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Hi! does anyone here know how you can turn an ATX
power supply ON when it is not connected to the mobo?
I remember reading somewhere that we must touch (short)
the blue and white wire together for a moment.....
And to OFF the ATX supply, we must again short the blue
and white wires for 3 to 5 seconds?
Can anyone confirm?
A perfectly functional motherboard or CPU can be damaged
if the 3V, 5V and 12V lines are wildly off their mark and it is
prudent to check the PSU out of circuit before connecting.

TIA

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On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 18:02:34 +0800, Huang <huang_cc@hotpop.com> wrote:

>Hi! does anyone here know how you can turn an ATX
>power supply ON when it is not connected to the mobo?
>I remember reading somewhere that we must touch (short)
>the blue and white wire together for a moment.....
>And to OFF the ATX supply, we must again short the blue
>and white wires for 3 to 5 seconds?
>Can anyone confirm?
>A perfectly functional motherboard or CPU can be damaged
>if the 3V, 5V and 12V lines are wildly off their mark and it is
>prudent to check the PSU out of circuit before connecting.

>TIA

Never heard of it, you put a ' paperclip ' between x & X on the
motherboard plug. I can't be sure of the numbers in my head so I won't
post them.

I'll have a look for you !
BoroLad

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On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 18:02:34 +0800, Huang <huang_cc@hotpop.com> wrote:

>Hi! does anyone here know how you can turn an ATX
>power supply ON when it is not connected to the mobo?
>I remember reading somewhere that we must touch (short)
>the blue and white wire together for a moment.....
>And to OFF the ATX supply, we must again short the blue
>and white wires for 3 to 5 seconds?
>Can anyone confirm?
>A perfectly functional motherboard or CPU can be damaged
>if the 3V, 5V and 12V lines are wildly off their mark and it is
>prudent to check the PSU out of circuit before connecting.

>TIA

Yeh it was pin14, but best to check.

http://www.dvhardware.net/modules. [...] le&artid=5
http://members.rogers.com/2caaronc/Enermax%20Mod.htm

Pin 14 [ Power-ON wire - make sure it's GREEN ] and the BLACK any
BLACK will do.

BoroLad

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Huang wrote:
> Hi! does anyone here know how you can turn an ATX
> power supply ON when it is not connected to the mobo?
> I remember reading somewhere that we must touch (short)
> the blue and white wire together for a moment.....
> And to OFF the ATX supply, we must again short the blue
> and white wires for 3 to 5 seconds?
> Can anyone confirm?
> A perfectly functional motherboard or CPU can be damaged
> if the 3V, 5V and 12V lines are wildly off their mark and it is
> prudent to check the PSU out of circuit before connecting.


Be very careful to get your orientation correct - you should be able to do
it from the wire colours, but I prefer to check it by the keying (square
pin) and don't forget that the direction you look at the connector (or the
socket) affects this.

http://www.hardwarebook.net/connec [...] power.html

Short pin 14 to one of the ground pins (I think I did it to 15, or 13). The
PSU will be on whilst the wire is there, when you remove the wire, the PSU
will turn off.

Despite the power switch on the case (to the motherboard) being momentary,
the "PSU on" signal is active low (active when grounded, otherwise it floats
high I guess)

Don't forget that some PSUs will not be able to correctly regulate their
rails unless they are loaded, therefore I suggest you connect a suitable
resistor (suitably high value to sufficiently limit the current to what the
PSU is capable of, and suitably rated for the power it needs to dissipate)
from the rail you wish to check, to ground and measure the voltage across
the resistor.

If any of that does not make sense, don't do it.

Ben
--
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Ben Pope wrote:
> Don't forget that some PSUs will not be able to correctly regulate their
> rails unless they are loaded, therefore I suggest you connect a suitable
> resistor (suitably high value to sufficiently limit the current to what
> the PSU is capable of, and suitably rated for the power it needs to
> dissipate) from the rail you wish to check, to ground and measure the
> voltage across the resistor.

