[soviet]

Hi, my first indy arrived like a month or two ago, apart from a splintered case it worked flawlessly.
Have been using it a lot for like the first month always connected to the powerline.

Now like a week ago got it unplugged and stored it for a while.
This week of vacations the indy took seems to have affected it in some way, now when I got it connected again it does nothing.
Seems the PSU is completely dead no fan no noise nothing when the power button is pressed.

The PSU is a Nidec branded model, read online about how bad this PSU is, may need some help on how to deal with it.

Does recapping work to fix them ?  maybe someone already has the capacitor list and the correct branding/ESR values for the replacement ?.

Any info is welcome

[weblacky]

I have lots of these rebuilt for sale and work on them a lot.

Without any real tools I can give you a hint to get more info:


The PSU will bench start if you unplug the smaller IDC cable bundle from the mainboard. HOWEVER, don’t do that first!!!


Remove BOTH the main PSU cable bundle and the smaller IDC bundle and plug the PSU AC cable into a surge strip that you have a switch to turn power on and off.

If you turn on power the PSU may instantly start its fan (that means it thinks it can run). Voltage will be off (inaccurate) but present. Don’t run it this way for long. If PSU has internal problem it may do further damage. Also a note, Indy PSU protection mode looks exactly like it’s running (to the naked eye) but in real life it is rapidly starting over and over. You’d not know that unless you have an incandescent bulb current limiter hooked to the PSU AC cable. But you can tell with a multimeter, you would see the large/white PSU cable connector voltages go up and down rhythmically on this protection mode.

This up/down means you’ve damaged or shorted a recovery secondary diode inside the PSU if you’re seeing this voltage there and then near zero then there again (over and over).


If the PSU starts it means the Indy is HOLDING IT DOWN. So suspect the Indy mainboard after the first test passes with basic voltages near where they should be.

The wiring diagram for the power is online for Indy but use a multimeter on diode mode and check the bare PSU power connector on Indy mainboard from pins to ground. See if you have an obvious short.

Once your sure of both, you MIGHT try having Indy PSU connected to PSU mainboard connector but leave off smaller IDC header cable and switch AC surface strip power on.


The risk to doing this is there would be no way for the Indy to signal the PSU to stop if there is a problem or short…so I normally never do this because it risks both PSU and mainboard. This essentially bypasses mainboard control, As long as you’re very certain the power supply is within correct voltages and you’re certain that the in the main board has no shorts that are going to explode or catch on fire.


I realize you’re not in my native country so PSU buying would be a shipping issue.

If you found that the PSU has gone into protection mode, meaning it’s internally damaged. And that’s why the two aren’t working together. I’d be happy to sell you one or more power supplies in a single shipment. If you PM me directly with your shipping info I can get a basic quote and we can go from there. I am flexible on my prices for situations like this where you’re certainly far away. There’s obviously a little bit of wiggle room and if you’d be interested in buying two or three power supplies from me for future Indys and or other locals you may think you can sell them to, we can make a deal.

I would assume it is the power supply and not the main board as I’ve only seen one main board issue myself and that was like a partial start up. The only other mainboard issue I’ve seen the computer started but then caught on fire but still started. So just from your description I am 99.999% sure your power supply is probably damaged.