Power Supply Tester

[seekermeister]

The tester that I now have is only designed for a 20 pin ATX connector, and of course, most new motherboards, including the one now on order have 24 pin connectors. When I separate the 24 pin connector and only test the 20 pin portion, it works okay, but short of buying a new tester, is there a way to insure that the 4 pin portion is good?

 

[fireberd]

Power supply "testers" are only a general indication of voltages and that the power supply will turn on, not that the power supply will work under load. Thus they have a very limited practical use.

 

[seekermeister]

While that may be true, at least it does provide some indication of the PSU condition. Is there a means to test a power supply under load, particularly in a bench test mode?

 

[fireberd]

There are high $$ lab testers but nothing inexpensive that I know of. If I work on a PC and suspect the power supply I just connect a known good "bench" supply that I have to test.

 

[seekermeister]

Thanks, but the only way that I could use a "known" good PSU, is to tear it out of a working PC, and that is exactly what I don't want to do for bench testing new components. My spare PSU is quite probably good, but I would like to have a means to confirm that it is without any issues, since it spends a majority of the time in the closet. I guess that really isn't possible though.