>How likely do prople think it is that the PSU itself has failed, as against
>something else shorting?  Bearing in mind this machine is standing on the
>floor, so it's unlikely that something *moved* and shorted.

Quite possible.  Two or three years ago, the PS in my box went
POOF with no visible reason.  My girlfriend was sitting around,
studying and watching TV, when smoke and char started
sputtering out the back of the PS.  It was a good, quality PS
by a highly recommended major manufacturer (which I can't
recall).  It did get replaced under warranty, since it was only a
few weeks old.

The rest of the PC never worked quite right after that.  When
I took the PS apart it appeared to have been a rather dramatic
failure of a lytic cap.

Does it pass the sniff test?  Does it smell like char or ozone?

Mike H.

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