Blinking Green Light on Hipro Power Supply

Does anyone know if a blinking green light on the back of a HiPro ATX
power supply suggests any particular problem, other than "uh-oh?"

Replacing the supply fixes my problem with the PC, so I've ordered a new
unit. Still, I'm wondering if there's something fixable with the old
one. Not that it matters much, but the only fuse I can find is good.

On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:09:11 GMT, Grinder
<grinder@no.spam.maam.com> wrote:

>Does anyone know if a blinking green light on the back of a HiPro ATX
>power supply suggests any particular problem, other than "uh-oh?"
>
>Replacing the supply fixes my problem with the PC, so I've ordered a new
>unit. Still, I'm wondering if there's something fixable with the old
>one. Not that it matters much, but the only fuse I can find is good.


Certainly there's something fixable, but the devil is in the
details, in diagnosing what when wrong.

I have no idea what the factors are in whether that PSU's
rear green LED remains on or blinking are, but would suggest
that if you too don't know, then just treat it like a PSU
without that LED in further diagnostic efforts like whether
it has a bad fan, failed caps, is staying within allowable
voltage range, etc.

You have 'hit the nail on the head' when trying a replacement, I can't
comment on the Hipro as I never come across one.

A replacement works so it proves the point that there is a fault with
the Hipro psu, the cause could be just about anything from a loss of a
rail voltage, ripple on a supply or supplies due to bad electrolytic
capacitors... or even poor regulation due to the feedback loop between
secondary and primary usually done via a opto coupler.

This link might throw some light 'About PSUs'
(http://www.answers.com/topic/power-supply-rail) and 'About Power
Supplies' (http://murfsgarage.cybertechhelp.com/Power.htm)... I'll
throw another useful gem in about calculating the 'Wattage required.
' (http://www.journeysystems.com/?powercalc)
Under no circumstance power it would with no load... at least on the
5V 20 Amp or so rail or you 'may' end up seeing fireworks.

Davy

Thanks guys.

At this point, I think I'm going to just be thankful that an $8 power
supply lasted three years, and write it off.

On Wed, 7 Nov 2007 07:47:33 -0600, davy wrote:

>Under no circumstance power it would with no load... at least on the
>5V 20 Amp or so rail or you 'may' end up seeing fireworks.

It is extremely unlikely any ATX PSU will fail in any way by
trying to power it on without a load. When a design
requires it, there is a load resistor on the rail and at
worst the PSU would just shut off.

kony wrote:
> On Wed, 7 Nov 2007 07:47:33 -0600, davy wrote:
>
>> Under no circumstance power it would with no load... at least on the
>> 5V 20 Amp or so rail or you 'may' end up seeing fireworks.
>
> It is extremely unlikely any ATX PSU will fail in any way by
> trying to power it on without a load. When a design
> requires it, there is a load resistor on the rail and at
> worst the PSU would just shut off.

Funny you should mention that. The power supply that this (now kaput)
Hipro unit replaced was destroyed, complete with minor fireworks, when
someone "helping" me plugged it into the wall without a load.

On Thu, 08 Nov 2007 03:18:09 GMT, Grinder
<grinder@no.spam.maam.com> wrote:

>kony wrote:
>> On Wed, 7 Nov 2007 07:47:33 -0600, davy wrote:
>>
>>> Under no circumstance power it would with no load... at least on the
>>> 5V 20 Amp or so rail or you 'may' end up seeing fireworks.
>>
>> It is extremely unlikely any ATX PSU will fail in any way by
>> trying to power it on without a load. When a design
>> requires it, there is a load resistor on the rail and at
>> worst the PSU would just shut off.
>
>Funny you should mention that. The power supply that this (now kaput)
>Hipro unit replaced was destroyed, complete with minor fireworks, when
>someone "helping" me plugged it into the wall without a load.


I think it is coincidence, or defect, any PSU that wouldn't
even power on without a load would be an RMA nightmare.

On far too many PSU to remember, I've powered on with no
load to make a basic assesment of whether they worked at all
or needed repair.