Personal computing discussed

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Taddeusz
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Weird Internal PS

Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:48 pm

I got ahold of this Cybernet Elite-4 Zero Footprint PC. It's looks like it's kind of a neat deal. The power supply is in two halves. It has a brick AC-DC 20v power supply and then the computer itself has a 20v DC-DC ATX power supply. It has a weird connector though. It has on molex, +12v, and the power connector which is a non-standard ATX. The computer doesn't power on. It appears that there are some blown caps on the internal power supply. Basically when you press the power button the lights flicker and then nothing. The light on the external brick goes out and comes back on. I would post a picture but I'm at work.

The power connector is a 12 pin ATX like connector. In fact, part of an ATX connector would fit it but the wires aren't colored the same. They are:

red red black green black blue
yellow purple grey black orange orange

I don't know if this is a standard type connector or totally proprietary. The whole computer looks very proprietary. Just wondering if anyone could point me into the direction of a possible replacement. Kind of a neat form factor. In the mean time when I get home I'm going to rewire an ATX power supply to match and see if the rest of the computer at least works.
 
derFunkenstein
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Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:51 pm

do you have any pictures? not sure if i've ever seen anything like that or not.
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Taddeusz
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Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:00 pm

Here's a link to Cybernet's site for it:

Cybernet Elite-4
 
Taddeusz
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Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:11 pm

I'm at work right now so I can't take a picture but where would I host one from once I get home?
 
Shinare
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Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:32 pm

good lord that looks like the Commodore-64 Mini-ITX mod, hehe.

Pretty cool tho.
 
Taddeusz
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Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:49 pm

It looks to be a decent machine for what it is. If it works. It has a Celeron 2.6, 512MB RAM, and 40GB hard drive. All on a custom SIS 651 motherboard. It's kind of weird but kind of cool at the same time.

The heatsink is messed up though. It has a copper plate that's painted black and had a copper fin assembly bonded to the paint. And the fins came off. If the whole thing still works I was going to strip the paint off the copper plate and either braze it on or get some thermal epoxy. It's a custom job specifically for this computer though. Cracks me up that they bonded the fins to the paint.
 
Convert
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Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:58 pm

Taddeusz wrote:
I'm at work right now so I can't take a picture but where would I host one from once I get home?

I use http://www.photobucket.com/ Some people like http://imageshack.us/

Interesting system err keyboard heh. Brazing fins on seems like a lot of work for that system, solder would suffice although even that might be a bit much over the epoxy route since it seems to be doing fine without them.
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spiritwalker2222
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Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:06 pm

Looks like a nice lap warmer... :lol:
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Taddeusz
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Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:35 pm

Since it doesn't power on I can't say whether the heatsink (copper plate) is working the way it is now. A Celeron 2.6 doesn't get that hot but I can't imagine it would run very well with the fins detached.
 
Taddeusz
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Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:05 pm

Ok, here are the pics.

Power Supply

Power Supply Connector

Just for fun here's that stupid heat sink. You can see where the fins were attached. They didn't do a very good job. The black looks like it's just normal spray paint. The fins were attached to that somehow and was rattling lose when I got it.

Janky Heatsink
 
Taddeusz
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Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:29 pm

Well, I've gotten no more responses even after posting pics. After some research I thought that it was going to turn out to be a nano-ITX power suppy connector but the wiring is all wrong.

I'm going to have to order an ATX pin removal tool and mod one of my power supplies to fit and see if it works. If all goes well I'll probably order some kind of AC-DC/DC-DC power supply combo to replace it and then mod that power connector to work. I just don't see any other way to get the proper wiring. As I don't believe anything else would fit in this case. Not even a micro ATX PS. And it would defeat the purpose to permanently hang a full power supply out the case.

I did test the power supplies. The AC-DC 20v supply appears to be working properly. With no load the voltages on the DC-DC supply are all over the place. I get practically nothing on the 5v and 3.3v lines and 9v or less on the 12v line depending on how long it's been running. The voltage appears to steadily drop over time.

Anyway, thought I'd put in an update for anyone who might be interested. The form factor would at least be interesting to put a micro-ITX or nano-ITX in. Although it would be a lot lower performing than what's in it now. I'd rather get what's in there working.
 
fir2
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Re: Weird Internal PS

Fri Sep 16, 2011 11:27 pm

I have two of these Elite4i computers also. I had the same problem. I took the internal power supply out of the known good working one and installed it in the one with the same symptoms as yours and, voila!, it worked.

So, the problem is the internal power supply.

And, I'd like to get a replacement for the non-working internal power supply but cybernetman want much more than the whole computer is worth and I cannot find any other supply.

did you find any.

Please pm me so I see the reply.

Thanks.

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