Power supply absurdity

[pentium]

So I picked up this Cipher 9-track tape drive from the office and dragged it home, only to find out that something was up with the PSU.
I spent an hour poking at it and the rails. It was giving a voltage of sorts and things were happening in it like the fan was trying to spin and there was a transformer that was buzzing away but other than that, it was not really doing much. This includes when it was disconnected from the other internals of the drive.
I pulled it out this morning and took it to the office shop to see what I could do but when I plugged the PSU in there, it worked. The fan sprang to life and I was getting more respectable voltages out of it. I let it run all day and it didn't hiccup once.
Okay, so I thought either I was having a noise issue or the transit reseated something so I took it and a brick-sized line conditioner home and tried again.
As luck would have it, it's once again back to the same nearly-dead state.
Okay, so I'll lug it and the whole damn drive back in to work tomorrow but what gives?

[ratdude747]

Re: Power supply absurdity

i would look for cold/cracked joints first...

[pentium]

Re: Power supply absurdity

Already checked.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Power supply absurdity

So I picked up this Cipher 9-track tape drive from the office and dragged it home, only to find out that something was up with the PSU.
I spent an hour poking at it and the rails. It was giving a voltage of sorts and things were happening in it like the fan was trying to spin and there was a transformer that was buzzing away but other than that, it was not really doing much. This includes when it was disconnected from the other internals of the drive.
I pulled it out this morning and took it to the office shop to see what I could do but when I plugged the PSU in there, it worked. The fan sprang to life and I was getting more respectable voltages out of it. I let it run all day and it didn't hiccup once.
Okay, so I thought either I was having a noise issue or the transit reseated something so I took it and a brick-sized line conditioner home and tried again.
As luck would have it, it's once again back to the same nearly-dead state.
Okay, so I'll lug it and the whole damn drive back in to work tomorrow but what gives?

As I recall you have shitty or non-existent grounding in your apt.

[pentium]

Re: Power supply absurdity

Landlord came in and that was fixed.
I can now connect my UPS and not have it complain about a site wiring fault.

[stj]

Re: Power supply absurdity

bad switch/fuseholder in the original housing?

[iKitsune]

Re: Power supply absurdity

Oooh, oooh! Can I guess? Inverted hot/neutral lines in the apartment. That won't light site wiring fault on a lower-end APC in my experience. Go to whatever they call Home Depot in Canada and get an outlet tester.