PSU failure?

Tute · 13 Oct 2010 at 19:09

Hey all.

Went to turn the girlfriend's machine on, nothing happens. Totally dead. I'm assuming that a lack of any attempt to boot consitutes PSU failure?

Tried bridging the pins on the motherboard in case the power button is broke, nothing.

New PSU time? The unit in question is a 400W Seasonic unit, about 18 months old.

Thekwango · 13 Oct 2010 at 19:18

have you tried 'jump starting' the psu with just a fan connected?

Snapples24 · 13 Oct 2010 at 19:34

If you can get hold of a spare PSU to 'borrow' for an evening, swap it with your misses to see if it works. If not, then we know its another problem.

Tute · 13 Oct 2010 at 19:40

There's a PSU in my rig, it's just that my rig is tidy!!!

Thekwango said:
have you tried 'jump starting' the psu with just a fan connected?

No, how does that work? Just a fan connected?

Tealc · 13 Oct 2010 at 20:02

Short the Green wire on the 20/24 Way connector with a black wire on the same connector with a paper clip or similar conductive material.

The fan is connected to provide a bit of power draw to the PSU. I think it used to be critical that the supply had some loading when operational. I'm not sure if it's still important but it's prudent to do it anyway, just in case.

What should happen is that once you short the connection (and the paperclip will need to stay inserted) the PSU should come to life and the fan will turn.

Failure to start the fan or itself should make it clear if it is faulty or not, however you may find it will start and power a fan like a faulty PSU I had a couple of months ago.

Thekwango · 13 Oct 2010 at 20:23

as tealc says short the green with black on the 20/24 pin connector. if nowt happens then it's looking good that the psu is kaput, that said if the psu does power the fan it dont mean that its fine, just a handy way to see if a psu has died.

may not have any relevance on modern hardware but a rather old pc at work failed to power on a while back, psu initially seemed the problem but turned out the bios battery had died. might be worth a try?