[Info-vax] DS10 power supply unit

[presnypreklad at gmail.com]

> The main problem with these (and other vendor specific supplies) is that the connectors are unique to the vendor.  The power supply itself is perhaps designed with a tighter tolerance or more safety features, but overall the supply is still a switch mode supply with all kinds of regulation and control.  

A couple years ago I picked up two identical Fujitsu-Siemens Esprimos. Installed one at a friend's and was using the other myself. After about 6 weeks, the power supplies in both failed, just days from eachother. 

So, I got my friend a different computer (home-built with a commodity PSU) and retrieved the broken Esprimo. Opened the case, only to find that the PSU had a proprietary connector and, to make matters worse, it had DATA wires (WTF?) in addition to the power wires.

I took both PSUs to a local repair place. The guy there seemed confident he could repair them for a reasonable sum. But after awhile he called and said each PSU had failed in a different way, and neither was repairable. On one, apparently, the transformer had gone and he'd never seen anything like it. He didn't specify exactly what happened to the other.

So, there are multiple failure modes for PSUs. They are the Achille's Heel of old HW.