4 ms·
I hate to be the one but a) this means fixing these psu's are going to be even harder now and b) at some point people are going to have to worry about energy in
by noobermin 4y ago
I hate to be the one but a) this means fixing these psu's are going to be even harder now and b) at some point people are going to have to worry about energy intensity (W/m^2) exceeding values where the devices themselves will melt. That said, interesting tech. It feels like a lot of new tech news these days is just furthering gimmicks (adding "blockchain" to this or ML applied to something that didn't need it) but this is actually cool and could open a host of new applications.
- csours 4y agoDo people fix PSUs?
- noobermin 4y agoYes?????????
- nwiswell 4y agoAwesome! I've got about a hundred server power supplies that need fixing, what do you charge?
- justahuman74 4y agoToo much. You fix a PSU cause you know what you're doing and have the time, not because it's economical to do for someone else
- nwiswell 4y agoHmm! It certainly seems like if it's worthwhile for anyone to do with unspecialized labor, then it would certainly be worth doing for a specialist. Why is it that I've never heard of a power supply repair technician in a data center?
- tinco 4y agoBecause data centers don't care about ewaste. It is cheaper to have power supplies redundant and in stock than it is to have a technician on retainer.
- nwiswell 4y agoServer power supplies are expensive, and data centers sure do care about the bottom line. If it costs $20 to fix a $100 power supply, why would you replace it?
- tinco 4y agoHow frequent are the failures? It costs a lot less than $20 to repair a broken power supply, but if you break less than $5000 worth of power supplies per month you're not breaking even on the technician not even counting the management overhead. I don't think small cost savings like that are going to be implemented simply because it makes the operation more complex without landing any manager a big fat bonus. Unless I'm grossly underestimating the failure rate of those supplies?
- nwiswell 4y agoI think you're underestimating the scale of the modern data center.
- tinco 4y agoSo you're saying in your DC enough of them break that they could feed a technician? Say the technician would have an 80% success rate and he saves $100 bucks per repair, there would need to be 63 failures per month for there to be 0 cost savings. What's the minimum cost savings for it to be worth a managers time? Maybe double it again so 125 failures per month? I wonder if the vendor would void the warranty and that would have any consequences. Does you DC get around 125 failures per month?
- c_o_n_v_e_x 4y ago
- londons_explore 4y agoIf you have a hundred identical power supplies that need fixing, they probably all have the same fault, and the fix will probably be 3 minutes labour + 20 cents in parts after the first one. That's totally worth doing.
- bradlys 4y agoClearly the 0.01% of people who have even opened a PSU are going to chime in and say it’s necessary. I’ve torn mine apart and replaced fans in them and such but I’ve never had to resolder any parts onto them. If a PSU dies - it tended to do it violently and was so cheap that it wasn’t worth doing it. All the name brand ones I’ve had never had any issues and same for the dozens of other people I knew. (Or computers I worked on or built or sold to others… or when I did IT and saw literally thousands of computers…)
- tinco 4y agoI fixed mine once. I lived in a university town, which caused the small unusual circumstance that no local store had a 700W power supply in stock, but there was a electronic parts store that had the capacitor I needed to replace. Besides the capacitor only costing 10 cents and a new one around a hundred bucks the advantage for me was that I had fixed the whole thing within na hour or two including diagnosing the issue and the bike ride to the shop. I was back on my PC that same night, and 5 years later that same PSU now well over ten years old is still going strong.
- Gigachad 4y agoI wouldn’t even consider fixing a psu. It’s dangerous high voltage electronics so messing it up could result in a fire or personal harm. And they are standardised. Makes more sense to just replace them.
- kadoban 4y agoI've been told they have big scary capacitors in them as well. Never fun trying to fix something where unplugging it isn't even enough to be safe.
- bestham 4y agoI’ve yet to see a home appliance without a dropper resistor across the Cap. Even the worst penny pinching Chinese knockoff PSU has this.
- ClumsyPilot 4y agoWait for a few minutes before opening it up, check with a multimeter, etc. Mains voltage isn't that scary if you follow basic precautions
- kadoban 4y agoIs a few minutes enough? My impression was they could remain charged for long periods.
- MertsA 4y agoA few minutes is more than enough under normal conditions. Modern electronics all have bleed resistors that drain any dangerous capacitors when the device is off. In microwave capacitors the bleed resistor is built into the metal can of the capacitor itself. You should always assume capacitors are charged unless proven otherwise. Just grab a screwdriver with an insulated handle and short out the capacitor before assuming it's safe.
- toast0 4y agoHow many people fix their psu vs eWaste when they stop working, which is usually 5+ years after they were made, unless they were made with unusually poor components or design? I don't necessarily need a smaller power supply, but options are nice.
- zepolen 4y agoMost boards have a couple components that are on the weak side and fail, usually a capacitor. Any electronics shop can fix it for at most $20, or you can do it yourself for the cost of a 20 cent component though usually not worth the time. Beats paying $100 for a new PSU.
- tinco 4y agoFixing PSU's has never been hard. And actually looking at the board it looks like this is even easier to take a part and work on than the PSU I have repaired.