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Wasted $80 on a refurbished power supply that died after 3 weeks
Grabbed a supposedly tested unit from a random online seller, system wouldn't even post yesterday, has anyone else had bad luck with those cheap refurbished parts from eBay?
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joseph9321mo agoMost Upvoted
no warning at all" yeah that's the thing with power supplies, they're like old light bulbs. one minute they work, next minute they don't. I had a similar thing happen with a used microwave I bought off Facebook Marketplace. looked fine, worked for two weeks, then just stopped heating stuff. no sparks, no noise, nothing. just cold leftovers. the seller told me it was "tested" too. I think with electronics, especially power supplies, the test is just plugging it in and seeing if the fan spins. nobody actually puts a load on it or checks the voltage ripple or anything. that's why I always buy PSUs new now. even a cheap new one beats a "tested" used one.
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linda_wood1mo ago
Microwaves and power supplies are completely different beasts. A microwave has a magnetron and a high voltage capacitor that can hold a lethal charge even when unplugged. A PSU is just a rectifier and some DC-DC converters. The real issue with used PSUs is that the capacitors dry out over time, especially if they're cheap ones. Three weeks of light use could be just enough to push a borderline cap past its limit.
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