Failure modes
Failure modes
Power supplies which use capacitors suffering from the capacitor plague may experience premature failure when the capacitance drops to 4% of the original value.[not in citation given] This usually causes the switching semiconductor to fail in a conductive way. That may expose connected loads to the full input volt and current, and precipitate wild oscillations in output.[29]
Failure of the switching transistor is common. Due to the large switching voltages this transistor must handle (around 325 V for a 230 VAC mains supply), these transistors often short out, in turn immediately blowing the main internal power fuse.
