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 Post subject: Repair Your Power Supply
PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:17 am 
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EX485 kept rebooting. Forum search of this symptom points to a bad power supply. Voltage levels are OK, but too much ripple in the output can cause repeated rebooting.

I opened up the power supply for my EX485 and noticed most of the filter caps on the output side of the supply were swollen. This indicates that the caps are bad or are going bad. I'm going to attempt to replace all the capacitors, there are about 12, five of which are "pregnant". Wish me luck, there is hardly any room to work and it looks like it might be easy to mess up the circuit board because of the way it is designed. This is not for the feint of heart.
Attachment:
File comment: power supply
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Attachment:
File comment: swollen capacitors
powersupplycaps.jpg
powersupplycaps.jpg [ 95.98 KiB | Viewed 78669 times ]


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 2:06 pm 
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Unsoldered the swollen capacitors from the underside of the board. Very easy to do.
The white glue holding everything together is RTV, so it cuts easily.
They are
2200 μF 16V taller than the rest
2200 μF 10V three of them
100 μF 35V the small one
I will replace them with higher voltage rating versions in the hopes they will live longer. You can up the voltage rating a little bit without a problem.
2200 μF 25V (4 of them)
100 μF 50V (a little bigger diameter, but it will fit.)
Note: different power supplies may be used that are laid out different or use different capacitors. Make no assumptions and check your particular power supply. I'm taking a $5 gamble that this will work.
Stay tuned, I need to order the caps, so I'll be back next week.
I decided to follow the Italian philosophy; "If it ain't-a-broke, don't-a-fix it" and am only replacing the swollen caps.


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File comment: Capacitors identified
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File comment: Capacitors removed
capsout.jpg
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2012 10:34 am 
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Very interested to see if this fixes your issues. Had a similar problem with the power supply on our TiVo (circa 2006). Apparently a bad time for eletrolytic capacitors.

Scott


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 4:28 pm 
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Caps arrived from Newark Electronics. Any number of suppliers have them. If you are bumping up the voltage level, be aware of the physical size limitations. The three 10V ones that are crowded together must be 10mm diameter max to fit. The 16V one can be upgraded to 25V, but its larger 12.5 mm dia is a squeeze. the 100 microfarad one is no problem space-wise. These are electrolytics, so polarity does matter. The stripe on the cap needs to align with the hole with the dot. Other than that soldering them in is not problem. A fine-tip soldering iron is handy. I did this at home, so no fancy equipment. Check with a magnifying glass for cold solder joints and touch up after trimming the leads.

Yes, new caps fixed the constant reboot problem, but now I have a solid red third light which I think means an operating system issue. I'm guessing 24 hours of rebooting every thirty seconds caused an issue. Fixing it will be tonite's project.


Attachments:
File comment: The parts
theparts.jpg
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File comment: Caps installed and ready to solder. You may need the bend the leads a little topside to get everything to fit. Don't forget extra flux.
readytosolder.jpg
readytosolder.jpg [ 43 KiB | Viewed 78598 times ]
File comment: Soldered in. Not very professional since I didn't have a fine-tipped soldering iron, but it will do.
solderedin.jpg
solderedin.jpg [ 45.41 KiB | Viewed 78598 times ]
File comment: Leads trimmed. Inspect solder joints and touch up as needed.
trimmed.jpg
trimmed.jpg [ 39.02 KiB | Viewed 78598 times ]
File comment: Top view with new caps. I didn't bother with more RTV caulk. I plugged it in an turned it on to check voltages. Same as before, but presumably without as much AC. I didn't feel like dragging my scope out to confirm.
topviewnewparts.jpg
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File comment: Cover back on. Its pretty easy to disassemble and reassemble.
reassembled.jpg
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File comment: Ready to install. Dual 25 mm fans are noisy but effective. Thank to the original poster for this idea.
readytoinstall.jpg
readytoinstall.jpg [ 31.85 KiB | Viewed 78598 times ]
File comment: Powers up and no more repeated rebooting. I accidentally mixed up my two drives so this is what the lights look like when you do that.
disksswitched.jpg
disksswitched.jpg [ 65.26 KiB | Viewed 78598 times ]
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:53 am 
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Did a server recovery (which took 6 hours!), and it looks like everything is back to normal.
It would save having to do a recovery if you can fix the power supply before it gets to the constant rebooting stage and screws up the operating system or hard drives. It might be good to inspect your power supply capacitors when you take your server down for cleaning.
I noticed the EX485 fans run much quieter with new capacitors in the power supply. Maybe if your fans are howling, it's a symptom of a dying power supply.
I estimate the actual time spent to repair the power supply was around 30 minutes or so. Much easier than I thought it would be.


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PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 11:14 am 
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Great post, thanks for sharing your work!

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 5:56 am 
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Yes indeed very nice post. The other area these PSU's have issues with are the voltage regulators. The fuse which protects the PSU is a pain to obtain. I had to order them twice before getting the correct fuse. Unfortunately these days I do not work on boards like I use to because my hands are getting shaky.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 7:55 am 
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Repaired in Nov 2012.
April 5, 2013 and the HP Server has been running just fine.

Moderators; should this thread be pinned?


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PostPosted: Thu May 30, 2013 10:18 am 
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I just placed an order, I know my 2200 μF caps are bad, and my replacement power supply didn't work, so knowing the OEM supply worked and has 5 definitely bad caps, I'll replace them and update when they're replaced.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 8:14 am 
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dianebrat wrote:
I just placed an order, I know my 2200 μF caps are bad, and my replacement power supply didn't work, so knowing the OEM supply worked and has 5 definitely bad caps, I'll replace them and update when they're replaced.

That was it, replaced the bulging 2200 μF caps, I'm doing a restore now, lots of "Socket::Read - Timed out" errors even with only a xover cable between the PCs, but process itself is working.

FWIW the 3rd party cheap PS with adapter cable I returned because it didn't fit in the case was surely leading me astray.

Update: The installation is complete, all is fine, the unit can be back in service as needed, but I have a WHS2011 server in its place at the moment.


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PostPosted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 6:29 am 
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nice instruction BUT
no info about ESR!
Capacitors mus be low ESR or ultra low ESR!!!!
look on pdf file for this small one
http://www.compostar.com/Ltec/LXY.pdf
I replace him by HITANO EXR series

second - replace on quiet fan

cheers

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 8:57 pm 
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Great effort!

One thing to keep in mind is that, the newer power supply is more efficient. 80% gets very common. If the capacitors in the old PS get old, then something else may also fail soon. Maybe time to get a new PS.

It makes more sense with proprietary PS.

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