PSU issues

  • Thread starter Thread starter Taver
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Taver

I had a 400w PSU in a average everyday tower. A usb mousecord got
yanked by one of the kids and it froze up the pc. I held in the reset
button and when it went to reboot it instantly shut off. Anyway after
trouble shooting, it appears the MB is toast it wouldnt fire up after
multiple PSU chages and a rebuild and cleaning still now joy. crap Im
rambling my question is should I put a brand new PSU in the tower
before the new MB is installed and is there a way to find if a PSU is
bad?
 
Taver said:
I had a 400w PSU in a average everyday tower. A usb mousecord got
yanked by one of the kids and it froze up the pc. I held in the reset
button and when it went to reboot it instantly shut off. Anyway after
trouble shooting, it appears the MB is toast it wouldnt fire up after
multiple PSU chages and a rebuild and cleaning still now joy. crap Im
rambling my question is should I put a brand new PSU in the tower
before the new MB is installed and is there a way to find if a PSU is
bad?
Click to expand...
For a quick test without risking possible damage to expensive
components, disconnect all loads except a floppy drive (as an
inexpensive minimum load), short pin #14 of the main 20-pin
connector (green wire on a standard ATX connector) to either
adjacent pin (black wire) - you can use a paper clip or a short
length of flex wire to do this. Connect PSU to power outlet. If
the PSU fan turns, it's probably OK, but not 100% certain yet.
Also measure the different voltage outputs with a multimeter,
preferably a digital one.

For a more thorough test, you'll have to connect substantial
loads to each output and see how it behaves under load. I
believe there are readymade PSU testing kits for just such a
purpose but I doubt you'd want to invest in one just to test
one PSU.
 
On 4 Jan 2005 13:05:17 -0500,
I had a 400w PSU in a average everyday tower. A usb mousecord got
yanked by one of the kids and it froze up the pc. I held in the reset
button and when it went to reboot it instantly shut off. Anyway after
trouble shooting, it appears the MB is toast it wouldnt fire up after
multiple PSU chages and a rebuild and cleaning still now joy. crap Im
rambling my question is should I put a brand new PSU in the tower
before the new MB is installed and is there a way to find if a PSU is
bad?
Click to expand...

Odds are the power supply is fine. A poorly designed supply
might be effected but what lengths are you to go through to
check it? Most people would simply install the new board
and try it... which is "probably" fine.

You can disconnect the PSU from everthing except one drive,
then short the PS_On pin to a ground pin (with a paperclip
or whatever), at which point the PSU should turn on, fan
spinning, drive working. At that point you can take voltage
readings with a multimeter if so inclined.
http://69.36.189.159/usr_1034/atx_on.gif
 
I will give that a shot when I rebuild with the new board and such. I
have a digital MUlti meter - got it as a gift once but beeing the bone
head that I can be i have no idea how to use it. Thanks for the info
one and all.
 
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