[CLUE-Tech] Is there a doctor in the house?

[David Snyder]

Todd A. Gibson wrote:

Does the box boot up at all?  Does it run the POST (power on self test) 
or does it do nothing but blink the light?  In my experience, I've lost 
~3 different power supplies and blinking the power light has been one 
indication.  

You could do some testing if you have a voltmeter.  You'll have to see 
what pinouts are supposed to have what voltages, but it would tell you 
if your 5v or 12v leads have blown. You may also want check Dell's 
Knowlege base for certian.  Every BIOS has somewhat different ways of 
saying "Houston, we have a problem!"

I have a UPS and still had a 400W power supply blow - running on UPS 
power doesn't do it any favors, my APC BackUPS 500 seems to only put out 
~1/2 the voltage - keeps it running but I've heard power supplies really 
don't like that.

One nice thing is a box that old probably doesn't take a high end power 
supply if it is in fact blown.

Good hunting,

David

>Every few weeks, these 3 entries appear in my logs:
>Feb 16 10:48:22 onefish netfs: Unmounting NFS filesystems:  succeeded
>Feb 16 10:48:24 onefish dhcpd: receive_packet failed on eth0: Network is
>down
>Feb 16 10:48:25 onefish network: Shutting down interface eth0:
>succeeded
>
>It's a 6 year old dell box.
>
>I suspect a power problem because the power light blinks slowly on and
>off when it happens.  Perhaps a dying power supply?  I don't know
>because I've never had a power supply die before and don't know what the
>symptoms are.  The box is hooked up to an UPS.
>
>Up to now, I haven't had a console/keyboard hooked up to the machine so
>I've had to cycle the power to bring it back up.  As of this AM, I am
>now leaving a console/keyboard hooked up to it to see if I can talk to
>the machine via the console the next time it happens.
>
>So, my lack of planning on the console aside, does the slowly blinking
>power light ring any bells for anyone, or jibe with the theory of a
>jittery power supply?
>
>Thanks,
>-TAG
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