Trixter
Veteran Member
After 15 years of searching, I'm now the proud owner of a 5161+cards+cable (without emptying my bank account, which is why it took that long). Unfortunately, the 5161 130W power supply is completely dead. I plan on following the procedure at http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/5150_5160/MDC/minimum_diag_config.htm tomorrow night to completely verify this, but there is no activity at all when the switch is flipped, not even a small fan move.
I've spent the last 45 minutes searching the forums for what to do, and all of the (very helpful) advice was for repairing the power supply, and all of that advice strikes fear into my heart. I have never built or repaired anything with a soldering iron, I don't own a multimeter, and even if I did I wouldn't understand how to use it or interpret the results. I feel very helpless in this area. I am knowledgeable in many specific areas of 51xx hardware, but electronics repair is not one of them.
Other than taking a few electronics courses at a local community college, is there any practical (ie. component swap and maybe a few cut/reconnected wires) way for me to fix this situation? Is it possible to replace the power supply completely and not have it look like a complete farce, for example? Or maybe, open it up and throw out everything but the red switch and replace with guts from a $20 new supply?
I've spent the last 45 minutes searching the forums for what to do, and all of the (very helpful) advice was for repairing the power supply, and all of that advice strikes fear into my heart. I have never built or repaired anything with a soldering iron, I don't own a multimeter, and even if I did I wouldn't understand how to use it or interpret the results. I feel very helpless in this area. I am knowledgeable in many specific areas of 51xx hardware, but electronics repair is not one of them.
Other than taking a few electronics courses at a local community college, is there any practical (ie. component swap and maybe a few cut/reconnected wires) way for me to fix this situation? Is it possible to replace the power supply completely and not have it look like a complete farce, for example? Or maybe, open it up and throw out everything but the red switch and replace with guts from a $20 new supply?