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PSU paper clip trick -- READ THIS

A

aL Mac

Gawd
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
949
I've done the paper click quite a few times to test a psu, or a fan or something to see if it works. Green to black, even the same pin. Well I am at work and they were giving away free computer parts and I grabbed an Antec 300W psu I was going to take, and I decided to check it if was good, and did the trick, had it on the correct wires...

When I plugged it in sparks flew, and it burnt up bad (for somreason I felt this would happen so I was ready to pull the plug).. I know I had the trick on the correct wires, but I wouldn't use that paperclip trick again.

What do you think?
 
You really need to put a load on power supplies to test them... almost all power supplies aren't stable if their outputs aren't loaded. So the paper clip trick doesn't always work.

Perhaps the Antec 300W goes *very* unstable and explodes when unloaded, but I doubt any company would ever make a power supply that bad... probably just a bad supply to begin with.
 
gee said:
You really need to put a load on power supplies to test them... almost all power supplies aren't stable if their outputs aren't loaded. So the paper clip trick doesn't always work.

Perhaps the Antec 300W goes *very* unstable and explodes when unloaded, but I doubt any company would ever make a power supply that bad... probably just a bad supply to begin with.
Click to expand...
Or someone with a twisted sense of humour recoloured the wires ;)
 
To eliminate the possibility of causing damage by hooking the paperclips to the wrong wires, use a resistor rated for about 100-500 ohms to connect them.

I tested both old and new versions of the 300W SmartPower without any load connected, and neither one was damaged from this. But the older version had several low voltage electrolytic capacitors that were bulging, and maybe yours also had that problem, too.
 
An Antec that blows up?!?! NEVAR!!! :D

Seriously, though. Most decent power supplies these day will allow you to ground the turn on lead without detrimental damage. Older SMPS's actually REQUIRED a minimum load on them if you're going to power them up.

I usually do the paper clip trick when I get some assclown that insists that the power supply "doesn't turn on at all." Of course, after the paper clip trick, they ask you why you did that because all they did was flip the switch on the back of the PSU. :rolleyes:

If you KNOW you had the green and black and it blew up, then there was something wrong with that power supply to begin with. Better it blew up with just a paper clip stuck in it rather than a bunch of expensive PC components.

And I've shorted 12V to ground, 5 to 12V, 3.3V to 5V, etc. over the years and the same power supplies that are decent enough to not require a dummy load on them to turn them on with a paperclip are the same power supplies that trip when there's a short on one of the rails. ;)
 
thanks for the replies guys.

Heh I'm sure no one recolored the wires, it came from the plant I work in. We were throwing away hundreds of hard drives, cases, monitors, industrial flat screens, psus, boxes of cpus.

When I went to plug it in I kept feeling like it would blow up, even though I've always done the trick and never had a problem. When I plugged it in it made a loud crackling, sparks flew, and scared the heck out of me (took me a second to realize I didn't get zapped) not to mention an electrical engineer looked over at my desk like what is going on?

Oh well I picked up two more PSU's to take home with me.
 
larrymoencurly said:
To eliminate the possibility of causing damage by hooking the paperclips to the wrong wires, use a resistor rated for about 100-500 ohms to connect them.

I tested both old and new versions of the 300W SmartPower without any load connected, and neither one was damaged from this. But the older version had several low voltage electrolytic capacitors that were bulging, and maybe yours also had that problem, too.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I think this is very good advice, thanks.
 
gee said:
Perhaps the Antec 300W goes *very* unstable and explodes when unloaded, but I doubt any company would ever make a power supply that bad... probably just a bad supply to begin with.
Click to expand...


How would such a supply get regulatory approval?
 
I found another antec psu exactly like it, maybe I should try again? hehehe, I'd prefer not trying to blow myself up.
 
mikeblas said:
How would such a supply get regulatory approval?
Click to expand...
You can make a product that's designed to blow up the moment you plug it into the wall, and it can still get UL/CE/etc approval. As long as the input is properly fused, the line harmonics/power factor/etc fall within spec, EMI/RFI radiation is within limits and grounding is set up properly so you can't zap yourself off the case... It'll pass.

Something tells me you won't be able to write "ATX 2.03 approved" on the side of it though. ;)
 
I got my first Antec for free because it didn't work. I'm not sure what was wrong with it, but Antec/Channel Well circuit boards are built with almost all the smaller wire leads bent over, causing many of them to seem to touch, and after I pried up or cut several leads, the PSU worked fine.
 
Safer method:
Get out your solder iron and do a quick & dirty solder job on a standard 100 watt light bulb. When PSU is turned-on, should be nice bright light but only leave it plugged-in for a couple of seconds or bulb may blow.

T_T
 
Unless your computer PSU puts out over 120VDC, you're not gonna blow a light bulb.
 
truteck said:
Safer method:
Get out your solder iron and do a quick & dirty solder job on a standard 100 watt light bulb. When PSU is turned-on, should be nice bright light but only leave it plugged-in for a couple of seconds or bulb may blow.

T_T
Click to expand...
Huh? What are you talking about? Solder the 100 watt light bulb to what, with what connections? To the PSU's input? In series, or in parallel?

Safer method for what, exactly?
 
mikeblas said:
Huh? What are you talking about? Solder the 100 watt light bulb to what, with what connections? To the PSU's input? In series, or in parallel?

Safer method for what, exactly?
Click to expand...
I think he meant using the bulb as a kind of load (big resistor) on the +12 V rail.
 
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