Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems G68XXV PSU keep failing

Over the last 5 years, my G68 XXV keeping dying due to PSU. I have replace it with new ECM60UT31, but only to see it fail again after a year or so. Is there some underlying problem with the G68 that cause the PSU to fail over this short period in operation Is there something better than the ECM60UT31, perhaps linear PSU? I've seen some post about DIY, but not sure I craft this sort of setup. Or is this the demise of the G68 and it's time to sunset it?

Have changed out the recommended capacitors when installing the power supply? If not therein lies your problem. I would also take a look at how the G68 is venting heat. If it it in a cabinet or other tight quarters, this could be contributing.

No change to capacitor. Just straight our replacement. desoldering and soldering stuff on IC is out of my league.

If there are problems with the capacitors on the backplane or on any cards, the life of the replacement PSU will be severely limited. The capacitors, if failed, will add a significant load (short circuit) to the PSU, causing it to work harder and fail sooner.

If you're not able to change the capacitors, you need to find a local tech who can wield a soldering iron and change out the capacitors on the backplane and check the capacitors on all the cards. Failing to do this will result in the same short life of the PSUs.

Cheers,

Steve

Or even worse the failed power supply can take some of the cards and other internal components with it.
Replacing the capacitors requires a significant amount of disassembly to get the backplane out so there is a considerable amount of labor involved.

I have a G68ADV and recently I started having intermittent problems where the display would fade out, at the same time the output cut.
I changed out the psu a couple of years ago, soon after I bought the unit, fitting a 65W psu to replace the original Meridian one so
I didn't expect the psu to be faulty, but when I measured the +5v on the backplane one of the lines was at 5.15, the other at 4.91!
Going back to the psu connector I found that the slightest wiggle of the connector brought the 4.91v up to 5.15.
An indiarubber and a little contact cleaner was all that was necessary to fix my problem, all the capacitors I can see look fine with no indications
of bulging. I'm sure I will eventually have to replace some, if not all of the electrolytic caps, but hopefully not for a while.

Good Luck

Thanks for the info. Granted that I got mine 2nd hand, didn't think it would be this much hassle to maintain a unit like this. Guess I will have to move on to something else.

One thing I did notice; the power connector on my unit was showing signs of overheating; I've seen this on molex connectors of this type
many times over the past 40+ years. The only sensible solution is to replace the connector.

Eliminating the Molex connector and soldering the PSU wires directly eliminates the connector heating issue.

Agreed; that's what I ended up doing on mine.