My PowMax finally had badcaps...

[UraBahn]

Big surprise

One day I turn my trusty homemade Pentium III server on, and it freezes while loading a webpage. Pressed reset and then it wouldn't recognize the hard drive. Hmmm, this is weird I thought. After powering down and powering up, it worked just fine. Uh oh, I knew what that meant...

Took a good long look at the caps on my Jetway 993AN. All the Rubycon MBZ/YXG and the six remaining GSC general-purpose caps look fine. (Did I mention that I replaced all the low-ESR caps and several of the GP caps on the board with Rubycon MBZ and YXG low-ESR caps?) Then I remembered that I was using a PowMax power supply. So...

Found two dead JEE 2200uf 10v caps, so I went to work recapping till 12:45 in the night. So far I've replaced all but one major cap on the PSU board with Nichicon PL, Rubycon YXG, Chemi-Con LXJ, Samyoung KME and even a few JPce-tur, but now the last cap I need is a 2200uf 10v, and all I've got left is a 2200uf 6.3v Chemi-Con LXJ. My question is, would it be OK if I put the 6.3v cap in place of the 10v one?

Thanks for any help you can offer,

urabahn

(P.S. Yes, I do plan on getting rid of the PowMax soon. I just can't do it right now because I'm flat broke!)

[Shroomie]

Re: My PowMax finally had badcaps...

If it's a 10v cap, it probably didn't handle 12v, so the 6.3 ought to cut it. The next lowest voltage is 5v after all. Don't take my word for it though, I'm assuming.

[UraBahn]

Re: My PowMax finally had badcaps...

If it's a 10v cap, it probably didn't handle 12v, so the 6.3 ought to cut it. The next lowest voltage is 5v after all. Don't take my word for it though, I'm assuming.

@Shroomie: OK, I'll try it out. I don't really have alot to lose other than a Tualeron 1.3 GHz testing rig I'm gonna test this supply with. Thanks for your help.

BTW, I like your sig. That's why I prefer Delta, Astec and LiteOn... whenever I can find them. The only reason why I have this PowMax was because it came with a case I bought long before I knew about the Taiwanese capacitor problems. Apparently I got one of the older PowMax's, because mine feels relatively heavy and is packed with electronics, unlike the new ones which are more akin to Deer.

[Shroomie]

Re: My PowMax finally had badcaps...

Heh, thanks. Good luck with it, too.

[dood]

Re: My PowMax finally had badcaps...

One thing to remember is that simply replacing the caps isn't going to cure the inherent bad design of a PowMax PSU. I'd replace it with something that has beefier circuitry. I don't even consider recapping a Powmax... I've seen far too many of them explode upon experiencing power anomalies.

[UraBahn]

Re: My PowMax finally had badcaps...

Well I ran out of solder(!) before I could finish recapping the PowMax, so I just replaced it with an old 200W Hipro I got from Goodwill for $3. Peering inside the Hipro, I found two 470uf 200v Panasonic primary caps (which I replaced with 680uf Rubycons shortly after I got the supply), and Fuhjyyu TNR and Su'scon caps on the secondary side. Fortunately none of the caps look bad yet, but I know those Fuhjyyu TNRs are gonna go bad when I least expect them to.

BTW there was nothing wrong with the two 470uf Pannys I removed. I just wanted better input filtering, because I live out in an area which is afflicted with minor power dips daily. In fact, anybody want two 470uf 200v Panasonics? I'll be glad to mail 'em off to anyone who needs them. (Check the For Sale / Trade post if interested.)