Sunday 13 June 2010

SG45H7 power supply failure


A few weeks ago my shuttle box stopped booting. For the record, it's a one year old core2quad box with 8 gigabytes of memory and 1.5 Terabytes of hard disk. All packed in a little box that is no wider than an A4 sheet of paper.

When I hit the power button the fans would start rotating a little bit, maybe 25° and then nothing. The LEDs of the motherboards stay lit but nothing happens.

I opened the box, wiped the dust from the fans, measured the voltage and current coming out from the pins of the power supply. Both current and voltage were a bit lower than expected, but to my surprise, the box did boot again. I made sure my hourly incremental backup (rsync powered!) was doing OK, and I went back to hacking G++ as usual.

Then last Tuesday the box stopped working again. This time I removed most of the parts from the motherboard: Hard disk, DVD burner, memory sticks one by one. Each time I remove of a part, I'd try to power the box on. Still nothing.

At that point, I thought it was either the mother board or the power supply that was at fault. But how would I know? I bet it was the power supply as it was the less expensive part to replace :) So I did the "power supply paper clip test" and it appeared that the odds of the power supply unit being broken were quite high.

I figured I should probably order a more powerful power supply as the 300 Watts of the current one were probably a bit too tight for my usage.
I ordered a 500 Watts PSU (power supply unit) and got it two days later. And yes, the PSU was indeed the culprit!

Let's see how long is this new PSU going to serve.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

There appears to be an inherent problem with shuttle power supplies, my shuttle box has been suffering from similar problems for quite some time now. Lately the network interface stopped working and it turned out that the PSU had been in such a shape that for some reason the network interfaces were failing to do handshakes. The worst part for me was that the box was so old that there weren't replacements available anymore, so it's time to buy a new one.

Anonymous said...

Power supplies that come with cases are almost always the cheapest possible models. They may or may not fail early, but they are all much less power efficient than better power supplies.
I've stopped buying cheap cases or power supplies. High quality models are available for all form factors.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, I had a shuttle SN85G4's PSU (a PC35I2402) fail on me after about five years. I had a hard time finding 1u power supplies, so I got some ATX 80+ thing that sits besides the central unit.

Anonymous said...

I have the same box. Had the same power problems. I replaced it with one I found on 80+ gold or something I found on mwave. The screw holes don't completely line up, but at least one did and the supply works.

1u Power Supply said...

Hello friend,

I just want to knowing enough about your power problems and your SG45H7 power supply failure. I finding a 1u power supplies for these problem.

Anonymous said...

I have SG45H7 with the same problem as discribed above. Replacing with a Shuttle 500 Watt Power Supply for PC63 XPCS from PC Connection. The PC runs 24-7 and is just over one year old. Here is a link to a compatibility PDF. http://us.shuttle.com/scgfaq/attachments/127/psu%20compatibility%20list.pdf

Anonymous said...

Same thing happened to me. Thanks so much for the post and the comments - very helpful. I am replacing with PC-63.

Dr. Danger said...

I had the exact same problem happened and thanks to your post I was able to test the power supply and determine that it's the problem. Hopefully the replacement I ordered will last longer than the year the original did. Thanks for the great post.

custom php development said...

Oh my god, there's a great deal of worthwhile info in this post!

Denis said...

I found a great deal of effective info here!
youtube converter

Griffin said...

Oh my god, there is a great deal of helpful data above!
calorie requirements | disco clothes | Brooklyn neighborhoods

digital signature software said...

You got a definitely helpful blog I’ve been right here reading for about an hour. I’m a newbie and your accomplishment is quite a lot an inspiration for me.

Anna Schafer said...

I figured I should probably order a more powerful power supply as the 300 Watts of the current one were probably a bit too tight for my usage. 300W AC/DC Switching Adapter

Anna Schafer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anna Schafer said...

sxf

irina.lialyk said...

A good blog, we read with colleagues and were very impressed, thank you very much http://www.intellias.com/

Blockchain Development Company said...

X-Byte Enterprise Solution is a leading blockchain, AI, & IoT Solution company in USA and UAE, We have expert Web & mobile app development services. A great piece that sheds much-needed light on merging technology and its impact on the business as there are many new details you posted here. Sometimes it is not so easy to build a "Web & Mobile App Development" without custom knowledge; here you need proper development skills and experience. However, the details you mention here would be very much helpful for the beginner. Here is yet another top-notch solution provider “X-Byte Enterprise Solutions” who render feasible and credible solutions to global clients.

Know more here: Web & Mobile App Development

Goni said...

When people think of sex, they often think of orgasm as the ultimate way to achieve pleasure. (Playmates Porn movies Models with their experimenting sex positions). Female orgasm, in particular, is often seen to be proof of sexual success. To achieve High-end Sexual Arousal - visit
Porn Movies and Videos
XXX Sex HD Videos
Wild Porn Movies