Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing Forum

In some systems, yes.



By comparing the form factor and pinout of the system or PSU in question to
the industry standard form factors and pinouts detailed in my URPCs book.

While a visual inspection is generally all that is necessary, if you don't
have access to the unit or want further verification, Dell in particular
produces excellent documentation for its systems, which can be helpful in
verifying form factors and pinouts against the standards.

For example, I recently repaired a Dell Dimension XPS Gen 2 system, which
used a power supply that was proprietary in both form factor *and* pinout:

http://tinyurl.com/2rjj4d
http://tinyurl.com/yt6otr

I bet Dell charges a fortune for this one, as there are no other PSUs I know
of that would fit and/or match the pinout should it fail. The only other
alternative for upgrading or repairing the PSU or motherboard in this system
would be to discard the entire chassis, motherboard and PSU, and then swap
the remaining components into another system. Fortunately for my client, in
this case the problem wasn't in the power supply or motherboard. <g>

In another example, I recently repaired a Gateway system in which the PSU did
in fact fail. The system in question used this particular microATX chassis:
http://support.gateway.com/s/CASES/3501 ... 41iv.shtml

Note the proprietary form factor power supply: http://tinyurl.com/yw3zuw

Fortunately (unlike the Dell XPS Gen 2) while the physical form factor was
non-standard, this particular Gateway PSU did use an industry-standard ATX12V
1.x pinout.

Since the proprietary PSU for this system was available only from Gateway, I
measured the available space and determined that an industry standard SFX12V
form factor PSU with a recessed 80mm top-mounted fan would actually fit as a
substitute: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817104981

Even though it was physically smaller, this particular industry standard
SFX12V supply matched the 180 watt rating of the original proprietary unit
from Gateway, and used the same connectors as well.

To secure the smaller SFX12V supply in the chassis I made a simple bracket
consisting of a 0.5" x 3" flat piece of sheet metal with three holes drilled
for mounting screws. This took all of about 5 minutes using nothing more than
a pair of tin snips and a drill. While I did have to charge a bit extra for
my repair since the swap wasn't a direct bolt-in, overall the customer came
out ahead since the industry standard replacement supply I used was
inexpensive as compared to a proprietary replacement.


I use a digital multimeter to measure voltages: http://tinyurl.com/2kel7s

Voltages should be measured with the PSU in the system and under a full load
using the backprobing technique shown in the PSU chapter of my URPCs book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0789734044

Scott.

Scott, I have used your book for exactly this purpose. When I recieved a DELL E310 as gift about 2 years ago I immedietly wanted to replace the power supply just because the ones they put in major manufacturers pcs are inadequate in my mind. I got out your book and checked the wires to make sure they were the same colors and checked the connector. I have also used your book to check power supplies by using the back probe method in your books. So your books really do help me out. Can't wait for the next edition of U&R PCs and U&R Laptops.