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Power Supply Tester
The other day I had a computer come in that appeared to have a dead motherboard. I took out their CPU and RAM and put it in my test PC. The whole system powered up and got into Windows XP with no problems so it seemed the RAM and CPU were fine. However, I was unsure whether their power supply was faulty and I didnt want to plug the PSU into my good test motherboard in case it damaged it. So I went to get my trusty multimeter to test the power supply and I couldnt find it anywhere; it seems I had lost it.
So, I bought a Power Supply Tester specifically designed to test computer power supplies and I am very happy with it. Heres why:
Its much quicker to test a power supply with it than testing each connection with a multimeter. Just plug in the 20/24pin power connector, the 4 pin ATX power and a 4 pin molex or sata power if you want to and away you go. The voltages show up on the LCD screen and beeps if there is a problem such as too much voltage, too little or none at all.
The brushed aluminium case also protects it well since my technician bag tends to get knocked around a fair bit.
Definitely worth the $23.99 to save you time in diagnosing power problems and potentially damaging your test parts with a bad power supply. Even if it saves only one motherboard, it pays for itself.
You can get them for $23.99 at Xoxide.
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I bought this same one from newegg (Rexus PST-3) and it has saved me lots of time troubleshooting machines with weird system problems. Every tech should have one.
I got one of these over a year ago, only mine isn’t so fancy with the LCD readout. This little darling has saved me so much time and money, first thing I do is hook mine up on a no start computer. All you have to do it take the case cover off, you don’t even need to waste time pulling the PSU out. Mine is an Ultra, easy to spot in my bag with the chrome X on it.
The only problem with this LCD power supply tester is that it does not check the -5 voltage.
I have seen plenty of power supplies that had the -5 over-volting and causing weird problems, so having on of these along side the standard Red light overvolt tester is a great time saver.
Okay, you don’t want to plug in their PS in case it’s bad…. so, why didn’t you plug a *known good* ps into their board and see if that worked?
That’s ALWAYS my first step for an apparent “dead power supply” problem.
JohnR – Most likely he had a faulty not a dead PSU. Faulty power supplies will spin fans and light the heatsink up, but post no video.
Everyone has their own first steps and every situation starts differently.
Gotta love/hate when they’re critical of your work. I think it is better to just say good advice. I have one of these in my tool bag and it has served me well. Fits nicely in a small pouch, cheap and works good. Keep up the good work.
NYJimbo, It seems there are a handful of these things under different brands but they all appear to be the same. Definitely worth having though.
JohnR, I did that while at the clients location. After the inital checking plugs and whatnot, it was the first thing I did. When that didnt power up I took it back to my workshop and put the parts in my test PC which is where the above story begins. Your right though, power supply is the first thing that needs to be tested which I did.
These things rock! I got mine for $5 from Compusa (I think).
I bought the one shown in the article but with black plastic connectors rather than white, branded under Coolmax, but it was all but unusable. Of the 4 PSs I tried to test, I could only connect the 20/24 pin connector on one – the connector was just too tight. I don’t know if the plastic fitting was molded to too tight a tolerance or the pins were too large (pins seemed awfully thick and square-cut, either for ease of manufacture or durability, not sure which). In any case, I returned it to Tiger Direct for refund. Anyone else with similar experience? I really liked the digital display (on the one PS I was able to test, that is).
I need to buy one of these as well. I am just too lazy to go down to the store and look for one. :)
I have a similar tester, although not as fancy, and I have had mixed results with it.
The main problem I have with these testers is that they do not test the PSU when under load, which is when some of the weirder problems occur.
For instance, I recently had a machine that was crapping out during Windows installation, always rebooting at the same point. The tester said the PSU was fine, but it wasn’t until I replaced the PSU that the problem was solved.
The ones that it does find tend to be the obvious ones.
Would one of the units work for laptops as well?
Recently had a box in here that appeared to have a bad PS. The tester showed that it was good. Anyhow, I put a new PS in as a test, and it booted OK. So don’t just rely on this tool. It can and will fail you.
Packrat1947
Is there much difference in the versions with and the ones without LCD. Do they all provide the same tests ? Just curious.
The LCD provides realtime voltages for the rails. This does not provide a load this is true. Tenma has one that will but for triple the price and only provides 1A. I seem to have noticed, from various websites, that the CoolMax or at least the ones with the black connectors are very tight or can easily reverse the connectors if new or not paying attention. Remember guys these are not for testing load or long term. More than a minute and these things heat up, the old plastic ones use to melt.
Got one of these off ebay. So far I’ve only used it once and the PSU was fine. It’s one of my best editions to my kit so far this year.
You have to know what this tool does in order to get your expectations in line.
It is just to quickly check if the psu is defective. Just like a quick ram tester, it’s there to eliminate the easy problems fast and move on to what is really the problem.
btw if you really don’t like this or want to continue to complain you can always build your own psu tester with an adjustable load. A small one should still fit in your bag.
Personally it’s a cheap way for a fast check so I can move on to the next test.
2 Rich – Well said! These units are just power testers: I have no power or I have power.
But what about the quality of that power? A PSU may be faulting with ripples, drops and spikes; all of which are detrimental to system components.
Even PSU review-sites are flawed if they’re not tested under load.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/410/3