Re: OT: power supplies suck

[aaron@cronkright.com]

> On Fri, 2003-05-23 at 07:57, Steven Pritchard wrote:
>> I just replaced yet another damn power supply.  This box had been
>> working perfectly, sat for a couple of months, and then wouldn't boot
>> up.  Luckily Kara had the good sense to suspect what was wrong...
>>
>> Anyway, I don't mean to turn this into a sales pitch, but I did want
>> to let everyone know that we're going to try to keep some power supply
>> testers in stock.  They're like $15.  The one we bought for ourselves
>> has already found two dead power supplies...
>
> That's a big AMEN! In ATX systems there's just no way to tell whether
> it's your PS or motherboard that just died -- without a tester.
>
> --Doc

An alternative method is to unplug the power switch from the motherboard,
use a voltmeter to measure the voltage across the power switch pins.  If
it is not 5volts, then the power supply is bad.  Without that 'standby' 5v
from the ps, the computer will not power up.  Usually, the power switch
pins are hard-wired straight from the atx power supply connector so the
lack of the 5v points straight to the ps.  If you have the 5v at the power
switch pins, but no boot, then the mb is bad.

Sorry to spoil your sales pitch, Steve :-)

Aaron Cronkright



-
To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@silug.org with
"unsubscribe silug-discuss" in the body.