MEPIS Community Forum

I have a Corsair power supply tester with only LED lights, that has apparently died. I was looking to replace that unit and thought I would ask other Mepis users what they might be using. I understand not everyone assembles their own computer or does any hardware troubleshooting, but there should be more than a handful of "do-it-yourself" Mepis users that will read this thread.

I just read a review of the Thermaltake Dr Power II PSU Tester, that shows the voltages something I have not had previous with LED light testers. But the review as little concrete
information on the testing provided by this unit..
http://www.ninjalane.com/reviews/power_ ... tt_drpower

JR

Good afternoon namida12;

At work we use Ultra Power Supply Testers. They also have just LED's but they do work great and were not expensive. Our field service uses the same one. Their newer ones have the new connections on them for the newer power supplies. Web site is "www.ultraproducts.com".

I do not work for them so am not trying to get any business.

We use a Digitus unit
http://www.digitus.info/en/products/acc ... -da-70601/

Works admirably with LCD readout and connections for all current mainsteam PSU connectors, has beeps for failures, but doesn't differentiate between 40-pin and 44-pin, so when testing a 40-pin, it will beep because it thinks some voltage inputs are not working.

When the voltage runs high, it is normally a sign of damaged e-caps, when it runs very low, it's the transistors, but this unit and most others I have seen is/are incapable of determining the current, therefore, it/they can not determine the "wear" state of the internals.

In short, these devices are only useful if the operator already has a good understanding of computer hardware in the first place, and they may be more useful to measure voltage in real-time if it were possible to connect them in parallel, but as the ones I have tested automatically short pins 15 & 16, this may not be the best option.

You can always use a multimeter as I have done for many years to get more accurate readings, but I do not totally agree with the author in the following page because power supplies only display their true status when under load and free-running a power supply without a load is not recommended by a number of electronics service agents.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofth ... imeter.htm

I have only been caught out once though, that was when my multimeters battery was dying. The voltage readings kept climbing and it had me dumbfounded for the best part of half a day until I tested another PC with the same results, that's when I reaslised it was my multimeter.

Mike P

i always just used a plain ole multimeter :)

I have to agree with m_pav running a power supply with no load is the best way i know to destroy it. Thirty minutes to test with no load, man that guy is crazy. There is no real test anyway without a load. And my take on a $250. tester unless you are on some king of mission critical seconds count clock is a little out there for the average joe. The spare antec works for me & when the day is done , five minutes and its Mepis time.