Question How to check if I ruined my PSU

ncurl99

Honorable
Mar 1, 2018
4
0
10,510
I stupidly plugged in a 6 pin to SATA power adapter to my PSU with the PC off and realized it wasn’t the right and unplugged it. PSU was still switched on, but PC wasn’t turned on before taking the adapter out. I left and came back a few hours and found out that the breaker had tripped. I flipped it back and my PC turned on and ran. I’d had issues with it already and still have some that I’ll post about in another thread.

How can I see if I ruined this PSU? My PC still runs a few weeks later but I have Kernel 41 issues and screen flickering, though not as bad as swapping the motherboard for a spare. I don’t think I can physically see any caps or anything internally. Will a PSU tester from Amazon tell me anything worthwhile? I should have access to a multimeter and can check it out with that if I know what to look for. Thanks!
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
How to check if I ruined my PSU
You source(borrow, not buy) another PSU and test your entire build to see if the issue you've stated persists.

The other thing to do is to always make sure you've got the right connector populated with the right harness. PSU testers that merely jump the green and black wires on the 24pin are moot. You need something like this Passmark PSU tester but it's akin to buying 3 high end PSU's.
 
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ncurl99

Honorable
Mar 1, 2018
4
0
10,510
How to check if I ruined my PSU
You source(borrow, not buy) another PSU and test your entire build to see if the issue you've stated persists.

The other thing to do is to always make sure you've got the right connector populated with the right harness. PSU testers that merely jump the green and black wires on the 24pin are moot. You need something like this Passmark PSU tester but it's akin to buying 3 high end PSU's.
That’s what I was afraid of but exactly what I needed to know. I have another lying around but I’ll have to see if I have all of the cables
 

DSzymborski

Curmudgeon Pursuivant
Moderator
Is the random PSU you have floating around even safe for your build? What is the PC involved and what were the exact PSUs? Unless you're running an extremely basic office rig, seeing an adapter is almost always a giant red flag; anything even halfway competent should have enough plugs for any situation.
 

DaleH

Notable
Mar 24, 2023
575
63
970
I stupidly plugged in a 6 pin to SATA power adapter to my PSU with the PC off and realized it wasn’t the right and unplugged it. PSU was still switched on, but PC wasn’t turned on before taking the adapter out. I left and came back a few hours and found out that the breaker had tripped. I flipped it back and my PC turned on and ran. I’d had issues with it already and still have some that I’ll post about in another thread.

How can I see if I ruined this PSU? My PC still runs a few weeks later but I have Kernel 41 issues and screen flickering, though not as bad as swapping the motherboard for a spare. I don’t think I can physically see any caps or anything internally. Will a PSU tester from Amazon tell me anything worthwhile? I should have access to a multimeter and can check it out with that if I know what to look for. Thanks!
What you need to know to test your power supply can be found here: https://www.smpspowersupply.com/connectors-pinouts.html . Of course the best test is to substitute a known good one.
 

ncurl99

Honorable
Mar 1, 2018
4
0
10,510
Is the random PSU you have floating around even safe for your build? What is the PC involved and what were the exact PSUs? Unless you're running an extremely basic office rig, seeing an adapter is almost always a giant red flag; anything even halfway competent should have enough plugs for any situation.
5800X3D, MSI B550 Tomahawk, Asrock Taichi 6800XT, Thermaltake Grand 850W. I switched to only M.2 and my RGB takes SATA power and I didn’t want one big cable just for that. The extra PSU is a Seasonic 750W Gold, I just might not have enough GPU power cables for that one
What you need to know to test your power supply can be found here: https://www.smpspowersupply.com/connectors-pinouts.html . Of course the best test is to substitute a known good one.
I need to see if I have enough GPU power cables for my spare, I’ll try to borrow one if not. But that’s a great resource, thanks for that
 

ncurl99

Honorable
Mar 1, 2018
4
0
10,510
5800X3D, MSI B550 Tomahawk, Asrock Taichi 6800XT, Thermaltake Grand 850W. I switched to only M.2 and my RGB takes SATA power and I didn’t want one big cable just for that. The extra PSU is a Seasonic 750W Gold, I just might not have enough GPU power cables for that one

I need to see if I have enough GPU power cables for my spare, I’ll try to borrow one if not. But that’s a great resource, thanks for that
I switched to my other PSU and the issue persists, so it’s probably fine