extremely careful. Poking inside a mains box in any way is very, very risky.

mostly

lucky i saw this thread I was going to swap out my mobo in the bath tonight.

espresso

mostly wrote: »

lucky i saw this thread I was going to swap out my mobo in the bath tonight.

Just make sure that you earth yourself by sticking your toe up the cold tap.

mostly

I think I'll be ok I have AVG installed.