Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems G68 PSU Problems - Again

About a year ago my G91A started playing up, it would crash, restart, show the Boothroyd Stuart screen, crash again and keep doing this. I checked the power supply voltages and the 5v rail was about 4.85v. The PS had an adjuster that let me wind it up about 4.95v. Although this is obviously not as high as it should go, the G91 started working again. Last Friday it crashed in the middle of a film. By Saturday morning it just kept on crashing. Checked the voltages; the 5v was down to about 4.94v, but as the G91 booted up, I could see the volts dipping down to 4.85v ish. And there was a faint 'burnt electronics' whiff. There are no obviously damaged components but the circuit board under the transformer is brown instead of green!

The PS is a Skynet SNP-Z061, which I haven't seen mentioned in any of the other threads on dead power supplies. I found a datasheet for it and compared with the replacement suggested earlier in this topic XP POWER - ECM40UT31. It looks like a capable replacement so I ordered one.

It arrived quickly from Farnell, even with snow bringing the entire country to a standstill! It fits the mountings but both the connector housings are different and the pin-out on the low voltage is swapped about. By carefully backing out the receptacles with a fine screwdriver, I rearranged the wires into the correct order. I had to cut the latches and some other bits off the housings to get them all to match up. This shouldn't be a problem as the connectors are a tight fit and gravity is keeping them in place. Now the G91A is now working fine.

I see that Farnell also supply a Loom Kitwith the right connectors and flying leads, but that would mean some soldering work. Or there is a Connector Kit that could be used to replace the existing connectors.

Hope this helps some others!

Question is; are these 'standard' Switch Mode Power Supplies actually any good? They may be small, efficient and 'cost effective' but they do run hot - after an hour or so my replacement was up to 50 DegC. And there are reports in the Hitchhiker's Guide of 3 or 4 different brands all failing in similar ways.

I would like to restate my experience in case it can help others.

My G68ADV power supply failed. In retrospect, many of what seemed to be operational glitches as described here had been occurring. When it eventually failed it took out the DAC boards and the tuner module. Changing the PSU alone could not solve the very expensive damage. My dealer suggested that some incipient damage may have been caused before the final melt-down; they could not fix it and the kit had to go back to Meridian.

If you have these apparently benign but annoying symptoms, get your G68 to a dealer for the health check pronto before it goes pear-shaped.

I agree, if you cannot swing a solder iron or do some measurements, go via Meridian, always. However the hyped health check specifically excludes any repair or exchange of parts, so be prepared for the costs. We should also not forget that a fried Nichicon cap for 1 pound can lead to a one time repair cost in country "X" (outside UK) e.g. of around 850 dollars or what was mentioned once. So health check yes, but I assume I would personally always spend that 60 Dollars / Pounds / Euros for the PSU swap first.