Power Supply Questions

[A Mean GreekGOD]

Hello everyone, I have a fairly simple question. I have a Compaq Presario I am working on. I upgraded the graphics card, and put in a much larger Hard Drive. I then realized that I needed to update the power supply as well. I went to MicroCenter and purchased a Inland 600 watt power supply. Here is the problem, The 4 prong connector that attaches to the mother board must be wrong. The Connector appears to be made wrong. It will plug in, but I think the wiring is setup wrong as well. I am comparing this to the factory power supply. The 4 prong connector on the factory power supply has two yellow and 2 black wires. The Inland power supply has a black, a yellow, orange and red wires coming from the connector. With the inland power supply, the computer and the power supply wont power on.

Any Suggestions will be appreciated.

I have considered rewiring it so it uses the two yellow and two black wires like the old power supply had. But I hate to modify the connector and then not having a warranty on the power supply.

 

[Slugbait]

Never heard of Inland before, but then, no Micro Center near me. Who makes Inland power supplies?

But I digress...exercise your warranty as a refund. Put the money toward something like a Corsair CX430, which looks like the lowest-cost, semi-quality PSU that Micro Center carries

 

[Meghan54]

Dude, what you've done is pull the 4-pin off the 20+4-pin ATX motherboard connector (the colors of the wires you describe are exactly the wire colors for the 4-pin connector on the 20+4-pin motherboard connector) and are trying to put it into somewhere it doesn't belong. That's not the connector for the separate 4/8-pin ATX/EPS connector.

Now, hate to say it but you need to find someone who knows something about what you're doing and ask for help. No shame in that.

What I'd like to know is how many wire ties did you have to clip to stretch that 4-pin section over to the connector you tried to fit it into?

 

[A Mean GreekGOD]

Meghan54, actually I am hooking it up EXACTLY the way it was from the Compaq factory. I with you, also figured it was in the wrong spot. When I tried to put it in the 20+4 motherboard connector, The power supply would power on, but nothing else worked. I still have the ORIGINAL power supply, and it still works fine in the computer(hooked up the way I described), but it is only a 250w.

 

[BoomerD]

Odds are, Meghan54 has it nailed. Your board might only need a 20 pin connector, but also a 4 pin (2x2) EPS12v connector as well. That is NOT the extra 4 pin connector attached to the 20 pin cable.

 

[Meghan54]

Honestly, if the plug won't fit in the socket, it's not supposed to go in. I have yet to see a plug that wouldn't join easily with its mate....outside crappily made 4-pin Molex plugs. If you're struggling trying to get a plug to go into a socket, it's wrong.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yep. OP is suffering from PEBKAC error.

 

[A Mean GreekGOD]

Larry, are you that immature that you have to get on a website and throw out insults to the guy asking for advice?

Boomer, the picture you posted shows the connectors I am talking about. The factory Compaq power supply had the 24 pin ATX connector, but not the 4 pin that is shown next to it. Instead, it has the 4 pin P4 connector shown on the top right. That 4 pin P4 connector was hooked to the motherboard next to the AMD processor chip. They are NOT the same connectors, they do not carry the same voltage, nor do they plug into the same spots.

I guess my real question was asking if any of you had ran into this problem before.

 

[Slugbait]

I guess my real question was asking if any of you had ran into this problem before.

From your original description, it sounds like you think the problem is that the manufacturer for Inland messed up the wiring of the 4-pin connector. Most companies follow a standard while others don't...in this situation, maybe they have monkeys assembling the cabling, and different colors help them get it correct.

Your actual problem is that either the PSU is DOA, or that off-the-shelf power supplies are incompatible with your mobo. Because it's an Inland, I'm personally leaning toward DOA...

 

[BoomerD]

Larry, are you that immature that you have to get on a website and throw out insults to the guy asking for advice?

Boomer, the picture you posted shows the connectors I am talking about. The factory Compaq power supply had the 24 pin ATX connector, but not the 4 pin that is shown next to it. Instead, it has the 4 pin P4 connector shown on the top right. That 4 pin P4 connector was hooked to the motherboard next to the AMD processor chip. They are NOT the same connectors, they do not carry the same voltage, nor do they plug into the same spots.

I guess my real question was asking if any of you had ran into this problem before.

I'm gonna go with a junk PSU. In your original post, you say:

The Connector appears to be made wrong. It will plug in, but I think the wiring is setup wrong as well. I am comparing this to the factory power supply. The 4 prong connector on the factory power supply has two yellow and 2 black wires. The Inland power supply has a black, a yellow, orange and red wires coming from the connector.

Black, yellow, orange, and red is a description of the 4-pin socket that's usually part of the 20+4 pin connector...NOT the 4-pin EPS12V connector.

I think you need to either return the Inland PSU to the seller and get your money back...or just junk it, eat the cost, and buy a better quality PSU...Get one based on a Seasonic PSU and you should have no problems...providing the crappy PSU didn't damage any of your current components.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Honestly, if the plug won't fit in the socket, it's not supposed to go in.

No truer words have ever been said!!

 

[JEDIYoda]

I think you need to either return the Inland PSU to the seller and get your money back...or just junk it, eat the cost, and buy a better quality PSU...Get one based on a Seasonic PSU and you should have no problems...providing the crappy PSU didn't damage any of your current components.

If I may....perhaps the Compaq Presario takes a special PSU only available through the Compaq Presario peeps. Seems to me a few years ago that use to be the case with Dell or HP...

 

[BoomerD]

If I may....perhaps the Compaq Presario takes a special PSU only available through the Compaq Presario peeps. Seems to me a few years ago that use to be the case with Dell or HP...

Entirely possible. Dell was that way for many years.

AMGG, please post the exact model number and UL number from your PSU. Also, please post the exact model number for your system. The more info we have, the better we can advise.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you're seriously saying that the PSU doesn't have a 4-pin ATX12V connector, then it is really, really, screwed. All ATX PSUs since like the 90s have had those connectors.

Are you sure that you just didn't miss it? Perhaps it has an 8-pin EPS12V connector, that is splittable into 4 and 4. Just use half of that connector.

The 4-pin with the red, yellow, whatever, and black, is definately part of the ATX 20+4 pin connector.

Unless you are saying that the PSU has TWO 4-pin connectors, and they BOTH resemble the 4-pin of ATX 20+4 pin connector. In that case, the PSU is built wrong, and you should get your money back.

Edit: Which of these PSUs did you purchase?
600W Gold
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0346857
600W Silver
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0346706

Both of them, in their technical descriptions, list both a 4-pin ATX12 and an 8-pin EPS12V. This may mean either totally seperate connectors, off of the same wire, or a splittable 4+4 pin EPS12V. So either you are blind, or the PSU is mfg'ed wrong.

Is there a cable that looks like this:
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#eps4plus4