Pro tip: always check the PSU before blaming the motherboard

I was at a client's office in Omaha last Tuesday, pulling my hair out over a machine that wouldn't post. New RAM, reseated the CPU, swapped the GPU... nothing worked for two hours. Turned out the power supply was only putting out 10 volts on the 12v rail. Now I always reach for my multimeter first before I start swapping parts. Has anyone else wasted time on a build only to find it was the PSU all along?

2 comments

2 Comments

skyler51629d ago

Ripped a perfectly good motherboard out of a client's rig last spring before realizing the PSU was the culprit. That's when you learn to grab that multimeter first unless you enjoy eating crow for lunch. My wife still brings up the time I spent three hours swapping parts on a dead machine only to find a loose 24 pin connector. At this point I've got a sixth sense for bad power supplies, but that's probably just Stockholm syndrome talking. Your mileage may vary, but I keep a cheap PSU tester in my bag now for the sake of my own dignity.

matthewp5229d agoMost Upvoted

Add a second cheap PSU tester to your bag in case the first one dies on you, @skyler516, learned that one the hard way at 2am in a server closet... now I've got testers scattered everywhere like emergency flashlights.