VOGONS


First post, by waterbeesje

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Today I took some time to test my spare power supplies that I didn't test in the past three years.
Just a basic check with this hardware:
- motherboard Asus Medion 2001
- Celly 733
- 128MB pc100 (was on top of the stack)
- TNT2 N
- Some random hard disk (Excelstor)

Among the 6 tested PSU units was an Aopen fsp235 PSU. Not too special but enough weight to be an ok PSU.
I connected it and got these values:
+5.08v on the 5v output.
+11.73v on the 12v output.
-12.10v on -12v rail
+3.34v for 3.3v
+5.09v on 5vsb
-5v is absent.

The +12v rail makes me question if this is ok or I should ditch the PSU. I know everything over 11.4v is in spec, but my feelings tell me this is should be higher with this tiny load.

Other PSUs all got between +12.1v and +12.3v output.

What should I do with it?

Stuck at 10MHz...

Reply 1 of 6, by Horun

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Stable 12V is the important part, If in doubt hook up a couple more old IDE or scsi drives for more load and recheck the +12v, if it is still ~11.7 to 11.8v it is fine.
In 1998 the Intel ATX spec called for: "Table 3: DC Output Voltage Regulation:
Output - Range - Min. - Nom. - Max.
+12VDC* ±5% +11.40 +12.00 +12.60
* At +12 V peak loading, regulation at the +12VDC output can go to ±10%."

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 2 of 6, by waterbeesje

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Voltage on my multimeter varied between 11.69 and 11.73 volts. The lower voltage was when something happened, ie when system post was going on, when switching from 2D to 3D with 3Dmark. But recovered soon.

I'll test again some time and attach some extra drivers to see what happens.

Stuck at 10MHz...

Reply 3 of 6, by shamino

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If you find that it is stable under increased load, then it might just need adjustment. Some PSUs have adjustment pots inside.
I've never adjusted one, but it might be better to only move it with the power off or with some truly garbage hardware since you don't know how smoothly it will react to the pot.

Reply 5 of 6, by waterbeesje

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I could look if there are some pods present if the voltages will drop to much with more load. Just hooking upa few more hard disks will do the trick 😀

About the ripple: I don't have anything pointing that way as I didn't notice any instability. It ran fine through the tests. Also I don't have the equipment to test it.

Stuck at 10MHz...

Reply 6 of 6, by Horun

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The Aopen fsp235 PSU specs mains max as 3.3v @ 14A, 5v @ 22A, 12v+@ 8A (for 96w on 12v) from what I can find. So yes adding 2 more old HD's that draw 1A each on the 12v each plus your current board and stuff should load the PSU to near 5A or more or 60w+ on the 12v which would be mid power point and a good place to check it. I keep a couple old HP big scsi HD's with bad sectors around for these type tests. Many of the IDE draw only .5A on the 12v but read the labels as they should tell you.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun