Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with powersupply

How Can I make this laptop work?

marienbad — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 05:52:53 -0800

What is the quickest and cheapest way to find out if a laptop works? I was sat outside a cafe in town, it is opposite a cash converters (pawn shop/pay-day loan place). Two students went in to try and sell them the laptop but they didn't want it, so when the students came out they put it on a bench and walked off, so I went and picked it up (it annoys me to see that sort of thing). However, it has no hard drive (fair enough) and no power supply.

So do I just have to risk it and buy the bits, or pay someone?

The laptop is a Compaq Presario C300.

I'll put this over here, with the rest of the fire.

mayurasana — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 16:10:09 -0800

I replaced a PSU and have received the original, cheap so-called 500W power supply. It has a dead fan. Works great except for the fan; cleaning didn't revive it. I don't own a desktop computer. Makers, hackers, what fun can I have with this PSU? What should I read to bring me up to speed? What can I do with a fanless PSU? I have almost no working knowledge of electronics and I'm afraid to open up the PSU itself (out of fear of shocking myself mainly due to said uninformed state) -- but I could overcome this with sound instructions and safety precautions. And, I like projects and learning things.

I'm handy with some power tools, and I will have access to saws, wire cutters, vices, other helpful things of the household grade. I will also have access to a working dot matrix printer, an inkless inkjet printer, PS/2 and USB mice and keyboards, an HDD that is laughably tiny in capacity, and other, non-computer things including electronic learning toys for kids. Can I (eventually) build a toy robot safe for a child? Or something that is just functionally awesome? (Even something basic would be novel to me.) I don't remember if I have access to a soldering iron but I probably could. I'm happy to get inexpensive bits and connectors for this, though I don't know enough to establish a budget.

I'm a PC/Android/novice Linux person with rudimentary programming background, if that helps.

Instructions or links to projects would be extremely helpful. I'm inclined to follow steps until I feel comfortable enough to start my own projects. I have found articles like this but I don't know what the next logical steps would be. Consider me enthusiastic but clueless. Recommendations for reading material to get some grounding in this would be much appreciated, too.

Dear hivemind, please help me go on an adventure with my little PSU!

What kind of a name is ZaReason anyway?

Yesterday's camel — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 06:01:55 -0800

What kind of power supply (and cooling system) should I get for a tower with an 8-core processor? I'm configuring a Limbo 6220A tower from ZaReason. ZaReason allows the buyer to choose between various power supplies, and while I'm perfectly comfortable contemplating all the other hardware options, this is something I know little about. If I pick the 3.6 GHz processor and the ATI HD 6970 video card, should I opt for something beefier than the default 350 watt power supply? The other options are:

* 550 watts
* 850 watts Raidmax (I assume this doesn't apply to me since I'm not using a RAID)
* 1200 watts (which sounds like overkill to me)

It should also be noted that ZaReason offers a slightly higher-end AMD tower that comes with an optional $400 water cooling system -- though I assume / hope that isn't necessary.

In terms of other components I'll probably go with an SSD as the primary drive and a HDD as the backup; either 16 or 32 GB of RAM; and I plan on installing Debian rather than the default Ubuntu.

(Bonus warm fuzzies to be awarded to anyone who can tell me how long this particular model has been listed by ZaReason.)

Thanks!

What sort of store sells 3V DC adaptors?

nebulawindphone — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:15:32 -0800

I need to buy a three volt DC adaptor with a barrel shaped connector. (Picture the normal 12V DC adaptor, but with a smaller connector on the end that plugs into the device.) And I need to get it this afternoon, in between running some other errands. Where should I look? What sort of store carries this sort of thing? I don't think I've ever seen odd-sized power supplies sold separate from the device that they power — but then, I've never really looked for 'em either. The device I need this for is something I bought online, so I can't just go back to the store where I got it.

I'm in Austin, TX if it matters.

Power supply fan starts and stops, why?

RobotHero — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:13:38 -0800

The fan in the power supply on my PC has been briefly cutting out, about once every 30 seconds. This makes the sound kind of annoying. Do I need to replace the entire power supply or can I just replace the fan? I'm not sure if I can just blame the fan, or if it's a symptom that the power supply is on the fritz. If the former, replacing the fan should do it.

I'm also tempted to slap a case fan in there and plug it into one of the case fan connectors on the motherboard. (This still requires I buy a new fan, since the power supply fan is 2-pin and the case fans are 4-pin) Would that be a terrible idea, since its speed would no longer be controlled by the power supply temperature?

