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From: internaughtfull on 6 Feb 2010 13:15
On Feb 6, 10:13 am, John Doe > FWIW. I have several different brands
(Bosch, DeWalt, Dremmel) of
> lithium-ion batteries/chargers and have not noticed a smell. Has
> anyone else noticed a smell while recharging lithium-ion
> batteries? Methinks that is unusual.

Yes when I recharge some of these RayoVac lithium AA batteries in a
regular pace charger, after 4 or so hours I do notice an odd smell.
Not as strong as what came out of the computer, but
a similar smell. Maybe the charger is wearing out
as well and should be replaced.

itchy
From: Paul on 6 Feb 2010 14:36
internaughtfull wrote:
> On Feb 6, 9:37 am, Paul <nos...(a)needed.com> wrote:
> > While most of the time, supplies follow the ATX standard,
>> even some of the big companies have put non-standard supplies
>> in their computers. Before buying another supply, you have
>> to do enough research first, to satisfy yourself that you're
>> dealing with the standard design. To help you, these three
>> generations of specifications, have suggested wire colors,
>> which you can compare to the wire colors on your power supply
>> cables.
>>
>> http://web.archive.org/web/20030424061333/http://www.formfactors.org/...
>>
>> http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/atx/ATX12V_1_3dg.pdf
>>
>> http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/ATX12V_PSDG_2_2_public_br2...
>>
>
> I forgot to mention that it was an Antec SL400. It lasted a long time
> so I will
> probably go with another Antec. Hopefully that will make the swap out
> easy.
> A local computer shop here has an Antec SP500 for about 50$. I looked
> up the specs on it which said 'has three SATA compatible connections'.
> However I do have four small [40g] ATA drives, the older EIDE ones.
> Will that make any difference? Thanks for the advice and information.
>
> itchy

My Antec failed, because of bad capacitors. The capacitors on the
output side started to leak electrolyte. I could hear a muffled "arcing"
sound at startup. A couple days later, it was crashing in the BIOS, and
that is when I replaced mine. I suspect the power supplies they
contracted from ChannelWell (CWT) have that problem. Antec doesn't make
their own supplies, which is why it helps to know who makes
a particular product of theirs, to understand what you're
getting. In any given year, they use more than one supplier.

You can get "Y" cables for Molex disk drives, to make more connectors.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/12-198-025-S01?$S640W$

SATA power connectors are not suitable for the same kind of
"Y cable" trick, since the SATA power contacts have a lower
current rating than the Molex ones. So the Molex connectors
are the best thing to start with, in terms of chaining together
cabling. A power supply full of SATA connectors, is a poor deal
if you need to extend the cabling to power more loads.

Hard drives draw their peak current at startup, and can draw
2.5 amps from 12V for the first 10 seconds. Then, the drive
settles down to a much lower current. Like 0.6 amps from 12V.
A set of wires from the power supply, should be good for at
least 10 amps, which is sufficient to start four drives without
a concern. Once the drives are started, you could in theory
support a larger number of drives.

And you can tell when you have too much load on a Molex cable.
I have a video card, with a 1x4 Molex power connector on the
end. I added an extra hard drive to the same cable as the video
card was on, and just when I started to play a 3D game, the
hard drive made a "spin down and spin up" sound. That
tells you the voltage is dropping too low on the Molex cabling.
The hard drive can sense the voltage level on the cable, so it knows
what is going on. Once I removed one load from that set of wires,
the hard drive stopped doing that. So if you don't own a voltmeter
to check, hearing "click and clunk" from your disk drive, is all the
evidence you need, that the voltage is dropping too low
on that chain of cables.

Paul
From: John Doe on 6 Feb 2010 18:32
internaughtfull <itchyneebanshee hotmail.com> wrote:

> John Doe wrote:

>> FWIW. I have several different brands (Bosch, DeWalt, Dremmel)
>> of lithium-ion batteries/chargers and have not noticed a smell.
>> Has anyone else noticed a smell while recharging lithium-ion
>> batteries? Methinks that is unusual.
>
> Yes when I recharge some of these RayoVac lithium AA batteries
> in a regular pace charger, after 4 or so hours I do notice an
> odd smell. Not as strong as what came out of the computer, but
> a similar smell. Maybe the charger is wearing out as well and
> should be replaced.

Lithium batteries that do not include a suffix like "-ion" or
"-po" (probably short for "polymer") are not rechargeable. If I
were you, I would immediately throw away the Rayovac lithium
batteries you thought were rechargeable, and stop doing that.
Lithium batteries do nasty things when misused.
--



















>
> itchy
>
>

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> From: internaughtfull <itchyneebanshee hotmail.com>
> Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt
> Subject: Re: power supply meltdown?
> Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2010 10:15:13 -0800 (PST)
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From: larry moe 'n curly on 7 Feb 2010 00:14


internaughtfull wrote:
>
> I have a PC clone of about 7 years, it runs fine. Until tonite when
> I turned it on and it ran for awhile, then shut off and emitted a
> strong electrical burn smell. Yay! I love that.
>
> If I try to turn it back on, the fans spin up and everything spins up
> for about 15 seconds, then it turns off completely, and the smell
> returns. I think the smell is coming from the power supply.
>
> The smell is similar to the smell that lithium batteries in a
> recharger emit after a few hours.
>
> Superficial inspection inside does not reveal anything wrong or
> 'burned' looking.
>
> Could this be a capacitor or something inside the power supply?
> The initial spinup for 15 seconds is confusing.

> Antec SL400. It lasted a long time so I will probably go with
> another Antec. Hopefully that will make the swap out
> easy. A local computer shop here has an Antec SP500 for about 50$.

> when I recharge some of these RayoVac lithium AA batteries in a
> regular pace charger, after 4 or so hours I do notice an odd smell.

Lithium batteries are not supposed to smell when charged, plus they
require special chargers that are not only made for lithium cells but
also for the particular type of lithium cells being charged.
Furthermore not all lithium cells are designed for recharging. I
think you need to quit charging those Rayovac lithiums and switch to
NiMHs.

Antec SL400 PSUs were made with horrible Fuhjyyu brand caps (Google
"Fuhjyyu syndrome"), and you're lucky to have gotten seven years from
your SL400 because that's twice the typical lifespan. Unfortunately
the SP500 probably uses the same brand, and I wouldn't pay for one,
especially not $50, which is a sucker price for something so old,
unless all its low voltage Fuhjyyu, Koshin, and Teapo capacitors had
been replaced with good ones, such as Samxon brand (about the only
decent brand made in the super-skinny diameters that will fit
easily). It's better to get one of the newer Antecs made by Seasonic
or Delta.

From: mandysharie on 6 Feb 2010 21:21

I had a desktop computer that did the same thing that your did, Mine
ended up being the power supply, it had burnt up. My computer was
warranted through the place I was leasing it from so they sent it in to
be fixed free of charge to me.


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