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Step 8Troubleshooting
# If you are not sure of the power supply, test it in the computer before you harvest. Does the computer power on? Does the PSU fan come on? You can place your voltmeter leads into an extra plug (for disk drives). It should read close to 5V (between red and black wires). A supply that you have pulled may look dead because it does not have a load on its outputs and the enable output may not be grounded (green wire).
# If the LED light does not come on, check to see if the fan has come on. If the fan in the power supply is on, then the LED may have been wired wrong (the positive and negative leads of the LED may have been switched). Open the power supply case and flip the purple or gray wires on the LED around (make sure that you do not bypass the LED resistor).
# ATX power supplies are "switch-mode supplies"; they must always have some load to operate properly. The power resistor is there to "waste" energy, which will give off heat; therefore it should be mounted on the metal wall for proper cooling (you can also pick up a heatsink to mount on your resistor, just make sure the heatsink dosn't short anything out). If you will always have something connected to the supply when it is on, you may leave out the power resistor.
# You can add a 3.3 volt output to the supply by hooking the orange wires to a post (making sure the brown wire remains connected to an orange wire) but beware that they share the same power output as the 5 volt, and thus you must not exceed the total power output of these two outputs.
# If you don't feel like soldering nine wires together to a binding post (as is the case with the ground wires) you can snip them at the PCB. 1-3 wires should be fine. This includes cutting any wires that you don't ever plan on using.
# The +5VSB line is +5V standby (so the motherboard's power buttons, Wake on LAN, etc. work). This typically provides 500-1000 mA of current, even when the main DC outputs are "off". It might be useful to drive an LED from this as an indication that the mains are on.
Options: You don't need the switch in the front, just connect the green and a black wire together. The PSU will be controlled by the rear switch, if there is one. You also don't need the LED, just ignore the gray wire. Cut it short and insulate it from the rest.
# If the LED light does not come on, check to see if the fan has come on. If the fan in the power supply is on, then the LED may have been wired wrong (the positive and negative leads of the LED may have been switched). Open the power supply case and flip the purple or gray wires on the LED around (make sure that you do not bypass the LED resistor).
# ATX power supplies are "switch-mode supplies"; they must always have some load to operate properly. The power resistor is there to "waste" energy, which will give off heat; therefore it should be mounted on the metal wall for proper cooling (you can also pick up a heatsink to mount on your resistor, just make sure the heatsink dosn't short anything out). If you will always have something connected to the supply when it is on, you may leave out the power resistor.
# You can add a 3.3 volt output to the supply by hooking the orange wires to a post (making sure the brown wire remains connected to an orange wire) but beware that they share the same power output as the 5 volt, and thus you must not exceed the total power output of these two outputs.
# If you don't feel like soldering nine wires together to a binding post (as is the case with the ground wires) you can snip them at the PCB. 1-3 wires should be fine. This includes cutting any wires that you don't ever plan on using.
# The +5VSB line is +5V standby (so the motherboard's power buttons, Wake on LAN, etc. work). This typically provides 500-1000 mA of current, even when the main DC outputs are "off". It might be useful to drive an LED from this as an indication that the mains are on.
Options: You don't need the switch in the front, just connect the green and a black wire together. The PSU will be controlled by the rear switch, if there is one. You also don't need the LED, just ignore the gray wire. Cut it short and insulate it from the rest.
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