Power Supply Connections

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wayne B.
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Wayne B.

I have recently over the past year had two cd burners go
completely out on me. I've just been informed that it
might be because I haven't been connecting them to the
correct molex connector. I was told that each connector
gives out a different output of wattage. I just bought
another burner/dvd player and don't want to screw this
one up too. Could someone tell me exactly how to tell
which one gives out what wattage, I am not seeing those
particular specs on the power supply. Ex ->(p1=Xwatts -
p2=Ywatts) Unless I'm looking right at it but don't know
it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
THANX N ADVANCE Wayne B.
 
The CEE-type connectors that fit disk drives deliver
positive 5 and positive 12 Volts.
Each disk-drive connector is the same.
It does not matter which one you use.

Pin 1 - +5V
Pin 2 - Ground
Pin 3 - Ground
Pin 4 - +12V

The supplied voltage varies slightly, as does the amps and
watts used.

A watt is the product of the voltage in volts and the
current in amperes or amps.

A power supply only uses as much wattage as is needed by
all the hardware at a given time. A "400 Watt" power
supply isn't always using 400 Watts of power.

You can measure power supply output wattage with a meter.
On an active PC; it constantly changes as any hardware:
hard drive, CD-ROM drive, monitor, etc. is used.

I've seen my PC draw more than 200 Watts.

Is your PC overloaded with hardware for the size of the
power supply?
CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD, 3 hard drives, 2 processors on a 150
Watt power supply would not be a good idea.
Before adding hardware; make sure your power supply is
ready for it.
Processors, motors (in drives), and AGP cards draw the
most wattage.

Maybe one of the connectors on the power supply is bad.
Maybe the street power to your location is receiving
frequent under- or over-voltage conditions that the surge
protector can't handle.
Maybe you just have bad luck with CD drives.

Austin M. Horst
 
Surge protector does not even claim to do anything that would prevent
this failure. Power supply must either output a steady voltage or it
shuts down. No AC mains undervoltage will affect interior components.
If it did, then those components would be damaged by another
undervoltage - called power off.

If suffering from surges, then dimmer switches and electronic
thermostat controls for furnace are being replaced first. This made
obvious when specs even demanded by Intel for power supplies are
observed. The power supply must withstand about 1000 volts without
damage. Power supply also must not cause damage - internally or
externally - when overloaded and even when all outputs are shorted
together. Intel spec even defines how big that shorting wire must be
- and nothing is damaged.

One reason for failure could be bad regulation by the power supply.
In any acceptable supply, the Overvoltage Protection (OVP) circuit
makes damage not possible. But since so many clone computer
assemblers don't even know what a power supply is suppose to contain
(let alone know what a surge protector really does), then $50 supplies
are installed missing essential functions - including that OVP.

And so we arrive at the very first thing checked. The 3.5 digit
multimeter verifies that all power supply DC voltages are in spec.
Especially important for peripheral life expectancy are the +5 and +12
volts. Low voltage is not a problem. Component would just temporarily
stop working. But high voltage is destructive.

Also not likely but possible when using some extender cables - if
the black wire grounds are intermitent AND if the peripheral uses both
5 and 12 volts, then the intermittent ground wire can damage the
peripheral. It means both black ground wires would have to disconnect
simultaneously.
 
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