Okay, I am a hobbyist. I know what all these components are and what they do, but I don't often understand how they work together and this one is seriously messing with me.
I am attempting to get an Intel 486 workstation working. (Yes, it's an OEM Intel workstation. Specifically LP486/33E) The rubber feet had turned to goo and was all over the inside of the case and inside the power supply.
I decided to just check for shorts between 5v and ground, and 12v and ground, all good. But, there appears to be a short between 5v and 12v. The resistance is only 81ohms.
I opened the supply and there was black goo everywhere. So I started removing components and cleaning this crud off with goo gone because that's the only thing I could find to remove it. Every single part, after being cleaned off, tests good. Every capacitor tests within tolerance. Every resistor, literally everything. This thing looks practically new and I was extremely careful to make sure I didn't bridge anything putting it back together. But, what appears to be a short between 5v and 12v is still present.
I then started following traces and a large resistor, 82ohm based on the rings, appears to be located directly between 5v and 12v. It appears IT WAS LITERALLY DESIGNED THIS WAY. Removing that resistor clears the issue. And I noticed, under the resistor is written, "OCP +5V" which I'm assuming means, over current protection for the 5v rail. What I'm not understanding is, how does this not allow 12v to freely flow on the 5v rail? I mean, a resistor is bi-directional, correct? If this was a diode, I would get it. I'm pretty sure the power supply is fine and I should trust it, I'm just asking because this just doesn't make sense to me.
P.S.
Also, there is a dead short on the motherboard between 5v and ground I have to deal with before I put these 2 things together, but I'll save that for a future post if I can't figure out what's going on there. This whole project was really just meant as a learning experiment for myself.
The 2 pictures below are the top and bottom of the low side of the power supply. 2 caps are still not reinstalled and the offending resistor isn't installed. You can see the empty holes on the right hand side of the bottom of the PCB. My red probe is pointing to 5v and the black is pointing to 12v (At least that's the pinout based on the documentation I could find. This power supply is very specific to this motherboard.)