[SOLVED] Quick question about PS testing

Dec 4, 2021
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Hello, brand new, and not super hardware savvy, member here.

I recently ran into a problem whereby my media server would not power up. I am planning to renovate the server now. I purchased a little power supply tester box. When plugging in the MB connector everything checks out except the -5V LED does not light up. All other power connectors test out fine. I went online to see what this could mean and noticed that some more expensive, and presumably better, testers do not even report the -5V signal.

My question is: what does this even mean, and is this reason to get another PS? If I had a different tester, I might not even know about the -5V "problem".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Do you have a link to the PSU tester? As for the PSU you're testing it with, mind sharing the make and model of the unit and it's age? IN retrospect, we're also going to need the specs to the server(or it's innards) to understand if you're fine with the PSU you're working with. Please list the specs to your server like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis: if possible
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Solution
Hello, brand new, and not super hardware savvy, member here.

I recently ran into a problem whereby my media server would not power up. I am planning to renovate the server now. I purchased a little power supply tester box. When plugging in the MB connector everything checks out except the -5V LED does not light up. All other power connectors test out fine. I went online to see what this could mean and noticed that some more expensive, and presumably better, testers do not even report the -5V signal.

My question is: what does this even mean, and is this reason to get another PS? If I had a different tester, I might not even know about the -5V "problem".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The -5V rail has not been supported for at least 15 years. Any PSU made in the last decade does not have a -5V.
 
Dec 4, 2021
4
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Thank you both for the replies. This is the tester: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PH21FTG?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

The current system:
INTEL|CORE I3 550 Quad-Core 3.20Ghz
Supermicro MBD-X8SIL-F
4x 2G PC3 ECC memory
20x various HDD - total ~60TB JBOD array (UnRAID) - most 5400 RPM, but a few 7200
using embedded Intel graphics
Corsair TX650W
NORCO 4220 chassis

Soon to be:
INTEL|XEON E3-1245 V5 Quad-Core 3.5Ghz
Supermicro MBD-X11SSM-F
2x 16GB PC4 ECC memory

p.s. unfortunately, both of my multimeters are presently 50 miles away at a project I am working on, but thank you for the link.
 
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