super-sama
Experienced Member
I've had a PS/2 Model 40SX for the past few weeks that was liberated from a vocational/technical school dumpster nearly on its way to be turned into coke cans. Friend asked about them and his teacher said he could take whatever he wanted and grabbed it for me along with another that had the PSU molested by a pair of metal shears, missing the fan and C15 jack. I ended up pushing that off at the recent swapmeet this past weekend clearly marked as a project and making sure full-well what the buyer was getting themselves into and sold it off to them. Thankfully this person has a couple of 57/77 class cases with the right power supply to shove into it and all is well with the world. I feel a lot better knowing that went to the right person and it'll get the TLC it needs in the end.
But I digress, back to the one I kept. I don't know how many hours these machines had in use and while all the capacitors on the motherboard are of Chemi-con manufacture (and I'm inclined to leave them alone given past positive experience with the ones in the sick P70 I'm on-and-off repairing) I'm not so sure about the ones in the power supply. from what I was able to tell from the one that was mangled in the other case, it looks like it too has Chemi-con caps inside and is probably going to be fine, but considering this is a 32-and-a-half year-old machine at this point (and at that, even older than I am by a small bit!) I'm inclined to at least have a kit handy for when it comes time to re-cap the thing, if only in the name of preventative maintenance.
This model shares a power supply with the Model 57 and 77, one API-9219 measuring out at 197W and under more FRU numbers than one can shake a stick at. The big issue I have is getting into the supply in the first place, it looks like the casing is held on with security torx. If I don't have to run down to the store and grab a set of those immediately it's in my better interest to not do so yet, and at that, the removal of the power supply requires removing the rear plastic from the case which I'm hesitant to do until absolutely necessary given how brittle some of this plastic can be. It's not as brittle as the era Apple stuff that gives you Spindler splinters, but broken plastic isn't uncommon.
If anyone with a Model 40SX, 57 or 77 with more courage than I to yank the supply from theirs or grab a spare off the shelf to get a cap list together for the unit, that'd be absolutely stellar, rockstar even. It wouldn't just benefit me, but also other 40/57/77 owners with either a dead supply or one in waiting. These PSUs seem to be extremely expensive these days so anything to cut the costs on a replacement, assuming capacitor failure is the culprit, is a welcome thing indeed I'm sure.
But I digress, back to the one I kept. I don't know how many hours these machines had in use and while all the capacitors on the motherboard are of Chemi-con manufacture (and I'm inclined to leave them alone given past positive experience with the ones in the sick P70 I'm on-and-off repairing) I'm not so sure about the ones in the power supply. from what I was able to tell from the one that was mangled in the other case, it looks like it too has Chemi-con caps inside and is probably going to be fine, but considering this is a 32-and-a-half year-old machine at this point (and at that, even older than I am by a small bit!) I'm inclined to at least have a kit handy for when it comes time to re-cap the thing, if only in the name of preventative maintenance.
This model shares a power supply with the Model 57 and 77, one API-9219 measuring out at 197W and under more FRU numbers than one can shake a stick at. The big issue I have is getting into the supply in the first place, it looks like the casing is held on with security torx. If I don't have to run down to the store and grab a set of those immediately it's in my better interest to not do so yet, and at that, the removal of the power supply requires removing the rear plastic from the case which I'm hesitant to do until absolutely necessary given how brittle some of this plastic can be. It's not as brittle as the era Apple stuff that gives you Spindler splinters, but broken plastic isn't uncommon.
If anyone with a Model 40SX, 57 or 77 with more courage than I to yank the supply from theirs or grab a spare off the shelf to get a cap list together for the unit, that'd be absolutely stellar, rockstar even. It wouldn't just benefit me, but also other 40/57/77 owners with either a dead supply or one in waiting. These PSUs seem to be extremely expensive these days so anything to cut the costs on a replacement, assuming capacitor failure is the culprit, is a welcome thing indeed I'm sure.
