dh@. said:
Hi,
I work at a night club and we have a lighting control board that
has two mother boards. The other day it wouldn't try to come on
at all, acting like it wasn't getting power. So I made sure it
was getting power, unplugged and plugged it back several times,
and tried starting it several times. Finally after a number of
attempts it started up and ran fine, but a couple of tech people
said it sounds like the power supply is going bad. It has a HIGH
POWER® HPC-360-302 DF power supply. If I remember right it has
five connectors: 1 twenty wire, 3 four wire, and 1 two wire. We
tried replacing it with a newer type from Micro Center, and had
to use an adapter to try to make the two wire connector work. It
looked like everything connected right but it never would boot up
with that power supply, and said it needed us to insert a system
disc or something. When I put the old power supply back in it
started up fine again. Can anyone let me know what happened, and
suggest what to do if we can't get another power supply just like
the one that's going bad? I'm afraid it has been discontinued.
Thanks for any help!
David
Most likely reason the Micro Center supply doesn't "work", is
modern supplies are missing the -5V output.
http://www.highpowersupply.com/product-ps-hpc360302df.htm#sp
The HPC-360-302 does have -5V. The usage of -5V was discontinued
years ago (10+ years ???). Motherboards really should not be using
it, but occasionally you run into an older system that still has
that dependency. Such an old motherboard won't start, unless -5V
is present.
It is pretty hard to detect whether a motherboard needs it or not.
Even if you took an ammeter, and measured current flow from the
-5V pin on the main connector, the current draw could be so small
as to be inconclusive. The motherboard won't be drawing gobs of
power from that rail.
If you look at the Micro Center supply, you'll find one pin is
missing from the main connector. When the latest ATX standard
removed -5V, they just removed the pin from the connector, so
that there would be no connection to the motherboard on that
pin. You can use that fact, or you can look at the label
on the side of the supply, to see there is no mention of
a current rating for -5V.
You have two choices. Find an older supply, one with -5V on it.
Or, if you have a friend who is acquainted with electronics,
get the friend to hook up a 7905 regulator to the -12V, and
make -5V from that. (You'll also need to install a pin
in the "empty" location on the main connector, and connect
your -5V circuit to that pin.) As long as the current draw
from -5V is not too large, it might work. That alternative
should only be contemplated if you really can't find an
older supply. (Some day, finding a supply with -5V on it,
is going to be impossible.)
I think I have one computer in the house here, that needs
-5V. And I'm not looking forward to finding another
supply for it.
(Power supply specs, oldest to newest. The first spec
is for a supply that still has -5V. Compare that, to
the other two specs.)
http://web.archive.org/web/20030424...org/developer/specs/atx/ATX_ATX12V_PS_1_1.pdf
http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/atx/ATX12V_1_3dg.pdf
http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/ATX12V_PSDG_2_2_public_br2.pdf
This is an example of a supply that claims to have some -5V
output. This is not particularly balanced with respect to
older motherboards. Some of the older ones, have more
load on 3.3V and/or 5V, and the 12V might only need 15 amps
or a bit more. This one has a lot of 12V capacity (good for
modern systems, where the processor uses the 12V rail, as
well as PCI Express video cards). But the 3.3V and 5V could
use more amperes, to help older systems. (I have a system here,
that needs 25 amps from +5V, an old S462 Athlon system>)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817338022
Sorry I can't find anything better than that. You may have to
visit a smaller retailer, search around some surplus place,
to find the right kind of supply.
I have no idea where this company is located, what their reputation
is, but at least the basic power numbers look good.
http://www.mypccase.com/46foramdduat.html
(This page has a few pictures of the ZIPPY HP2-6460P-SATA version.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103707
(This page claims to have one unit in stock.)
http://www.amazon.com/Zippy-HP2-646...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1283071387&sr=8-1
(This page has connector details. You would connect the 2x2 ATX12V
to your system, and leave the 2x4 12V connector disconnected. This
supply is also capable of powering dual Xeon systems with the eight
pin power connector for the processors.)
http://www.btostech.com/store/pc/HP2-6460P-Zippy-Emacs-460-watts-PS2-power-supply-56p124.htm
Good luck,
Paul
