Date   : Sat, 01 Sep 2007 21:46:23 +0100
From   : philpem@... (Philip Pemberton)
Subject: Power Supply Problem

Chris Priest wrote:
> One of my beebs has blown 2 PSU's in the past two days, when I say 
> blown, there was a pop and smoke from the PSU, yet it still continues to 
> work!

One of the two (or three?) X2-rated filter capacitors has arced over and smoked.
It generally isn't terminal, but it's a swine to clean up all the smoke 
residue and goo that's left over. Oh, and it's likely to spit out EMI like 
there's no tomorrow, too. Your AM radio reception might be a little crappy 
until it's fixed :)

> I couldn't see any signs of a swollen cap tho, I need to pull the board 
> from the PSU and have a visual check, but wondering if anyone has had 
> this happen to them?

They're 0.1uF capacitors IIRC; brown with a clear plastic coating. Look for 
one with a split or burned casing and replace it. Then replace the others
as well.

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