That's not true. On the way out a PSU won't necessarily stick to 12V as various internal things start turning to goop.
you are correct but the op said he could run 3 100gh. r boxes that is about 375 watts. so I am thinking the first s-3 was a bad unit. remember he got the end of life s-3's .---------------------I base this on the assumption the op is telling the truth.
If he honestly though that an S3 had blown up his perfectly good / adequate PSU, why would he put a further THREE PSUs on that unit as each subsequently fails? I don't think we're getting the full story.
yeah. I kind of doubt the story. I would have stopped as soon as I killed 1 psu and asked questions.
But I have had days of extreme stupidity with electrontics. A Marantz monoblock amp comes to mind. I thought the fuses were defective.
I kept putting in bigger fuses thinking that would fix the problem!!!! So when I finally got up to a 30 amp fuse from the oem 3 amp I blow the Marantz up. When I look back at that I do not have an explanation for my testing procedure other then extreme stupidity .
So maybe the op was guilty of an off day. Hard to tell I am not inside his head.