First time builder here and I have a question concerning a power supply I bought. Is it normal for the unit to not work unless connected to a motherboard? When entirely disconnected to all devices, plugged in, and set to the correct voltage it does not seem to power on at all; no heat is given and there is no noise. Am I missing something? Does it need to be connected to a motherboard or do PSU's take a while to kick in or is this bloody thing just DOA?
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Anonymous2006-03-04 0:10
some won't turn on unless ground wires are connected to something. figure out which wires need to be connected and connect them to each other. find something about someone hacking something together and using a psu for power and you'll prolly find a diagram about which wires need to be ground
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Anonymous2006-03-04 0:27
That's probably the case, thanks for the speed response.
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Anonymous2006-03-04 3:58
ATX power supplies have a motherboard-controlled electronic switch. The switch on the back doesn't actually power it up, it's more like a killswitch that cuts power before the ATX switch.
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Anonymous2006-03-04 5:43 (sage)
>>2
FAIL. Stop giving advice on things you don't understand.
It's true that they are easy to hotwire on without a motherboard, though (connect green wire pin to one of the grounds). I have a little bent paperclip I use whenever I want to test a PSU or run a few extra devices. I've heard it can damage the PSU to run it without anything at all drawing power, though.
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Anonymous2006-03-04 12:18
It's generally a good idea not to run a switching psu under the load specified as the minimum load but I reckon it won't really hurt much if you do it ocasionally