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Forum Discussion
NV+ (v1) PSU died
Hi ReadyNASians, So my faithful NV+ died a few days ago due to the PSU overheating. I was greeted with the familiar smell of melted PCB components and found my ReadyNAS powered down and unable to p...
And that goes for me too! One phone call and they're sending out a new PSU no charge - and my ReadyNas is a unit I bought from Infrant well before Netgear took them over - that's around 10 years ago!! Well done Netgear - you've just got yourself a new loyal customer.
Just for completeness, the failure of the PSU was a pretty rapid affair. I first noticed a slight smell from around my desk under which the ReadyNas resides. Couldn't identify where it came from or exactly what it was, so got on with work. Left the room for about half an hour to come back to a very strong smell this time. A quick bit of sniffing around this time led me to the NAS. Felt the case temperature all around, but it was pretty normal. Ran Frontview to check temperatures of the drives and case, but these too were barely above their normal range. Next lifted the unit up of the floor and it was then that I found the base almost too hot to touch. Quickly powered down via the front panel power switch to avoid any possible damage.
Took the unit apart to get access to the PSU and sure enough, the heat sink cooling the switch-mode transistors was too hot to touch and the glue around the largest coil near this heat sink had charred and was falling off.
Noted that many of the electrolytic caps had bulging tops, so I guess it's safe to say that many had lost their electrolyte and hence capacitance. I'm assuming that this must have led to the run-away overheating that took place. The speed with which this all this happened is pretty alarming. As others have said and wondered, what could have happened if I hadn't been at home when this happened. No warning - the room was at it's usual air-conditioned 25 deg C, so no ambient heat trigger was involved.
Interestingly, after the PSU had cooled down, it would not restart the unit. I took a closer look at all the caps that had bulged tops and thought about replacing them, but their long and very skinny form factor raised doubt in my mind that I would ever be able to find replacements for them that would fit in the small space they occupied.
Just for completeness, the failure of the PSU was a pretty rapid affair. I first noticed a slight smell from around my desk under which the ReadyNas resides. Couldn't identify where it came from or exactly what it was, so got on with work. Left the room for about half an hour to come back to a very strong smell this time. A quick bit of sniffing around this time led me to the NAS. Felt the case temperature all around, but it was pretty normal. Ran Frontview to check temperatures of the drives and case, but these too were barely above their normal range. Next lifted the unit up of the floor and it was then that I found the base almost too hot to touch. Quickly powered down via the front panel power switch to avoid any possible damage.
Took the unit apart to get access to the PSU and sure enough, the heat sink cooling the switch-mode transistors was too hot to touch and the glue around the largest coil near this heat sink had charred and was falling off.
Noted that many of the electrolytic caps had bulging tops, so I guess it's safe to say that many had lost their electrolyte and hence capacitance. I'm assuming that this must have led to the run-away overheating that took place. The speed with which this all this happened is pretty alarming. As others have said and wondered, what could have happened if I hadn't been at home when this happened. No warning - the room was at it's usual air-conditioned 25 deg C, so no ambient heat trigger was involved.
Interestingly, after the PSU had cooled down, it would not restart the unit. I took a closer look at all the caps that had bulged tops and thought about replacing them, but their long and very skinny form factor raised doubt in my mind that I would ever be able to find replacements for them that would fit in the small space they occupied.
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