PSU motherboard connector

ross ha escrito:

You didn=B4t provide us with enough information. What motherboard do you have? What CPU your computer uses? Is your computer a clone, or a DELL?

If you have a connector that is fairly standard, and you change the pinout, you risk getting in trouble when someone connects up that power supply to their motherboard assuming that common connector is indeed using the common pinout.

Most people won't notice the color coding, but will make sure the connector is what they need.

Thus, changes are pretty high that the coloring of the wiring won't mean a thing, but the power supply is using the standard connector pinout. If they didn't want to be standard, they'd use a different connector.

If you want to be sure, then put a load on the power supply, a hard drive for instance because you can be even more certain that the drive connectors are standard, and then start up the power supply. Use a voltmeter to make sure the voltages are what they should be on the pins they should be.

Michael

Michael Black ha escrito:

Well, Dell computers in the Pentium 3 era used a dedicated PSU with a conventional ATX connector but the pin assignment was different from the standard. They made an arrangement with Intel to get motherboards using that non standard ATX connector.

I wouldn=B4t be so sure. Better to be safe than sorry.

The guy at Maplins is right. The pin out of the connector is standard not the wire colour.

Graham

Really ? Good Lord ! That's *insane*

Graham

As you noted previously, insanity. However, insanity is not precluded. Google for "Dell nonstandard" for a slice of the horror stories. There is indeed a standard connecter and pinout. Some manufacturers apparently use the standard connector but a non-standard pinout. Clever, eh?

That's very interesting and I'm grateful for finding out.

We have a Dell in the office that blew its PSU a few yrs ago. It was just out of the first year warranty so we paid Dell to get an onsite extended warranty so as to get it replaced. For reasons of Dell's incompetence it took them nearly a week to do this since they initially 'diagnosed' a motherboard fault over the phone although it obviously wasn't so to us.

Anyway, I remember thinking it would have been quicker and cheaper to fit a generic psu but I'm glad we didn't now. Only reason was we thought it looked non-standard when we saw it but I forget why.

Graham

It 'is' true. It was pretty a pretty hot topic at the time on motherboard ng's.

Why did they do it?

Should be obvious: they wanted a captive customer base for replacements. In this case, the poor semi-informed dude who thought he only needed a replacement supply soon found out he also needed a new motherboard...and both had to be purchased exclusively from Dell.

jak

Actually when you get to the point where the magic Dell smoke has escaped from the mobo *and* the PSU, their hold on you has diminished dramatically in a desktop box.

On Mon, 29 May 2006 02:52:10 GMT, Rich Webb put finger to keyboard and composed:

I recently tried to use a 4-pin HD power cable that I'd salvaged from an Apricot (?) some years ago. I noticed that the red and yellow wires were interchanged. I've heard that Commodore used to do things like this, too.

- Franc Zabkar

"ross" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

Do you know what version of ATX the power supplies are compliant with? (WHAT? ATX has versions????? Stupid but true.) At about version 2.0, the ATX motherboard connector was changed from a 20-pin to 24-pin system. One pin was also moved.

If you have standard ATX connectors on your motherboard and power supply, you should be able to use either without difficulty. If they're non- standard you may run in to problems.

My advice is to save yourself the time and grief and purchase a power supply tester. It will easily allow you to see good and bad, from both your old and new power supplies.

Puckdropper

In addition, you may take a look at different ATX pinouts