DSATX Failure Any ideas why?

**atk8321** · 02-09-2007, 01:11 PM

Hello,

After frying a motherboard I found that my DS-ATX was not supplying negative voltages (the -12V and -5V). My system had an AMD compatible mobo k7s, 60 GB Maxtor HD and barton 2500 XP cpu. I'm running win XP pro.

We have been operating our Car PC in colder temperatures with a minimum of 7 degrees F however, the DS-ATX is rated for -40C (~ -40F) operation so I don't think that is an issue.

Does anyone have a clue what could have happened that would cause this?

**strohj** · 02-09-2007, 02:08 PM

no idea really.. have you connected it to a brainstem to see what is going on?

**atk8321** · 02-09-2007, 02:14 PM

Thanks for the reply,

Nope, All I did was check each pin with a multimeter. All voltages are fine except the -12V and -5V rails. These fluctuate at or near 0V.

I am assuming the brainstem allows for some diagnostics on the PSU. If I know that my negative V's are not right is there anything else I really need to know?

**strohj** · 02-09-2007, 02:17 PM

well with the brain stem you can reset it back to stock settings.. I know that helps in some cases... It will also tell you in what mode the amp is currently in...

**MatrixPC** · 02-09-2007, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by strohj

well with the brain stem you can reset it back to stock settings.. I know that helps in some cases... It will also tell you in what mode the amp is currently in...

I think reset to stock is only effective for the SDC portion of the unit and NOT the regulation of the PSU.
If I remember correctly, the DSATX doesn't have -5V.
So your option is just wait for Jeff to come in and answer the question or PM him.

**zootjeff** · 02-09-2007, 06:12 PM

Originally Posted by atk8321

Hello,

After frying a motherboard I found that my DS-ATX was not supplying negative voltages (the -12V and -5V). My system had an AMD compatible mobo k7s, 60 GB Maxtor HD and barton 2500 XP cpu. I'm running win XP pro.

We have been operating our Car PC in colder temperatures with a minimum of 7 degrees F however, the DS-ATX is rated for -40C (~ -40F) operation so I don't think that is an issue.

Does anyone have a clue what could have happened that would cause this?

The -5 was removed from the spec 5 years ago. No motherboards use them since around 1998. The Minus -12 is only good to 100mA, hardly anything uses it on motherboards these days. You need at least a fan load on the +12 for the DSATX to generate a good - 12. The DSATX puts out +5 and +3.3 and +12 and monitors them to within 15%. If it drops outside this range, it pulls the plug on all rails hard and goes into the 5 blink mode. It is unlikley that the DSATX destroyed your motherboard. Extreem cold temperatures will not harm the DSATX, but it will prevent it from starting up. It needs to be above 0 degrees C for it to turn on. It will flash 4 times in this case. Extreem cold makes for extreem Static. It is more likly that you static discharged on you system somewhere and fried your motherboard. If your PSU has the 4805 problem on it, it looses it's brains, but doesn't output weird voltages or fry motherboards.

Can you send pictures of your setup, maybe we can provide input?

**atk8321** · 02-13-2007, 12:24 AM

I have attempted to add a diagram of my setup as it was in my car after the hard drive crash. It was cold that night so I ended up bringing my setup into the lab to bench test everything. I ended up with a continuous beep during POST indicating either a mobo error or PS error. I ended up switching the DSATX over to another system (was working) and after, had a similar error reading its hard drive.

We took the hard drives which at the time read "A disk error has occurred press ctrl-alt-delete to restart" out and reformatted them in ANOTHER PC. We performed a reinstall and they worked fine.

Any other ideas guys?