12V on psu

[mcrites]

I hooked up a cold cathode to my backup psu to test it out, and noticed it was flickering. So I took out my multimeter to measure the 12V on the psu, and noticed that the psu would move from 11.6V to 12.2V every 10 seconds or so. I took out my new antec 400W, and it stayed at 12V or so consistently. When I used to test my rheostat baybus, I remember the led blinking like the cold cathode was, and am thinking because of my screwy psu. Is this just a junk psu or did something happen to it?

[klosters64a]

If you're certain that the Rheobus or the cold cathode aren't putting a wavering load on the 12v rail, the PS is not acceptable. Kinda doesn't matter if something happened to it, or the PS is of poor quality.

[Hoot]

Matt, you say it was a backup PSU. Did you have anything else hooked up to it? For the +12V o/p to stabilize, you need a nominal load on the +5V output.

Hoot

[mcrites]

No, nothing was on the 5V rail. That would make sense, I just use this psu to test stuff or if I need it to backup another psu that might die in my systems.

[Hoot]

Get a 5 ohm 10W power resistor and hang it on one of the +5V outputs and a return (black) wire. That should settle it down. It may be low, but not jumping around as much.

Hoot