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_incompatible_ PSU?!?

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Henry Rollins II

Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2001
Location
The North Pole
Hello,

Im having trouble with a system. Its a single cpu system with 2 memory sticks, one agp and one pci card, one harddrive, 3 fans about 4 watt total, one harddrive and no CD/DVD´s. Not much in my mind.

Im not mentioning the actual problem, but my retailer suggests that my PSU could be incompatible with the motherboard. I have two PSU´s to choose from wich both results in problems booting up the system, not in the exact same way thou. However it never crashes.

Can a PSU be incompatible with a motherboard??

I have an Compucase(oem) 300w and a Enermax 550w FMA. The motherboard is a Epox 8RDA+.
 
You got a good reseller, with a lot of attention (to his own pocket ;) )

There are no reasions for the Enermax (if it is a ENERMAX EG651P-VE(FMA) or similar) to be incompatible with a 8RDA+.
Can't comment on the Compucase one, but if it has an ATX connector should work too, at least with the board at stock speed.

Now to your general question, yes a PSU can be incompatible with a mobo, just think of trying to use a old AT PSU without an ATX connector. Or a newer one, but without the additional 12V connector; it wouldn't fit (at least without a mod) to a board that requires it.

A.
 
The retailer is running a scam on you as to incompatiblity. If the PSU is bad is one thing, but except for some issues with Enermax and some earlier Epox boards, ATX is ATX. Sounds as if he is using the earlier difficulty as a vague answer here.
 
I agree, ATX is ATX and is a standard. This means that if the motherboard says it is ATX and the PSU says it is ATX they are compatable. It is possible that a bad PSU can cause some strange problems, but not an "incompatable" one.
 
Im not familiar with the earlier incompatabilities that stool was talking about but besides that the only thing I have heard about incompatible PSUs (aside from AT and ATX) is with Dell and compaqs using their own proprietary 'ATX' connector which switches some of the lines around, obviously not the problem in this case. From what I have heard using a normal PSU on a dell board or using a Dell PSU on a normal board will fry the board and other components.
 
Suddenly they claim that it isn´t the PSU, but something else. They dont wanna help, thats for sure. I really belive that there might be a problem with the mobo, what I dont know. Thats the part they sold me.
 
DaddyB said:
Im not familiar with the earlier incompatabilities that stool was talking about but besides that the only thing I have heard about incompatible PSUs (aside from AT and ATX) is with Dell and compaqs using their own proprietary 'ATX' connector which switches some of the lines around, obviously not the problem in this case. From what I have heard using a normal PSU on a dell board or using a Dell PSU on a normal board will fry the board and other components.

That is true. However they do not say their boards are ATX. Sometimes it will say ATX form factor, but they never say it is ATX compliant.
 
Compucase is really good -- they're HEC/Heroichi, and one of those scored really well in the Tom's Hardware review.

I have an FIC Socket 7 AT mobo that didn't like certain PSUs, even a Seasonic. I read that with some PSUs the Power Good signal comes on too early or too late, and after fiddling with a timing capacitor in one PSU, I was finally able to make the FIC mobo boot reliably. But I never was able to make it boot with the Seasonic, which had a very elaborate circuit controlling its Power Good signal.

The only times I've had compatibility problems with ATX PSUs was when the mobo didn't draw enough current to meet a minimum current requirement for the PSU.
 
Mr Rollins- What are the actual problems your having?

It does sound like your friendly neighbourhood con-merchant is more interested in his beer money than your rights.

but if it's what I'm thinking- it may just be the "Cold boot" problem I've been hearing of lately... does pressing the Reset button fix your problem?
 
DaddyB said:
Im not familiar with the earlier incompatabilities that stool was talking about ....
Some time ago there was an issue with the Enermax PSU and the Epox 8KHA+ and the 5V rail. These have since been worked out AFAIK.
 
Yeah- I think the problem is that the PSU takes a second or two to get upto the required voltage in its 5v rail... There's something on the front page about it from a few days ago I think, unless you can make the circuit mentoined in there I'm afraid your either goin to have to deal with it or find out which PSU won't have that problem with your board.

I don't think a BIOS flash will work but it wouldn't hurt to try (unless you bodge it- then it WOULD hurt :D )
 
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