These comments relate to a digital multimeter. An analogue one might have a
low enough resistance to source a suitable current. But nobody uses
analogue voltmeters any more, do they? :-p

Ben
--
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Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
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Huang wrote:

>
> Hi! does anyone here know how you can turn an ATX power supply ON when
> it is not connected to the mobo? I remember reading somewhere that we
> must touch (short) the blue and white wire together for a moment.....
> And to OFF the ATX supply, we must again short the blue and white
> wires for 3 to 5 seconds? Can anyone confirm? A perfectly functional
> motherboard or CPU can be damaged if the 3V, 5V and 12V lines are
> wildly off their mark and it is prudent to check the PSU out of
> circuit before connecting.
>
> TIA

I use one of these:

http://www.cyberguys.com/templates [...] 1=113+0282

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most often, a power supply will not come up if it has no load connected.
with a reputable, brand name supply, I have never seen the voltages be off
by any significant amount.

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"Huang" <huang_cc@hotpop.com> wrote in message
news:nhk4805491e48pss3733mhh7v1pk3ikp3s@4ax.com...
>
> Hi! does anyone here know how you can turn an ATX
> power supply ON when it is not connected to the mobo?
> I remember reading somewhere that we must touch (short)
> the blue and white wire together for a moment.....
> And to OFF the ATX supply, we must again short the blue
> and white wires for 3 to 5 seconds?
> Can anyone confirm?
> A perfectly functional motherboard or CPU can be damaged
> if the 3V, 5V and 12V lines are wildly off their mark and it is
> prudent to check the PSU out of circuit before connecting.
>
> TIA

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"Huang" <huang_cc@hotpop.com> wrote in message...
> Hi! does anyone here know how you can turn an ATX
> power supply ON when it is not connected to the mobo?

As others have mentioned, pin 14 to ground.

> A perfectly functional motherboard or CPU can be damaged
> if the 3V, 5V and 12V lines are wildly off their mark and it is
> prudent to check the PSU out of circuit before connecting.

Er, not really it ain't, it won't teach you anything. Switched mode power
supply output voltages often appear "wildly off the mark" when there's no
load applied to them, and so you might mistakenly believe the PSU is bust if
you "dry test" it in this way.

Besides, shorting wires to ground when you don't know exactly what you're
doing could easily get you in more trouble than not doing so... ;)

Good bit of cross-posting BTW...
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace .nospam with .com in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com
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Irrelevant if wrong pins were shorted together. A power
supply must even have all output voltages shorted together and
still not be damaged. This demanded by an Intel spec and was
defacto standard 30 years ago.

Short green wire to black wire.

Meantime, some power supplies will power up with no load.
Other will not. Responsible power supply manufacturers
provide this information with a long list of essential
specifications. Whether ATX power supply can power up without
load and be stable is a unique function of that design. Some
do. Some don't.

If power supply voltages get so far off spec as to damage
computer, then why buy a supply so cheap as to not even
include the defacto standard function called Overvoltge
protection (OVP)? No power supply, properly designed, can
damage the computer. Power supplies must - as even demanded
by Intel specs - include a circuit that makes overvoltage
impossible. A power supply that damages computer is due to a
human failure. Human who buys a supply without numerical
electrical specs gets the damage he deserves.

Connect supply to computer and monitor voltages with a 3.5
digit multimeter. However if power supply is not provided
with a long list of specifications, then they probably don't
want you to know the so many missing functions so it could be
sold for less than $60. Supply must have OVP. If it does
not, the manufacturer will also forget to provide
specifications claiming this and other essential functions
exist.

borolad@myowseintheboro.org wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 18:02:34 +0800, Huang <huang_cc@hotpop.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi! does anyone here know how you can turn an ATX
>> power supply ON when it is not connected to the mobo?
>> I remember reading somewhere that we must touch (short)
>> the blue and white wire together for a moment.....
>> And to OFF the ATX supply, we must again short the blue
>> and white wires for 3 to 5 seconds?
>> Can anyone confirm?
>> A perfectly functional motherboard or CPU can be damaged
>> if the 3V, 5V and 12V lines are wildly off their mark and it is
>> prudent to check the PSU out of circuit before connecting.
>
> >TIA
>
> Yeh it was pin14, but best to check.
>
> http://www.dvhardware.net/modules. [...] le&artid=5
> http://members.rogers.com/2caaronc/Enermax%20Mod.htm
>
> Pin 14 [ Power-ON wire - make sure it's GREEN ] and the BLACK any
> BLACK will do.
>
> BoroLad

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The safest way to test the power supply that I've found is to buy an Antec
power supply tester. You can then test the power supply without needing to
connect to a motherboard. Maplins have them.