Graphics card seems fried after a few weeks of working fine

ZeroDivides — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 23:52:56 -0800

I installed a new video card and power supply in a new desktop computer, but the machine had problems (restarting occasionally for no obvious reason over a few weeks) and now the card seems dead. I need help figuring out what has gone wrong! The machine is an HP Pavilion Elite H8-1010. I bought a new video card (radeon 6850) and power supply (Corsair TX650 V2) and installed them, after verifying that the machine was functional with the old ones. It's running Windows 7. I installed the drivers from the disk provided with the video card.

Things were fine for a few weeks, then I'd notice that the machine had restarted while I was not using it. I re-enabled the blue screen of death to make sure it was not crashing, loaded up speedfan to verify that it wasn't overheating, then installed Prime 95 and just let it sit, stress testing, for a few hours, and nothing happened.

Then today, it started restarting more and more. After four hours of use, it restarted. Use in this case can mean text based MUDs (yeah, yeah) or just sitting idle. Then after thirty more minutes of use, it restarted again. Then it at that point, the graphics seemed to cease to function and it would restart after a minute of loading windows. You can hear the windows startup sound, but the monitor claims there is no input from the graphics card. And that's the state it's in now.

I put the old card back in and it worked fine, for whatever that's worth.

I am at a loss. Is the new card just a dud? Is there some bad interaction between the card and the PSU? I am pretty good at fixing things if I know what is wrong, but I'm not really sure where to start with this one.

Snowflake details: These are both japanese components, but the machine is from America. The PSU claims it can take any AC input from 90~264V, so I didn't think that would be a problem. The machine is receiving 120V as input.

More powerful Power Supply for Dell Optiplex 780?

John Kenneth Fisher — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:11:51 -0800

Short version: I need to find a larger power supply that fits in a Dell Optiplex 780 Small Form Factor (the third from the left here) so I can power a larger video card (and presumably the fans for it).
Longer version isn't much longer, but I have an Optiplex I use for media centering, and some light gaming, and would like to upgrade the video card to something with a bit more heft for moderate gaming, but the built in power supply is insanely weak. So, you know, replace it, but the problem is that it seems to have a custom nonstandard design to fit in the form factor.

I'm hoping someone third party makes a drop in that can output a whole lot more than the insanely low standard, but I can't find one and neither can my resources at PC Connection, etc.

Anyone know of anyone I don't?

Pinout for this ancient xenon arc lamp power supply?

aecorwin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:33:54 -0800

Recently I obtained (for work-related use) an older arc lamp power supply. It's a Zeiss unit brand-wise but was manufactured by Ludl Electronic Products (LEP) on Zeiss' behalf. It may well turn out that this particular supply isn't suited to our needs (based on the lamp we want to use it with), but I would still like to find some way to determine the pinout of the output connector. Unfortunately, I've had a heck of a time finding ANY schematics for 75 W DC xenon short arc lamp power supplies, and despite my EE degree, I remain baffled following *mumble* weeks worth of ohming-out and circuit-tracing. And at this point I've been staring at the darned thing so long that it's become hard to tell if I'm missing something really obvious or whether it's just futile to expect to be able to determine what pin serves what purpose without a schematic. Long, convoluted explanation beyond the "more inside" button. I should note that I have already contacted both Zeiss and Ludl regarding obtaining documentation for this supply (for which the part number is "91 01 44"). Zeiss couldn't provide any information at all other than the suggestion to contact Ludl, as they actually built the thing. Ludl, in turn, sent me a connection diagram for hooking up a Nikon arc lamp to one of their supplies, but the only useful thing that provided was confirmation that I had correctly identified the output connector on the supply (and the lamp we want to use is a Zeiss, so I certainly can't assume the same pinout applies).

The main bugbear in all this is the fact that the lamp module is a tad more sophisticated than the power supply. It appears to have its own built-in ignition/ballast circuitry, and the connecting cable (for the lamp - power supply interface) only has three conductors in it: +DC, -DC, and chassis ground. The power supply, meanwhile, has 7 pins in its output connector.

I have the proper mating connector to adapt the lamp cable so that's not an issue, but it's obviously useless if I don't know which pin goes in which hole.

The power supply, I'm guessing, has 7 pins to account for (a) safety interlock circuity (which suggests at least two pins are going to need to be shorted so that a connection is made when the lamp cable is plugged in), and (b) ignition/trigger circuitry, in addition to "regular" DC for the lamp once an arc is established. I am hoping that maybe I can just ignore the power supply's ignition connections since I think our lamp has its own stuff in that department, but I am not going to *assume* that's even possible without more information into the PS circuitry.

