Troubleshooting PC Power Supplies
The following are some useful resources on PC Power Supplies and troubleshooting them:
- Power Supply Fundamentals
- A Guide To Computer Power Supplies
- Power Supply Fundamentals
- Checking your PCs Power Supply Voltage Readings (good)
- PSU Troubleshooting with a Multimeter
- Computer Boot Problems
- Upgrading to a High Efficiency Power Supply
- Real System Power Requirements
- Power Supply Connectors
A few tips on buying a PC power supply:
- When Hardware is Free Power is Expensive
- Recommended Power Supplies
- Why estimate when you can measure?
- Power, Surge Protection, PCs and You
- 80 PLUS program for efficient power supplies
Some very important points from these articles (these are direct quotes):
- Most desktop PCs barely use more than 200w of power
- Power efficiency peaks around 250w
- Your PC is statistically idle 99% of the time it is turned on
To help remember which wire is which rail, think alphabetical order:
- Black = ground
- Orange = 3.3v
- Red = 5v
- Yellow=12v
Remember, black is always ground. On your multimeter red = Live, black = Ground. Always ground the multimeter with the appropriate ground connection! This is very important.
Testing for a dead power supply:
- Check power supply to motherboard connection
- Check power supply to drives
- Below 11.5V for VDC (yellow) indicates issues
- Below 10.5V for VDC means that the PC probably won’t boot.
September 22, 2009 | In Hardware | No Comments
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