First post, by Brickpad
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Long story short, bought this NCR System 3200 off Ebay for $25. Seller stated the power supply was buzzing. After I got it the power supply blew up as I was testing the voltages. Replaced it after doing some searching, only to have that power supply blow up as well. Seller sent me another one free of charge. By then I didn't have time to mess around with the computer, so it sat in the shed for almost a year.
Fast-forward to last week, I finally pulled out the computer and power supply. After examining the board, and the case, I counted six metal screw studs and only five mount holes on the board. That might not seem like a big deal...until you realize that one of those studs is covered over by the board, and in close proximity to the power connector. I suspect that it was causing a short that back-fed into the power supplies. So, wrapped the exposed metal stud in electrial tape, and went to test the power supply, and...nothing.
Turns out the power supply had a blow fuse. No biggie - two trips and a replaced fuse later, and BOOM. Power supply was fried.
At this point I was fuming pretty hard, so I hacked off the power connector with ample length of wire, found a 24pin to 20pin ATX adapter, hacked off the 20pin connection, spliced the appropriate wires to each end, and connected it to one of my spare ATX PSUs.
What happened next was no short of surprising, because I was certain that the motherboard must have been fried at some point - the damn thing booted right up. The only complaint it had was a dead battery.
So...now that I know that it works, I just need to find a SFF or USFF ATX power supply to fit into the case, and I'll have a working system.
The system (Orange power button is inside for safekeeping):
The homemade adapter:
The workshop:
The setup:
Close-up of the setup:
WE HAVE BOOT:
A nice fit:
