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  1. #1

    Printer breaks hard drive

    I have been working on a scratchbuilt printer using a RAMPS 1.4 board and using a 12v ATX power supply scavenged from an old PC. When I started tuning it, it worked fine, but one day, when I plugged in the power supply, the current traveled up the USB cable and destroyed my hard drive, as well as my Arduino. This was not the first time that the printer was plugged into the PS as well as my PC. How can I prevent this in the future?

  2. #2
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    use a dedicated 12v power supply. Look for psu for led lighting - same thing but more power and cheaper.

    Also having 12v go into a usb socket should only fry that particular usb chip.
    How old is the computer ?
    Your actual harddrive should be fine - motherboard might have been fried, but In 30 years of building and fixing pc's I've only twice seen a fried harddrive and they were from malfunctioning psu's not input from shorted out usb.

  3. #3
    Using an HP pavilion laptop. Not quite sure what year, but fairly recent. Would a desktop be a better idea?

  4. #4
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    Ah right - yes, desktops are a lot more robust.
    Pretty much guarentee the drive in the laptop is fine.
    Depending on the ,model you can just remove a panel to get at the drive, some of the newer models you need to remove every single screw in the base, then remove the rubber feet and take those screws out, then remove the battery and remove the screws in there as well - and then you can remove the entire plastic base.
    I usually install dead laptop drives into little usb caddies.
    https://www.amazon.com/Storite-Sata-...external+caddy

    As long as it's not windows 10 you can usually access the files on the drive with no effort. Windows 10 has a habit of locking everything and you then need data recovery software to retrieve it. This stuff is pretty good: https://www.minitool.com/data-recovery.html
    I use their free partition software.

  5. #5
    Unfortunately, I was using windows 10. I removed the drive months ago to try and salvage it, but nothing worked. I'll try a desktop next time. Is there a specific power supply that you recommend?

  6. #6
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    for 3d printers - this sort of thing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-Trans...c100642.m3226I managed
    to get a
    600w 50amp 12v one for £15 !

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