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ATX PS Tester??

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knif_00

Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Location
<So.IL>
Where can I get a good ATX Power Supply tester?
I don't want one with just the green "okay" LED. .
any ideas??

::knif_00::
 
man, what a waste of money. Here is an easy way... have your ATX PSU connected to nothing except a few harddrives and cd-roms. the reason is to give the psu a load to start. take a paperclip and stick it in the ATX connector. wait, stick it in were the green wire is. there is only ONE green wire. then take the other end of the paperclip and connect it to ANY one of the black wires.

Green to black.

when you complete the circuit the PSU fan will turn and the HDs will spin. there is no danger doing this operation. it is a everyday test procedure.

will a few people verify for integerty, thx
 
I know its a waste of money..

Note: do not have the PSU plugged in while sticking the paperclip into the holes..and dont touch it while it IS plugged in ;)
 
I already know about the paper clip trick and all that proves is that the power supply is capable of turning on. They make testers that create a big big load and prove that it can operate under stress. They have multiple LED's on them that show consitency of the different rails and power lines.

And honestly, what's the point of *******g about it being a waste of money, if i want to spend the money to have on handy I'll spend my money. . not yours.
 
Those testers apply a load of only a couple of watts to turn on PSUs that need their +5V and +3.3V lines loaded to run at all. They don't apply nearly enough to show how the PSU will perform under even a light realistic load, and I once had a PSU that worked OK when connected to a similar tester, but it would get very, very hot when connected to a real load because it had a bad capacitor that put a huge strain on a transistor. Besides, a PSU tester costs almost as much as a cheap digital multimeter and a pair of ten-ohm, 10W resistors but can't be used for nearly as much.
 
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