If it helps, here are some photographs I took of the power supply:

Back of supply (shows output connector):
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6203/6124274385_825ce7653f_z.jpg

Front of supply (with chassis lid removed):
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6202/6124274403_eb86f03599.jpg

Closeup of internal circuitry:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6196/6124274423_eb15250169.jpg

Closeup of wires from inside of PS to output connector:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6208/6124827208_8c5f471723.jpg

And here is the lamp I am trying to hook up:

Housing exterior:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6205/6124827226_4e64a60f26_z.jpg

Lamp circuitry (partial/bottom view, with cover removed):
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6081/6124827200_34985fd9dd_z.jpg

...but in any event, as for my actual question:

(a) Since I am fairly certain that the power supply won't output normally unless the interlock condition is satisfied, how might I identify which pins need to be shorted at the connector toward this end?

(b) Since the PS probably won't output normally unless the interlock condition is met, how can I conclusively identify which pins represent the power supply's +/- outputs (without being able to measure them with a multimeter)?

(c) What, if any, other useful tests might I perform (with the supply either powered or unpowered) toward the end of identifying pin functionality?

(Thus far I've only turned on the supply a few times, each time for less than a minute. This led to the interesting discovery that I end up with an approx. 30 VDC reading between the pin connected to one side of a large filter capacitor and *either* of two pins at the connector that each go to one side of a 1 ohm power resistor.)

(d) Finally, is this just a completely ridiculous quest in the first place?

I AM actively looking for a different power supply that will be more readily compatible with our lamp (Zeiss 44-80-12) and have found some candidates, but given the headaches I've been through already with a power supply that looked reasonably good "on paper" I want to make darned sure I KNOW the thing will work before I order another one. And when you're dealing with old/used/piecewise equipment that the manufacturers don't even support anymore, this is NOT necessarily a straightforward task!

Also, I know that technically it's best to use ONLY the particular power supply that a manufacturer has specced for a particular lamp, but Zeiss said the lamp was too old for them to even be able to recommend a matching supply (they don't even support it anymore) and I am unwilling to consign it to the landfill without at least *trying* to see if there's something out there to power it.

So yeah. Any insights from anyone experienced with xenon arc lamps and the power supplies that go with them would be appreciated. Thanks!

Power supply disconnection problems with Packard Bell laptop

Put the kettle on — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:55:03 -0800

I have a Packard Bell Easynote TJ68 laptop. The power supply keeps becoming disconnected -- not physically disconnected, but the computer stops recognising it -- at the slightest movement. (Plus bonus question re: keys falling out.) I generally work with the power supply plugged in, but every few minutes or so, if I get up or change position, the power supply stops working. I'm not sure if this is a problem with the power supply or with the piece in the laptop that I plug the power supply into. I'm just using the power supply I bought with the computer about a year ago.

This problem is especially annoying because the laptop makes a loud beep when connecting or disconnecting the power supply (unless the sound is muted). I can't find any option to turn this horribly irritating sound off -- a quick Google search tells me there's no way to change it except through the BIOS, which I'm afraid to mess with.

The power supply for my old Dell laptop developed a similar problem -- I think I went through 3 or 4 of them -- and I've resolved to take care of this before it gets so bad I have to physically hold the power supply in to make it work. That happened with my Dell and it was terrible.

Bonus question: two keys (the Windows key and the B key) have fallen out. I've found someone who sells replacements on eBay, but they're in the US, I'm in the UK, and Packard Bells aren't even sold in the US so there must be somewhere else to buy these, right?

Thanks so much for your help.

Help me bring my crappy keyboard back to life!

Cat Pie Hurts — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 07:07:25 -0800

I'm trying to resurrect an old Casio CPS-85 88 key keyboard. When it was given to me, the power jack was cracked, so I desoldered it and soldered on a new one. No luck; I can't get power (even with a different power supply). So I'm stuck running off of a lot of D batteries. As using D cells is both wasteful and expensive.is there any way for me to rig an external power supply to the battery terminals in a safe manner?

Worst luck or something more troubling?

boobjob — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:37:31 -0800

Is there something causing my laptop's power supply to fail? I have a fujitsu convertible laptop and about two weeks ago the power supply just died. I got a new one (third party) and all seemed right as rain until today when the new one died. The company is shipping me a new (supposedly better) one toute suite, but I just dont want to go in circles if the power supply is not the real problem. Do I have just incredible bad luck or is there a problem with the laptop? Will provide more information if requested. Suggestions on fixes would be appreciated as mr. Boobjob is a computer wiz (though currently at work, driving me to query the hivemind).

