Dead PSU - recovery

qbazdz · 10 Jul 2025 at 09:42

Hi,

I have a PSU that gave up recently, quite unexpectedly, and doesn't even start up on the PSU tester.
Its an older unit and long out of warranty so I was thinking of at least opening up the cover to check for some obvious damage.

Are these usually destined for landfill, I always feel like there should be some way to recover a bit more.. (apart from fan and lead lol)

Any ideas?

hornetstinger · 10 Jul 2025 at 09:45

Do you have any experience in component electronic repair?

tamzzy · 10 Jul 2025 at 09:50

PSU dead = throw it away.
Unless you know what you are doing, you'd probably not want a botched repair to take out the rest of the components in the PC.

Glanza · 10 Jul 2025 at 10:04

They are sealed for a reason, if it's 'dead' it can still hold charge, not worth the risk of opening up if you don't know what your doing.

Philtor · 10 Jul 2025 at 10:33

Take it to your local recycling centre and buy a new one from a good brand.

Do not attempt to open it up unless you know exactly what you are doing!

There are capacitors inside that you really don’t want to get a shock from

ATIorNvidia · 10 Jul 2025 at 11:36

Unless it went bang there's probably not going to be obvious damage you can see by just looking at it.

qbazdz · 10 Jul 2025 at 11:37

I do know what Im doing, so I'm safe, but I haven't got the time to dig into it to fix so it was just going to be a quick look, see if anything obvious is there to fix, if not just ditch it.
I suspect this one overheated or it had aged and some caps are gone.

embalse · 10 Jul 2025 at 15:28

qbazdz said:
I do know what Im doing, so I'm safe, but I haven't got the time to dig into it to fix so it was just going to be a quick look, see if anything obvious is there to fix, if not just ditch it.
I suspect this one overheated or it had aged and some caps are gone.

If you open it good luck, but in the end it simply might be quicker and safer to buy a replacement.

.

Mr Evil · 10 Jul 2025 at 18:38

Electrolytic capacitors are the most likely parts to fail. If you're lucky they will be visibly leaking. If you're less lucky then you'll have to actually measure their capacitance and ESR, but will be able to find the dead ones by performing the measurements in-circuit. If you're unlucky then you'll have to desolder them one by one and measure them in isolation.

Ilstar57 · 12 Jul 2025 at 03:04

First off - check your warranty. Depending on what PSU you have it could still be under warranty. 5, 7 and even 10 years are very common. If so, go get it warrantied and you'll get a replacement CPU. I generally don't recommend opening them up - not only can this be used as a pretext to deny warranty, it can also be dangerous. You said you know what you're doing - then you can do it at your own risk.

qbazdz · 15 Jul 2025 at 11:46

Ilstar57 said:
First off - check your warranty. Depending on what PSU you have it could still be under warranty. 5, 7 and even 10 years are very common. If so, go get it warrantied and you'll get a replacement CPU. I generally don't recommend opening them up - not only can this be used as a pretext to deny warranty, it can also be dangerous. You said you know what you're doing - then you can do it at your own risk.

Warranty long gone - it was long but not that long lol