Fun Power Supply repair tip

Hey all -- This'll probably rank as a "duh" moment for most of you but I thought I'd share (mostly because it amused me): I was trying to figure out why the unregulated 8VDC line of my SWTPC 6800's power supply kept dipping so suddenly under moderate load (and why it would keep falling and falling as long as I left it running that way...) The overall behavior was: - Power up with minimal load (just the motherboard w/it's onboard regulator): 8V line was fine at about 8.7V. - Add up to two RAM cards and the 8V was still at around 8.3 or so. - Add a third card and 8V drops to 6.5V and continues to drop steadily over time. This had me scratching my head. Then I happened to notice that the fuse (F1 on the 12V supply board) was glowing a dull orange and getting brighter. Well, turns out that someone (me!) had installed the wrong fuse -- it was a 2.5A fuse where a 10A was required (F2 takes the 2.5A, btw). Apparently when fuses start to give out they draw a lot of current -- lesson learned :). Fuse replaced and all is happy. So, the lesson is: check your fuses carefully. - Josh