LaCie dying power supplies

[cyclones]

Has anyone seen the LaCie power supplies that die? They hiss and no longer work. This seems to be a widespread problem. I talked to a guy at work who has replaced 3 of them in the last year. My department refused to buy new ones from LaCie because they will probably just fail again.

The power supplies give off a hissing sound -- see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTZ7EvSJnng

Just wondering if anyone knows what the problem could be. My girlfriend has a LaCie drive which she uses for backup and I think it's only a matter of time before it goes.

[shadow]

Re: LaCie dying power supplies

I think that this community could help you out in isolating the problem if you post pictures of the innards of the power brick. If worst comes to worst, it should not be too difficult to figure out the circuit diagram for it.

Since it looks like a simple low powered power brick...the design is probably very primitive.

I would normally recommend to just invest in an aftermarket power brick that is built better. However after looking at the specifications from the video. An aftermarket power brick may be hard to come by. It outputs two voltages (5V and 12V) from the same brick. Therefore I assume that the connector at the end is probably proprietary as well.

[Toasty]

Re: LaCie dying power supplies

...hear it plain as day... ??? NOT

UL - E188603 under QQGQ7(Canada) & QQGQ, shows SUNFONE ELECTRONICS CO, Taiwan. Model: ACU057A-0512

Common power supply. Plug pinout looks standard too. Cheap.

Bad caps can cause this sound as well as poorly wound or dipped transformers or other inductors. No caulk or failed caulk too. On the failure issue, I'd go right at the caps.

[ddscentral]

Re: LaCie dying power supplies

Specs:
http://www.sunfone.com.tw/main.php?f...l&prod_id=1956

[fiberslam]

Re: LaCie dying power supplies

Hello shipmates. I'm in the same boat.

Have two older LaCie units with two failed power supplies. They both contain 3.5" 7200 RPM drives (one dual and one quad) so require a fair amount of power to spin up. The original PS claims to output 12v3A/5V*4.2A. With a little bit of soldering a standard Molex power supply could be used, but I haven't found anything heftier than 12V*2A/5V*2A.

I may attempt to desolder the heatsinks and power transistors from the board and replace the caps. I can post pics if that would help.

[shovenose]

Re: LaCie dying power supplies

Usually it's the caps that go on wall warts - especially these more powerful bricks...
Usually the LaCie adapters are standard 4-pin.

[ben7]

Re: LaCie dying power supplies

Usually it's the caps that go on wall warts - especially these more powerful bricks...
Usually the LaCie adapters are standard 4-pin.

Yes I have repaired one of these that had bad Samxons inside.

-Ben

[Scenic]

Re: LaCie dying power supplies

Let me guess: GF series?

[Gabriel]

Re: LaCie dying power supplies

The Lacie psu problem is quite common, I got several Lacie HDD for free as I worked for a retailer. There was no problem with the Lacie hdd box itself only a toasted psu.

Caps was Samxon GF(M) 1000uF 10v and 16v.

[ben7]

Re: LaCie dying power supplies

Let me guess: GF series?

Yep, just as Gabriel said!
All of them were bulged, but not vented.

P.S. The circuit boards are cheap too, be careful not to break any traces!

-Ben