Older Abit AI7 homebuilt acting oddly

  I've been running the same AI7 for many years now. It runs 24/7 and has
never given me a lick of trouble. Drives have been replaced occasionally,
but before any of them have died. Machine has an Antec Truepower 430W PS.
Recently, when I've had to actually power the system back up the PS will try
to start several times before finally "kicking in". It almost sounds like a
car trying to turn over. This happens several times, and then it will just
start. Once it does, it runs fine. AbitEQ seems to indicate that al the
voltages are correct once running. Any help on this appreciated.

 
I would suspect the PSU rather than anything else.  Although the
Trupower 430 is a fairly good unit running 24/7 inevitably does
means that things will fail sooner than you might expect.  I'd have
a look at the PSU and if it is very dusty (bear in mind that it
usually takes a _lot_ of dust to cause problems) then I'd give it
a clean out.

This does mean opening the unit to do properly but if you take
common sense precautions when working with mains rated equipment
you should be OK.  Bear in mind, however, that it is at least
possible mains voltage is present, even after you have turned off
and unpluged the unit, although this is unlikely particularly with
a quality make.

I'd also oil the fan bearings while I'm in there.  While it is
possible that your PSU fans are genuinely wearing out they are ball
bearing units of reasonable quality so I would consider that
unlikely.  It's certainly worth attempting some basic maintenance
first.

--
Andrew Smallshaw
andrews@sdf.lonestar.org

 

Funny thing. After I posted this I looked through the homebuilt newsgroup
and found another posting describing a similar problem. Recommendations
there also pointed to the PS being the likely culprit.


All god recommendations. Thanks.

 wrote:



A common fault with those is failure of the Fuhjyyu
capacitors.  A visual inspection will usually find one or
more vented if that's the cause.



If it is a ball bearing fan, oiling it may do little if any
good, and often makes the fan quite a bit noisier as the
bearing balls then rattlingn around a lot more in the lower
viscosity resulting when the oil mixes with the original
grease.  Oil can be an emergency measure to keep one running
till it can be replaced but doesn't extend life much like it
will with a sleeve bearing.

 
On Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:29:29 -0500  'kony'
wrote this on alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit:


Interesting. Last Easter I stripped down my system to clean and
lubricate all the fans with light oil and a puff of graphite powder.
IIRC one of the fans (probably the PSU) has ball bearings and it
does rattle a little since then. All the sleeve fans are running
very nicely. I must remember that next time :-)