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How to turn on an AT power supply?

W

www.ChantCd.com

Jan 1, 1970
0
(I was trying to use an ATX supply before, but it seemed more complicated,
so...)

There is a switch on this AT-style power supply that I have now (of course).

I stripped off the ends of one of the hard drive connectors, making sure
they
don't touch when I hit the power switch.

I hit the switch, and nothing happens.

Do I have a bad power supply? Or do you have to have a load of some kind for
it to work? I'm just trying to turn it on with nothing - so I can measure
the voltage
with a VOM. Starting at the beginning, as it were.

The other day, I was diagnosing a friend's bad PC - it turned out to be a
bad power supply. (ATX)
The way I found out? I just plugged the AT power supply to the hard drive
(which wasn't spinning up, BTW) and turned it on - voila! The hard drive
spun up. By this I guessed that the power supply was bad (turned out to be
the case).
My point is, I had just 1 hard drive as a load, and the thing powered up
just fine.
(I'm pretty sure it's the same power supply, too)

Matthew
 
P

petrus bitbyter

Jan 1, 1970
0
www.ChantCd.com said:
(I was trying to use an ATX supply before, but it seemed more complicated,
so...)

There is a switch on this AT-style power supply that I have now (of course).

I stripped off the ends of one of the hard drive connectors, making sure
they
don't touch when I hit the power switch.

I hit the switch, and nothing happens.

Do I have a bad power supply? Or do you have to have a load of some kind for
it to work? I'm just trying to turn it on with nothing - so I can measure
the voltage
with a VOM. Starting at the beginning, as it were.

The other day, I was diagnosing a friend's bad PC - it turned out to be a
bad power supply. (ATX)
The way I found out? I just plugged the AT power supply to the hard drive
(which wasn't spinning up, BTW) and turned it on - voila! The hard drive
spun up. By this I guessed that the power supply was bad (turned out to be
the case).
My point is, I had just 1 hard drive as a load, and the thing powered up
just fine.
(I'm pretty sure it's the same power supply, too)

Matthew

Many - especially old AT - power supplies need some load to start and often
some more load to stay stable. 12V car lamps or old HDDs often do a good job
as a dummy load.

petrus bitbyter
 
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