20 Feb
2007
20 Feb
'07
7:25 p.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
My first thougth is that it is a mains filter
capacitor that's breaking
down. Some of them are designed to be 'self healing' in that if the
dielectric breaks down, the current will then vapourise the metal in that
area, causing the capacitor to carry on working. Of course that was
before the days of those over-sensitive RCDs, etc.
This is where we find there's a temperature-controlled fan or somesuch in the
machine which kicks in after a few minutes and for some reason causes the PSU
to throw a wobbly...
Agreed - weird problem.
Out of interest, if you power the machine up and then immediately power it
down normally (before it's had the chance to do so itself :) does it still
upset the house mains? Just asking as maybe that's something you haven't tried
yet...