How do I know if my power supply is bad?

Dumbledore

Senior member
Dec 10, 2000
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My computer doesn't turn on. The fan in the power supply doesn't turn on either? But the lights in front of my case turn on for a brief second. any help would be appreciated. thanks.
 

Mr N8

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2001
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Testing power supplies is not difficult, just take it out of the case, plug it in, and to turn it on, short the green wire (pin 14) on the mobo connector to any of the black wires.

Then you take a voltometer thingy, set it to DC 15V, and plug the ground probe into any black wire, and plug the red into all of your power connectors and check that the reds are 5v and yellows are 12v +/- 10%.
 

tallest1

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2001
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When you feel like throwing your computer out a window, you probably have a bad power supply
 

FoBoT

No Lifer
Apr 30, 2001
63,084
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fobot.com
if you build pc's/have a lot of computers/need to check pwr supplies often, antec makes a pwer supply tester, newegg sells them for ~$15
i got one from there, it is handy ;)
 

hoihtah

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
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plug one end of paperclip in green wire hole
and the other in any black wire hole.
power up the psu...
and your psu fan should run.

if it's not running... then you have a bad psu... or a bad psu fan at least.
but it's safe to say... when the fan goes... so goes the psu. :)

good luck

--- basically what mogolmonster said... but in plain english. :)
 

Shelly21

Diamond Member
May 28, 2002
4,111
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You too? I had 2 power supply gone bad on me within the past month....

It looks like its going to be cheaper to replace the whole case instead of just power supply.