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Testing a PSU manually, good idea?

T

ThatsAgood1jay

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 21, 2006
Messages
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I need to test my PSU to see if it is giving proper output to my video cards (i am having an issue where insuficient power could be causing system failure) I googled how to do this with a voltmeter and found this guide.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/power-supply-test-multimeter.htm

I was wondering if this was a good idea/good guide to do it. I would just buy a PSU tester, but if it turns out the PSU is ok, i'm going to need a new GPU, of which will just about empty my bank account. So i am hoping to just do it with the multimeter and save some cash.

Any advice / suggestions?
 
I would just buy a PSU tester
Click to expand...

These are of very little value alone since they usually do not apply a load to each rail and they are usually not very accurate. I use these only to turn on the power supply and pretty much ignore their readings. Then use a volt meter to test the outputs under load (attach some hard drives or other devices that will use power). That will not test the 3.3V output since HDs generally do not draw from 3.3V supply. Remember that most power supplies will not have accurate voltage readings under 0 load. Although you may as well do the testing with the PC powered on to get more accurate readings under more realistic load conditions.
 
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It's much better to test the PSU while it's connected to the computer and running a CPU-intensive or graphics-intensive program, which will load down the PSU by roughly 100W - 400W, or far more than what any hand-held PSU tester can do. Then use a multimeter to measure the voltages at each power ocnnector because the readings you get from the BIOS or any monitoring program won't be accurate. Cheap digital meters, like the kind Harbor Freight often features for $3-7 with coupon (some coupons make it free with a minmum purchase of $0.01, $9.95, or $19.95) are fine for this and are accurate to better than 1%. Also a multimeter will let you measure the voltages of the CPU core, Vdimm, PCI-E, CMOS battery, and your car battery and also let you test cables and switches.
 
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