Hi, I know this could be classed as OT but where else could I find such a
wealth of knowledge about PCs.

Anyhow a friend has a Packard Bell about 6 years old, on Sunday he put into
sleep mode and when we tried to restart it several hours later it was dead.
I checked the fuse in the power supply which was fine and there does not
appear to be any burned components, infact the inside of the pc in general
looks almost new.

The power supply is an AT type, is there anyway to test it on its own, I
feel it may be the PSU or the switch. Am I right in thinking if the PSU was
OK then power should still be going to the CD drive and HD even if the board
or CPU was faulty?

TIA.


Des.


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dk wrote:

> Hi, I know this could be classed as OT but where else could I find such a
> wealth of knowledge about PCs.
>
> Anyhow a friend has a Packard Bell about 6 years old, on Sunday he put into
> sleep mode and when we tried to restart it several hours later it was dead.
> I checked the fuse in the power supply which was fine and there does not
> appear to be any burned components, infact the inside of the pc in general
> looks almost new.
>
> The power supply is an AT type, is there anyway to test it on its own, I
> feel it may be the PSU or the switch. Am I right in thinking if the PSU was
> OK then power should still be going to the CD drive and HD even if the board
> or CPU was faulty?


An AT power supply should be easy to test if you got as multimeter and
you know the pins.
It could be the switch , check it out with a multimeter

A power supply could be faulty and still run the CD drive and HD, I
thrown out a old AT powersuplly a few days back, because it will run the
HD, but will not work the motherboard at all.

After working with many different brands of AT supplies I haven't run across
any yet that requre anything to be connected to power up. What
brands/models have you seen that are like this? Just curious.

Thanks everyone, I will get a multi-meter and try that.

Des.


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"Crimson*" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> After working with many different brands of AT supplies I haven't run
across
> any yet that requre anything to be connected to power up. What
> brands/models have you seen that are like this? Just curious.
>

Are you sure we are talking about the same thing ? If you have an AT supply
just sitting on the table and only the AC cord connected to it, they will
not power up. If you connect a hard drive to it , then it will power up.
If it is an ATX supply you have to hook it up to a motherboard or connect
pin 13 and 14 (think that is correct) together for them to power up.

I have tried many of the AT supplies from an origional PC 65 watt, AT at 200
or 250 watt and about a dozen or more differant AT supplies of the
"el-cheepo" kind that come with the $ 25 to $ 50 cases. None of them would
power up tuil atleast a hard drive or some kind of load was put on them.
They did not have to be connected to the motherboard. Even a resistor would
do.

Right, AT power supplies. The ones I used to work with frequently were
Antec, Bestec, etc. and I could just hook up the power cord and hit the
power switch (some switches would be on the power supply, others on the
power cord that mounts to the front of the PC) and they would power up. I
remember distinctly the shop I worked at had a bad batch of new supplies and
I had to check each one and I didn't have to attach any hardware to get (the
good ones) to power up.

"Ralph Mowery" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


>Are you sure we are talking about the same thing ? If you have an AT supply
>just sitting on the table and only the AC cord connected to it, they will
>not power up. If you connect a hard drive to it , then it will power up.
>If it is an ATX supply you have to hook it up to a motherboard or connect
>pin 13 and 14 (think that is correct) together for them to power up.

AT, ATX is confusing.
Some require a load, others don't.
If the fan doesn't spin, turn off, and try again,
with a load on a Molex connector.

I think the original IBM PC (65 watt didn't)
>I have tried many of the AT supplies from an origional PC 65 watt,
<snip>
Me too, and I never could tell by looking what was what.

--- Still my favorite quote ---
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)