Re: Losing Power GRX600K

At 11:47 AM 8/6/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>On 6 Aug 2003 at 15:43, Gregory Wilson wrote:
> > I experienced the same problem.
>...
> > All they did was clean the inside of it according to
> > their oh so helpful notes. It has been 4 months now and I have not
> > had it occur again.
>
>Heh, that may have been truthfull... If they found some manufacturing
>"leftovers" inside that was shorting something out a cleaning
>might have fixed it...
>
>Or they could have fixed a loose connection and rather
>than admit sloppy workmanship they quietly say it was
>just cleaning.

Or... they could be telling the truth.  Ever see the inside of a PC after 
it has been running for some time?  Better yet, the Power Supply fan 
blades?  Depending on the environment, the deep guts can get a thick layer 
of fine dust on it.

Worse yet, during manufacture, circuit boards are treated with materials 
(eg. flux) to help in the soldering and such, which leave behind a greasy 
remnant.  When the dust sticks to that remnant, the two form a paste (the 
lubricant in the fan can do this too, and guess what: centrifugal force can 
splatter that all over the place).  The electrical whiz types will concur 
with me that this paste creates impedance, thereby affecting the flow of 
current and, in turn, this can have unexpected results.  Granted that these 
remnants will be minute in quantity, but all it takes is the right amount 
in the right (or wrong?) place and...

So how does that get fixed?  By cleaning, of course.  Clean the dust/dust 
paste off and the problem can go away (unless it has already caused 
component damage, but that is another matter entirely),  In this scenario, 
cleaning the inside of the machine would be the truth.  And I wouldn't 
consider the presence of the aforementioned remnants/excess lubricant to be 
shoddy workmanship because, if you think about it, getting 100% rid of that 
stuff is nearly impossible without damaging the finished circuit board (you 
can't soak or blow the stuff off, after all).

Ironically, the problems might never show up, or take a long time to 
manifest, and the contamination that ultimately triggered it could have 
happened before the machine was sold.  After all, the environment around 
the machine is what will dictate when it happens, if it even does.

My two (il)logical cents, anyway...

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