Turning on an AT Power supply?

[www.ChantCd.com]

(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

 

[Puckdropper]

You have to have a load. If the power supply detects no load, it shuts off.

Puckdropper

 

[www.ChantCd.com]

Do you know how much of a load? Would 50 mA be enough?


Matthew

 

[Puckdropper]

I normally use a floppy drive or some other computer component. I
suppose you'll have to just try it and see.

Puckdropper

 

[www.ChantCD.com]

I tried a hard drive, and it USUALLY worked well - but the results were
erratic. A few times it would shut off after 10 seconds, other times it
would sound odd like the HD wasn't getting enough power - yet it stayed on.

I'm thinking of adding another hard drive (maybe a 100 MB which I can get
for free)

Matthew