Help a Newbie with a brand new Antec case; PSU not working??

[fade2black]

Hi I bought a new Antec case (SX840; 400W PSU) from Ems Computing. The case was shipped 3 days ago.

This is the first time I'm assembing a PC. So bear me out -

Since the case came with 2 rear fans installed, the first thing that I wanted to do was to connect the fans to the powersupply, and then power on the case. The fans did'nt move.

[The fans have both 4 pin male and 4 pin female connectors. The PSU only has female 4 pin connectors. So I connected the 4 pin male connector of the fan to the 4 pin female connector of the PSU].

I'm hesitant to attach other components because this basic test failed. The PSU has no LED, so I don't know if it's working or not. The PSU itself has a fan, this does not rotate either (However, this fan is thermally controlled and may come on only when necessary; so I don't think that this proves the PSU to be faulty).

So basically, I'm stuck. I don't have a voltmeter. Is there any other way to verify if the PSU is faulty?

 

[Vinny N]

Do you have the ATX power connector connected to a motherboard with a cpu(with heatsink+fan on of course), and the case power switch hooked up to the motherboard Power Switch pins?

That's the minimum for powering on an ATX system and staying on as far as I know.

Just the fans connected to the power supply and hitting the power button (connected to nothing) on the case won't turn on anything let alone let it remain powered on.

 

[ubersam]

You can power up a psu w/o a mobo. Short the remote (green) wire on the atx connector to one of the gound (black) wire and the psu should power up, that's if it is working. Check out this article.

 

[fade2black]

Hi Vinny,

I haven't connected the powersupply to the motherboard yet.

Since this is my first time, I wanted to start off with just a simple task of connecting the PSU to the fan. I wanted to proceed further after this worked.

Since the PSU is connected to the wall socket and I have connected a 12V connecter to the fan, I thought it should work.

I didn't hit the power button on the case; it's not attached to anything yet. I just turned the PSU on and expected the fans to turn. Won't this work?

 

[bozo1]

No, it won't work that way. ATX powersupplies need the 'on' signal from the motherboard to turn on. If you want to test, do as was suggested and short the green wire with one of the black ones (paperclip) to simulate the 'on' signal. Also, switching powersupplies need to have a load to power-up - your fan cases may not be enough. Connect a hard drive.

 

[fade2black]

Ok, I got it! Thanks guys. I didn't know that an ATX powersupply needs an 'on' signal to get started!