How to diagnose a new video card problem.

vilcxjo_BLANKA — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 08:50:03 -0800

I am having problems with a new video card. I'm wondering if it's the card, the system board or some other part of the whole system. I would like to figure this out in time to send the card back to Newegg. I have a franken computer which has an older Gigabyte GA-73-PVM-S2H system board, 4Gb of G.skill DDR2 800 memory, an Intel E5200 processor, a 550W power supply and three disks. I had an nVidia 9500 video card which stopped working, so I replaced it with an older, slower nVidia card (8500 maybe?) which worked and works fine, but is too slow for gaming. I got tired of the teenaged whining, so I bought an "EVGA 01G-P3-1366-TR GeForce GTX 460 SE (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card" from Newegg". When I installed it, and tried to boot it the CPU and case fans started for a few seconds, maybe one, then powered down. This happened several times in a row. I replaced the new card with the old card and the system booted just fine. So, I decided I needed a new power supply, and bought a 650W power supply with 35A two 6-pin +12V PCI-express connectors. The 550W power supply had two 6-pin connectors, but they were 18A, and the nVidia 460 wants 24 amp +12V rails. This PS should be in spec for the nVidia 460. I still get the same behavior with the new card. I replaced the new card with the older card and the system boots just fine, new or old PS.

So, my question is: Is the problem the new nVidia card, or is the older MB not able to power up the new card somehow, or is my new power supply too feeble to power the new card? The Gigabyte MB only has a PCI-E x16 1.0 slot. At least it doesn't say PCI-E 2.0, and the new card is a PCI-e x16 2.0 card. However I'm told the card should be compatible with the older PCI-e slot. The new power supply is a cheap Chinese supply, so who knows how accurately the specs are for it. Of course, all PC power supplies these days are cheap Chinese devices, so it may be the best I can get.

I'm betting the video card is just a DOA failure, but I'm hoping someone else has a better idea.

Start, ya bastard!

malibustacey9999 — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:53:48 -0800

Sometimes my PC turns on, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it turns itself off with no rhyme or reason. Why, and how do I fix it? When I turn it on for the first time in the morning, I hit the power button, it makes the familiar 'whirring' noise, the lights on the front of the case come on... then it all stops. No beep to say that it's starting up. Just dead.

If I then unplug the cord from the wall, plug it in again and push the start button, it usually starts up fine. This morning, however, I had to unplug and re-plug 3 times before it would fire up.

Googling has given me the idea that it's either the power supply unit or motherboard. After a previous Askme question taught me the basics of computer 'guts', I'm confident to replace either part.

How do I determine which part needs replacing, and how do I choose a reliable part without breaking the bank? Ebay's power supply options, for example, are never-ending, and I don't know what to look for and what to avoid.

Can I improvise a power supply for a strange monitor?

Maximian — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:41:01 -0800

Can I improvise a power supply for a mysterious LCD monitor? A sticker on the back gives the power requirements, but the plug type is strange. I have a 17" touch-screen LCD monitor with no power supply. I believe it was formerly part of a POS system. It's very heavy for its size, and is totally nondescript except for a label on the back with some serial numbers and the power requirements. I've had no success finding anything out about it with internet searches.

It wants 12 volts at 3 amps. The power cable (permanently attached) has a plug type I've never seen before: male, 4 pins, arranged in a rectangular formation in the center of a 1/2" circular plug. If I track down some power supply for something else that puts out the right voltage and amperage, can I somehow wire it to this plug? Why are there 4 pins and not 2 or 3? How can I find out how they're wired? I'm not afraid of making a project out of it, as I'd really like to get this thing working (assuming it works at all).

Why does shopping for cables always sound so dirty?

advicepig — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:54:54 -0800

Computer power supply conundrum. We need to convert SATA power (male) to old school Molex (female) and we need to add another 12" of length. I can't seem to find a single cable that meets our needs. We have a new enormous server from Dell and it has a power supply without the older four pin molex connectors. We need to put in a Digium phone card that takes a four pin molex power. Due to the size of the box and some serious air flow concerns, we also need to extend the power connector by 12".

I've tried Monoprice.com and a few other sources, but if you know of a vendor that may have what we need, that would be great. If we can't find what we need, should we adapt the connector at the SATA end and use a Molex extension? Any other bright ideas?

