What is this weird thing attached to my PSU? \ VOGONS

What is this weird thing attached to my PSU?

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First post, by ben_strange

Posted on 2018-02-18, 12:01

ben_strange Offline

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Location: Chippenham, Wiltshire

I’ve been trying to work out what this thing is for years... 😕

It was attached to the ATX 4 pin cable on the PSU from my Compaq Presario 6000. As it uses an AMD Athlon XP it’s not used. It looks like it’s got a capacitor in there. I cannot find anything like it anywhere on the internet.

Cheers,
Ben

Reply 1 of 6, by Auzner

Posted on 2018-02-18, 13:16

Auzner Offline

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It also has a 20W resistor. A 12V dummy load for that rail.

Reply 2 of 6, by Radical Vision

Posted on 2018-02-18, 13:25

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OEM parts in pre-build computers like this Compaq or HP, IBM< DELL or other brands many of them have strange connectors on the parts inside, that you will not find on other parts that are not OEM ones. So most of the time is better not to bother with OEM parts, if they work great just use them, and don`t waste time wondering why is that connector there, or other one, as maybe you will not even find clue why they did something...

Try looking for the manual of the workstation, or the PSU, or just find some info about it like picture of other machine, maybe there it will be the answer...

Mah systems retro, old, newer (Radical stuff)
W3680 4.5/ GA-x58 UD7/ R9 280x
K7 2.6/ NF7-S/ HD3850
IBM x2 P3 933/ GA-6VXD7/ Voodoo V 5.5K
Cmq P2 450/ GA-BX2000/ V2 SLI
IBM PC365
Cmq DeskPRO 486/33
IBM PS/2 Model 56
SPS IntelleXT 8088

Reply 3 of 6, by ben_strange

Posted on 2018-02-21, 00:16

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Cheers guys, i’ll Leave it out 😀

Reply 4 of 6, by jamesp15

Posted on 2018-02-21, 00:25

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Dummy load to put some load on the 12v rail, may be required to get more stable voltages on other rails depending on the PSU design.

Reply 5 of 6, by alvaro84

Posted on 2018-02-21, 03:58

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jamesp15 wrote:
Dummy load to put some load on the 12v rail, may be required to get more stable voltages on other rails depending on the PSU design.

OMG, they're officially wasting energy! 😲

Shame on us, doomed from the start
May God have mercy on our dirty little hearts

Reply 6 of 6, by Cyberdyne

Posted on 2018-02-21, 10:46

Cyberdyne Offline

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Maybe a last minute fixup, some PSU-s do not like when no load is applied. I think they feared that if you start the computer, some setups do not have inital 12V load.

I am aroused about any X86 motherboard that has full functional ISA slot. I think i have problem. Not really into that original (Turbo) XT,286,386 and CGA/EGA stuff. So just a DOS nut.
PS. If I upload RAR, it is a 16-bit DOS RAR Version 2.50.

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