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Huang <huang_cc@hotpop.com> wrote in message news:<nhk4805491e48pss3733mhh7v1pk3ikp3s@4ax.com>...
> Hi! does anyone here know how you can turn an ATX
> power supply ON when it is not connected to the mobo?
> I remember reading somewhere that we must touch (short)
> the blue and white wire together for a moment.....
> And to OFF the ATX supply, we must again short the blue
> and white wires for 3 to 5 seconds?
> Can anyone confirm?
> A perfectly functional motherboard or CPU can be damaged
> if the 3V, 5V and 12V lines are wildly off their mark and it is
> prudent to check the PSU out of circuit before connecting.
>
> TIA

You can try to plug in an old hard disk drive to one of the spare
connectors. That might load the PSU enough for it to go into
regulation. I think that they still regulate of the 5V rail.

arnie

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On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 20:54:07 +0100, "Edward J Martin"
<edwardjmartin@hotmail.com> wrote:

>The safest way to test the power supply that I've found is to buy an Antec
>power supply tester. You can then test the power supply without needing to
>connect to a motherboard. Maplins have them.
>

This one is easy!

Simply short the green wire on the power supply connector (there's only 1 green)
to any black wire, it will then power up without having to be connected to the
board.

HTH

John

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All of which is still unnecessary if one first and simply
verifies the power supply even claims to have functions found
in 30 year old power supplies. The safest way to test a power
supply is to first verify it has standard and necessary
functions. $20 and $40 power supplies typically do not which
means inferior power supply still threatens computer - even if
Antec power supply tester says it is OK.

IOW the Antec power supply tester is necessary because power
supply is missing essential and required functions.

Edward J Martin wrote:
> The safest way to test the power supply that I've found is to buy
> an Antec power supply tester. You can then test the power supply
> without needing to connect to a motherboard. Maplins have them.

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On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 13:09:57 +0100, "Ben Pope" <spam@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Huang wrote:
>> Hi! does anyone here know how you can turn an ATX
>> power supply ON when it is not connected to the mobo?
>> I remember reading somewhere that we must touch (short)
>> the blue and white wire together for a moment.....
>> And to OFF the ATX supply, we must again short the blue
>> and white wires for 3 to 5 seconds?
>> Can anyone confirm?
>> A perfectly functional motherboard or CPU can be damaged
>> if the 3V, 5V and 12V lines are wildly off their mark and it is
>> prudent to check the PSU out of circuit before connecting.
>
>
>Be very careful to get your orientation correct - you should be able to do
>it from the wire colours, but I prefer to check it by the keying (square
>pin) and don't forget that the direction you look at the connector (or the
>socket) affects this.
>
>http://www.hardwarebook.net/connector/power/atxpower.html
>
>Short pin 14 to one of the ground pins (I think I did it to 15, or 13). The
>PSU will be on whilst the wire is there, when you remove the wire, the PSU
>will turn off.
>
>Despite the power switch on the case (to the motherboard) being momentary,
>the "PSU on" signal is active low (active when grounded, otherwise it floats
>high I guess)
>
>Don't forget that some PSUs will not be able to correctly regulate their
>rails unless they are loaded, therefore I suggest you connect a suitable
>resistor (suitably high value to sufficiently limit the current to what the
>PSU is capable of, and suitably rated for the power it needs to dissipate)
>from the rail you wish to check, to ground and measure the voltage across
>the resistor.
>
>If any of that does not make sense, don't do it.
>
>Ben



Car tail/stop light is very good as a load..

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What? A good analogue voltmeter should have high internal
resistance, comparable to a digital voltmeter! If your
0-20V DC voltmeter has sub-megaohm internal resistance,
don't use it! Or, your measured voltage is not the
potential difference without the voltmeter.

My 2 cents.
Stephen Wong @ Hong Kong

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004, Ben Pope wrote:

> Ben Pope wrote:
> > Don't forget that some PSUs will not be able to correctly regulate their
> > rails unless they are loaded, therefore I