PSU to Car Amp

I recently got a power supply out of a Dell Optiplex Desktop. I hooked the PSU up to my car amp so I could play my games through the subwoofer. Ok there is a green wire and a black wire I spliced and twirled together. This lets the PSU turn on without having to be plugged into the motherboard. After this you connect one of the yellow wires from the PSU to the 12volt on the amp. Then you connect a black wire to the ground on the amp. Well the problem I'm having is when I turn the power supply on the fan starts going and then I see the light on the amp come on a good sign. Then the amp and power supply just turn off. But the wierd thing is that I can hold the green and black wires together until the amp start to come on. Then I just tap the two wires together and the PSU and amp run without stopping. It's like I have to get the PSU started up before it can get enough power to start everything. Also when I turn the amp up to loud it shuts off and I don't turn it up that loud. I'm thinking the power supply might just not be powerful enough. If anyone know please comment. Thanks

The 12 volts coming from the PSU is NOT enough to handle the surge the amp is creating. Use a car battery.

Agreed. I'd switch to an AV receiver to do the amplification.

A car battery would drain less then 15min hooking an amp up to it. I have seen alot of people hook them up to a new computer power supply that have a 'single rail'. It needs to be around the same take of amps that the amp takes in.

i have a relatively weak amp in my car...kicker zx450.2 and it uses 2 30amp fuses so i dont know what i'm contributing to the conversation.

yea its not enogh power from the psu to power the amp..2 years ago in high school i made a project to use computer psu's to create a car audio system..and use it inside a house or off a/c currnet...it worked well..but dont forget the remote needs a 12v yellow wire too..otherwise it wont turn on at all..and for my psu's i just sautered (dunno how to spell it )the green and black together..no harm done..but remind you it is dangerous to be doin this..i actually used this system for a while for my room..then one day..somehow overheated and started a fire..i put it out before it caused any dmg..but it can really burn down you house if your not careful and take all the precautions. gl

leetskeet said:

i have a relatively weak amp in my car...kicker zx450.2 and it uses 2 30amp fuses so i dont know what i'm contributing to the conversation.

Click to expand...

kicker is a really good brand. They underrate their amps, soo its probably putting around 500 watts rms.

Oh yeah, watch out for ohms if you decide to hook it up to a home stereo/amp. The stereo/amp could overheat.