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While I was on holiday my Seagate HDD with all my movies and TV shows stopped working very annoying when TV is not always obtainable in remote areas.
I thought an internal component had failed and just as a matter of interest decided I would have a look to see if it was repairable.
It's a Seagate USB drive with an external power supply which was definitely not intended to be opened. After stabbing myself with a screwdriver trying to prise the case apart I took it down the shed to attack it with larger, more robust tools.
Eventually I did get the case apart without damaging it too much and the cause of the problem was immediately obvious. It was a dry joint on the wire from the mains supply to the board which had parted company.
Soldered the loose wire back on, wedged the circuit board back in (it was originally glued in) and taped the case together again. Tested the voltage and all seems well. If it seems reliable will eventually glue the case halves back together again.
The moral of this story is that it is always worth having a look, it might be an easy fix. I thought a capacitor might have let go which would be a fairly simple repair too but this was just too easy.
BTW apart from the poor quality control on the soldered joint it isn't a bad power supply board with good physical separation between the mains and the DC side.
when we had the kennels right out in the countryside we ofen got mains power failure. So to have time to power down the computer we had one of these
Which got us out of trouble several times
Yep, been there done that, got the T shirt... I have one in my house at this moment to run my internet and phone service if there is a power outage. That is the problem with fibre.
Those outlets really annoy me what is wrong with a normal mains socket? I have had to cut the plug off extension cords to run the various components.
The power supply I repaired however was one of those small, double insulated power plug type for a HDD - the (cheap) TV in my camper will not run a USB HDD without its own power supply.