trackrat Posted January 8, 2006 Report Share Posted January 8, 2006 Before you start a warning ELECTRICITY IS DANGEROUS, so make sure you have no loose jewellery or watches dangling and wear a wrist grounding strap.First you need a Digital Multimeter, these can be brought quite cheaply from places like Maplins.The easiest way to test the 12v & 5v power going to your hardware is to get an unused Molex connector and insert the negative probe (black) into either of the two holes that have black wires coming into them, and put the positive probe (red) into the hole with the yellow wire for the 12V reading or into the hole with the red wire for the 5v reading.To test the 3.3v rail you need to disconnect the motherboard power supply plug.Next you need a small piece of wire to allow the PSU to power up.As can be seen from the picture you need to connect the small piece of wire to holes 3 & 4 on the clip side of the connector, this will allow the PSU to start up.You can the test the rails by putting the negative probe in the ground holes and the positive probe in the 3.3v, 5v or 12v holes.As there is no load on the psu the voltages will not reflect accurately what the hardware would get under load, however this will show if the PSU is capable of supplying the necesscary voltages or if it is defective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted January 8, 2006 Report Share Posted January 8, 2006 I am concerned about the ability of a switched PSU to function without a load and, indeed, have experienced the explosive burn out of one when mains has been applied without any connections to the output.http://www.fraw.org.uk/pubs/sspji/sspji-05.pdfBe careful not to switch on without a load!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r4may Posted January 8, 2006 Report Share Posted January 8, 2006 As pops says :- You will need a Dummy Load for each voltage on the power supply.Best to knockup a proper test rig complete with On/Off button. Ensuring the 'Loads' can handle the power of each voltage like the one in Pops link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodchip Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 That's the wrong way to test a PSU! Sorry. It should only be tested with it Connected to the Motherboard unless you have correct equipment. To test, with it connected you Back Probe the Main PSU Plug With Multimeter When it's switched on. There are, should not be any Volts over 20 volts in the computer only in the PSU will you get AC 230 voltshttp://xtronics.com/reference/atx_pinout.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarthy © ® ™ Posted August 15, 2007 Report Share Posted August 15, 2007 Alternatively CCLOnline have a tester for PSU's that's only £9.40inc vat.> H E R E;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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