What am I doing wrong with my PSU?

battlebison — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:36:45 -0800

PSU was missing from computer. Bought a new one, now it gives me one continuous BIOS beep when I turn it on. What have I done wrong and how do I fix this? From what I understand, one continuous beep means it isn't getting enough power. I have a 450W PSU brand new from NewEgg and this computer is fairly old, so I figured it would have been good enough! I forget the specs exactly, but I think it's a single core 3.8 GHz AMD processor and it has a GeForce 7800 GT as its graphics card. Everything else about it is very pedestrian.

There is the usual ATX power slot on the motherboard as well as what looks like a 4-pin slot near it. It looks like this:
[::]
[::::::::::]
There are two 4-pin connectors coming out of the PSU: one attached the main plug and one that just kind of hangs out on its own separate from any other cable. The computer will only get as far as turning on and beeping at me if I have either the main plug in on its own or it and the loose 4-pin plug. It doesn't do anything at all if I use the 4-pin plug attached to the main plug.

Does it matter that the plug coming from the PSU seems to be missing a pin? [:::::::.::]

Help me revive this old computer!

Thanks for reading this ridiculously long explanation of what is probably an easy problem.

Please don't explode computer.

sepsis — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:38:49 -0800

US visiting UK, do I need an adapter or a converter for my laptop? I just want to double check because I'd really rather not have my laptop explode when I visit the UK next month. The AC adapter for my laptop gives the following specs:

65W, 20V
INPUT: 100-240V~1.5A 50/60Hz
OUTPUT: 20V . . . 3.25A

My understanding is that I would only need an adapter for the plug and not a power converter. Am I correct? Thanks for the help.

Desktop power supply let out the magic smoke. Doomed?

DoubleMark — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:12:01 -0800

My desktop power supply has emitted some blue sparks, and not at all in the nice Mario Kart sort of way. It's pretty clear there's an internal short- is it likely that this fried any of my other components, and are there any defensive measures I should take when replacing it? It is a well-known fact that I emit a powerful hardware-destroying field, causing computers and electronic equipment to fail in all manner of unlikely ways. I just overhauled my desktop with a shiny new Lynnfield i7, and it had been running fine for a week. When I came home last night, I found half my room had no power. I unplugged everything, went downstairs, and reset the circuit breaker. When I plugged the computer back in, there were bright flashes from inside the Antec TruePower PSU, which now smells strongly of magic smoke.

It's clear that the PSU is shot, and I'm not touching it again- what are the odds that it took half the system with it? I have an old PSU that isn't sufficient to power the motherboard, lacking the 8-pin connector, but if I plug in the ATX connector alone the motherboard gets all its happy lights. This gives me some hope. Plus, if there's a short that means it can't emit massive component-baking waves of power behind it... right...?

More importantly, I don't know what brought on the short. It's most likely something terribly wrong in the PSU itself, but my friend who was nearby swears he saw something spark in the front of the case. Is it possible that something internal to a hard drive, etc. could have caused this? I can bring my drives back up one at a time when replacing the PSU, but is there anything I should test first to make sure I don't immediately toast another power supply?

Suggestions for removing electronic hardware-related curses are also welcome.

UNIVERSAL AC ADAPTERS AINT WHAT THEY USED TO BE (a question)

defmute — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:40:01 -0800

How do I buy a universal AC adapter from Radioshack? So I went into a Radioshack today and was all like "Ay, man. Gimme a universal ac adapter," and the lady was all like lookin at me like "Yeah, AAANNND?". Turns out that Radioshack (at least in downtown Philly) only carries universal adapters in two parts: (1) the block that you actually plug into the wall and (2), the little connection piece that goes into the hardware you're powering. At Radioshack, they sell the little connection piece in a variety of sizes of different "letter" types (i.e. "Y" size, "C" size, "G" size). So....

If I want to power a Korg Electribe ES-1, which adapter type (I know it's a 9V, but Radioshack has two different varieties of those) and connection piece type do I need to buy?

P.S. I lost the original adapter so please don't tell me hurtful type things like "I AM A THE NOOBZ"".

THANKS EVERYONE FILTER!

Experiences with bench power supplies?

jwells — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:41:15 -0800

What are your experiences with different brands and types of benchtop/lab power supplies? Do certain ones fail more often than others? Easier to fix? Better power conditioning? I'm a home experimenter. The dinky supply I bought to try to save space died a quick death and I'd like to avoid repeating that. I don't need anything crazy. 0-30V, 0-3 amps, accurate, small, and something that won't die. Are Tektronix (PS281?) worth the money? I have an oscilloscope from them. Instek, Extech, Protek, Velleman? Is there a specific one that is particularly popular and a good deal? Used and new are ok. Cost is a factor ($100USD?).

