Quote:
Originally Posted by Phoenix32
But if you explain it here, then others can learn from it and/or know the answer for furture problems like or similar to this.
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Which of course is bad for potential future business!
I noticed the original owner says he replaced the fan at some point and uses a replacement PSU.
A different fan could be drawing a little more current than the original specification and more importantly the replacement PSU may not be big enough in the first place.
The PSU on my 2200's (i have 2 of them) use a 12 volt 3.5 amp PSU but it would do no harm if a replacement was sought with a higher current rating.
Some cheap PSU's may be rated at 3.5 amp but they may get too hot or shut down to protect themselvs if they are constantly being used at full power so to speak.
It could be that the original 2200 PSU has been made to an over rated standard giving plenty of headroom for running continuously at 3.5 amps or more.
As the 2200 has two hard drives inside, it actually surprises me that the PSU is ONLY 3.5 amps because some of the older hard drives used can draw a good couple of amps each.
Personally i would suspect the power supply....
How hot is it getting for instance?
What output current rating is it?
A fairly decent 60 Watt (12 Volt @ 5 Amp) PSU could be obtained brand new fairly cheeply on the likes of eBay. The additional 1.5 amps of headroom should help for any surges in power that the Snap may require. For instance when first spinning up the hard drive motors. (although most snaps stagger the spin up, to lower the initial inrush current)
The original Snap Power Brick is quite meaty in physical size, so i do suspect it is designed to be pushed to the limits and then some. A cheap replacement of similar rating is probably only just cutting it, until it gives up and cuts out of course!
Many PSU's have thermal trips or thermal fuses inside to do just this. They kill the power to allow themselvs to cool down a bit and then reset. Then the cycle starts over again.
If you are writing a lot of data, you will consume more power than reading data. CPU usage also effects power useage and the more power you consume the hotter the PSU will get.
A short term thing you could try is keeping the PSU it's self cool. Don't sit it on carpet, this will just keep it warm and add to the heating effect. If you have a desk fan handy try externally cooling the PSU and see if that improves the situation to some degree.
If that seems to solve the issue then you need a better power brick than you have now. Look for a decenent 60 watt job.
For reference -- it does no harm to increase available current but it is important to keep the voltage the same... 12 volt and positive center pin.
The reason the increased current doesn't matter is because whatever it is powering can only use as much current as it needs, the exess just sits there in reserve incase it is needed.
I hope this helps but it is not neccesarily the answer to the problem if that's not what the problem is! It's a cheap one to try and remedy, however.