Boatload of Bestecs

[Nitwig]

I have a small pc repair business and not surprisingly have a bunch of Bestec power supplies from Emachines and Compaqs. All these units power up and test as good but I believe were the cause of motherboard failure in their respective systems. Should I bother recapping these for use in older low power P2 and P3 systems or should they take their rightful place in the trash bin? If they are worth recapping which caps should I replace? I don't want to spend a fortune.

[tazwegion]

Re: Boatload of Bestecs

Have you opened up any to have a look at the capacitors inside?

[Nitwig]

Re: Boatload of Bestecs

Yes they actually look fine.

[Maxxarcade]

Re: Boatload of Bestecs

I have a couple Bestecs from Compaq systems that actually appear to be very well built. I may take them apart soon and see if they are worth a recap.

Perhaps Bestec had both cheap and decent units, depending on who they OEM'ed for?

Both of the ones I have are the smaller style, one is a standard ATX type but has a shallower case, the other is a micro-atx style that fits in a somewhat uncommon form factor.

[Nitwig]

Re: Boatload of Bestecs

The ones that I have all test as good with my Antec power supply tester. That is not as reassuring as it would seem since I have a Deer power supply with leaking caps that also tests good. I have an allied power supply (looks like a Deer inside) that tests good as well and it has a scorch mark on the circuit board. The only thing that might be a factor is the low power requirements of the systems I intend to use them in.

[Logistics]

Re: Boatload of Bestecs

Aww, I thought the title said, "Battletoads." Thread disappoints.

Hey, if you can recap a PSU for less than $10 worth of good caps and resell it for $30+, why not?

[Nitwig]

Re: Boatload of Bestecs

Ahhhh..........I see. Sometimes I don't get activity in my threads. If I mention Sex or Battletoads I may get some more reads.

[999999999]

Re: Boatload of Bestecs

The cheapie pc-parts plug in power supply testers cannot find all faults, they can only point out certain kinds of failures, not indicate a PSU works properly.

If you want to reuse those PSU you need some methodology. Qualify them for a certain load. Maybe that load is similar/same as what the original system(s) used or maybe it's a new use? You need to load the PSU to that extent and check the output with a scope to be sure.

You could certainly recap them but I would hold off, open them up and inspect for bad caps but also areas of browing from heat buildup, and recap only as you need to reuse them one at a time instead of putting lots of money and time into all these PSU.

For P2 & P3 system use, the caps you should replace first would be those on the output filter stages of the 5V and 3.3V rails. Next the 12V rail but (unless the systems they came out of were newer) that won't have had as much stress nor would it again powering P2-3 era systems.

It may depend on the purpose of those old systems. If it were a customer's, will they really want to save a mere $20 or so to get a PSU that even the repair shop has doubts about? I think it would be useful to determine if the PSU really were to blame for the board failures. Might be the boards themselves were margain, or the system cooling was to lower the noise.

Also remember that for every eMachine or Compaq you get that has failed, there are probably hundreds of thousands still out in the field working. Thy're just so popular it could account for a high # of samples but the ratio of failures may not be especially high.

Maybe certain lots of them went bad but there must be a lot of people running same or very similar Bestec supplies without any problems.

[Nitwig]

Re: Boatload of Bestecs

Thank you for the feedback. I wasn't clear about what I was doing with the power supplies. They would only be used for my own use. I can't help but repair every machine I see. Once I repair it I stack it in the corner. I really am doing all this stuff just to learn as much as I can. The machines end up getting used once in a blue moon for Diablo and Warcraft II. I guess I'm a bit crazy, but I never have to worry about my computer dying and not having one. I just use one of my 30 other machines until the broken one is fixed again. I am insane and I'm sure that when I die my living relatives will curse me for all the junk they have to dispose of.

[kc8adu]

Re: Boatload of Bestecs

look near the +5stby transformer.
that 10@50 and 220@25 are the start of death by bestec.
i use a 22@50 for the 10.
i also replace all secondary caps.
and i see tons of evilmachines with this failure.scrap metal guys love em as so many get tossed out on the dock.

[PeteS in CA]

Re: Boatload of Bestecs

Bestec wasn't always @#$%, seemingly. I visited my SIL yesterday and she is using a 1998-vintage HP Pavilion (it used to be ours) that has a Bestec. She's looking to get a new computer, but mainly because that machine's Win 98 (not SP2) won't work with their Internet set-up.