Why do my computer's power supplies keep dying?

astrochimp — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:45:55 -0800

My desktop computer's power supplies (three thus far) keep overheating and then fail permanently -- but only when they are plugged in through a power strip (i.e., everything is perfectly fine when the computer is plugged directly into a wall outlet). I finally realized that solution, though have no idea as to why it should make a difference. That is, if not plugged directly into an outlet, any power supply (PSU) in my computer will, within a few hours, overheat to the point of failure and, from that point on, will be non-functional for the rest of eternity. This has me befuddled, and so I ask:

Is this (a) a short and/or (b) a grounding issue? Or, more to the point: (c) why would the addition of a power strip [power bar] have such a negative impact, even if it is one of these issues? Do power bars ground things differently (I know nothing about these things)? (Also: this has happened using different power bars, so I'm assuming that it was not those particular power bars per se, but that it has something to do with power bars in general, plus the electrical oddities of my desktop computer.)

Power for my PC

malpractice — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:26:58 -0800

Help me to understand the brain-melting world of computer power supplies, why my new PC is having issues, and what I should be looking for in a new PSU... see within for the usual technical guff. Here's the system that I have:
AMD Phenom X3 8650 cpu
Asus M3N78 motherboard
Single 9800GT 512MB graphics card
4GB RAM
A couple of SATA HDD
Optical drive

Now, I thought that this Enermax 535W PSU would be enough to handle all that, but after plugging it all in and switching it on, I didn't even make it into POST. However, this Thermaltake 480W PSU gets things up and running all the way to Windows (though there are some stability issues as soon as I try to run anything too graphically taxing).

I've pretty much ruled out that either PSU could be faulty, as they both seem to run fine in a similar but lower spec PC.

I've tried looking over all the facts about voltages/amps/watts, and this talk about rails, and I think I've gotten a rough idea of how it all fits together, but my recent experience doesn't make much sense (the electrickery confuses me...)

So, the questions:
1.) Why did the 535W, dual 12V rail PSU not work, when the 480W, single 12V rail PSU did work?
2.) What should I be looking for in a new PSU?

Thanks in advance!

Fixing fan noise and lowering overall computer noise...

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:12:23 -0800

Homebrew PC is making a lot of noise — advice on how I should fix this? My homebrew is making a lot more noise than it usually does.

1. I suspect that it is one or more of the three fans: One fan for the case, one for the power supply, and one for the CPU.

2. In the course of repairing this, I would also like to dampen as much noise as possible — it was making a fair amount of noise before this issue started, and I use this machine as a video jukebox.

I don't have a lot of spare parts, unfortunately, and the nearest parts shop is about a two-hour trip.

Question A. Is there a safe, easy and inexpensive way to figure out where the noise is coming from, without buying one of each part?

(I can't seem to unplug the case and CPU fans without the computer throwing up error messages on boot-up, and I don't know how to disable the power supply fan.)

Question B. Once I replace the bad part, how can I dampen noise coming from the case?

This is a micro-ATX case. If you have a recommendation for a replacement case that is built to reduce noise as much as possible, I'd appreciate your advice there, too.

Using different model power supplies

czechmate — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:21:28 -0800

Can I use the power supply of a different type model? We have a SATO CX208TT thermal label printer (spec sheet here) and we can't find the power supply for it, and I've checked all sorts of stores near-by for a replacement or near replacement, and have had no luck. Either they don't have it, like Fry's or they've all been lower amps.
So I looked up the SATO CX200 and there's plenty of replacement power supplies out there, and they seem to have similar spec sheets. Can I buy one of those power supplies and use it for my CX208?
The reason I'm mainly confused is that underneath the machine it says 24V 3.4amp... but the spec sheet says differently?
This is the one I want to get.

Laptop power emergency

dpx.mfx — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:29:56 -0800

Laptop power question. I am away from home and need to power my Lenovo T61 (Nvida graphics card) laptop. I went to radio shack where they sold me an iGo "everywhere 85" adapter. It says it is compatible with the T60, but does not mention the T61. It has a "tip" that is the right size, and when I plug it in, it seems to charge just fine. The iGo website seems to think I need an "everywhere 130" adapter. I can't tell, or don't understand, what the difference is. Am i going to fry my laptop with the everywhere 85?