Power supply problem

Hey /tech/, I'm just getting into building my first PC. Once I got all my supplies in the mail, I tried simply plugging in my power supply without it plugged into anything else just to see if it worked. When nothing happened, I assumed that was because it needed to plug it into something. I tried this with a fan or two but nothing happened still.

Someone told me that I might need to connect it to my motherboard so I mounted the motherboard with the CPU and RAM while plugging all my fans into the motherboard and tried it then but still nothing happened.

The PS is a Topower 650w. Could it be that it came DOA? Am I missing something here? Am I an idiot that messed up big time? Thanks in advance.

How did you plug the fans? Those usually should be connected to the mainboard so their speed can be controlled. So won't see if the fan is working until you switch the computer on.
There are some fans that work constantly, and can be connected directly to the power supply.
So do build the computer and check if it's working -- the fastest way. If you need to check it fast, just mount the switch, connect mainboard to power supply and start. The mainboard, once switched on, should beep (as it sees no CPU)

In order to turn on a PSU, the black and green wires need to be shorted on the 24-pin molex. Look up starting a PSU with a paperclip. I do it to check voltages with a multimeter.

Hi there, a really quick fix to this is to search in Google "How to Jumpstart Power Supply." It's really quick.

lollllll, that is hilarious
do not short the green(ground) to the black(hot)...  Checking it with a mulimeter is quite different