Did I get a dead power supply unit?

[Dunadan]

I'm building my first computer and the pieces are starting to come in. Today I got the case, power supply, disk drives, and cold cathode lights.

I installed the power supply Aspire 500W Silver Blue PSU which has blue glowing fans and figured I would test it so I plugged it in. I expected to see the lights come on and be able to adjust the fan (at least) but nothing happened. I figured maybe the fan was controlled by temperature by the mobo so I pressed on. I plugged one of my disk drives in to see if a power light would come on in the front, but nothing happened. Then I plugged my cold cathode lights in to the psu and nothing happened. Just to be safe, I plugged the cold cathodes into my current rig and they lit right up.

So...did I get a dead power supply unit, or does it need to be hooked up to the mobo before it will do anything?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Slogun]

Not dead. These power supplies won't come on unless they are plugged into a mobo.

There are two pins on the PSU mobo connector that you can short to simulate it being connected to a mobo, but I wouldn't try it.

 

[Boonesmi]

it needs to be hooked up to the mobo to be turned on (the power switch on the front of the case has a plug that hooks to the mobo... its when this is shorted that the mobo tells the powersupply to turn on)

 

[Boonesmi]

if you do want to test the powersupply without it being hooked to the mobo you can do so by shorting the green pin with the black ground

when looking at the big connector that plugs into the motherboard. on the top row of pins the 4th one over is green... just short it with the 3rd pin over (black) and it will start up the powersupply

** edit ** as a side note there is only one green wire on the whole atx connector

 

[Dunadan]

Thanks guys. I was getting upset there. I figured it might be something like that...but didn't want to wait till it was fully assembled to find out.

p.s. Might I have damaged it by trying to turn it on without any load?

 

[Boonesmi]

no it wouldnt damage it

 

[squirrel dog]

Listen to boonesmi, thats how you test a pwr supply , and you wont hurt it.pm him or me for a walk thru.Looking at the large mother board connector stick a piece of wire (paper clip works fine,just dont touch it plugged in)between the green and black pins in the middle of the connector.Then plug it in.The pwr supply will spin up if its normal.Then up plug it to remove test wire.

 

[Dunadan]

Thanks for the tip. Shorted out those two slots and she started right up. Never thought a PSU could be sexy....but this one sure is

 

[princessducky615]

Dunadan, can you tell me how that Aspire power supply is? Is it any good and where did you get it? My power supply just blew out on me and I was looking at this one. Thanks!