New case/power supply, is it DOA?

[akrein62]

I just received a new case with power supply that I ordered from Newegg. It's an ASYS case with a 450W power supply. This is a "budget" case that I'm using for a new system I'm building. One of the problems with cheapo products is that this came with no documentation. I thought that I should be able to plug in the case and tur it on, there's a power switch right on the power supply, to verify that it worked before installing the rest of the parts. I did this and got nothing. Did I make a bad assumption? Should I get power to the fan and power supply? Or do I need to install the motherboard and the other parts first?

This is my first home built system, I basing aound an AMD Athlon64 3400, and I didn't think it would be that hard. I've installed or replaced many components on other pcs.

Help please?

Andy

[wolv6769]

It will not run without a signal from the mother board. If you think about it, a power supply will not start it's fan running until you press the on button on your computer.

[akrein62]

Thanks, I won't panic just yet.

[SLK001]

Also, it needs a load before it will totally power-on. Which means, of course, you'll need to do a "smoke" test!

[LSchafroth]

I paniced with mine last night, but the back of the power supply was set to 220 instead of 110.

LS

[akrein62]

Umm...Exactly what is a smoke test?

[ViRaL1]

If you want to test the power supply to see if it's dead without having to install the mobo, try this.

Take a paper clip and unbend it until it just looks like a "U". Holding the 20-pin ATX connecter, put one end of the paper clip in the connector with the GREEN wire, and the other end of the paper clip in the connecter with the BLACK wire. If the power supply fan doesn't spin, the PSU is DOA. Even if it spins that doesn't guarantee that the PSU is 100%, but at least you know it's not dead before you go through the trouble of installing the mobo.

P.S. - If there's a switch on the power supply, make sure it's turned on.

P.P.S. - If you're worried about getting shocked (this was my fear the first time I did this), you can always push the clip in the connectors with the power supply unpluuged and make sure it's snug in both connectors, then while you're not touching the clip, plug in the power.

If you're wary of this, you can always try a multimeter.

[Soopafresh]

Nice tip. Thanks.

[pfh]

This is my first home built system, I basing aound an AMD Athlon64 3400, and I didn't think it would be that hard. I've installed or replaced many components on other pcs.


Andy

I'm jealous.