How to turn on the power supply directly. How to start a computer power supply without a system unit and without additional devices? Why you can’t turn on a computer power supply without load

The system case is an important component of the entire computer. It is in the case that the “production workshop” of the entire computer is located, so to speak. It is in the case that the motherboard is installed, and the RAM, video card, processor and all kinds of wires and cables are already “hung” on it. Moreover, the power supply is located in a separate place inside the case, as well as the hard drive and drive.

Modern cases look quite attractive, menacing, aggressive, unusual... The developers have enough imagination, which means that ordinary buyers can choose from a huge assortment. But not only do the current buildings have an attractive appearance, they also have “working” advantages. Such advantages are the USB connectors, as well as microphone and headphone connectors on the front of the case, which in turn means that we don’t need to crawl under the table and get to the back panel of the case every time we need to connect a flash drive. I think everyone will agree that these are, in principle, trifles, but still, it’s more pleasant to just insert a flash drive in front and start working.

But, unfortunately, there are cases when some parts of the computer case fail. We are talking about the notorious POWER button, which is available on absolutely every case. Over the course of long-term use, this button may simply fail, for example, stop pressing or, on the contrary, sink deep into the case, and no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to turn on the computer. What to do in such situations? If you don’t really need a computer, then it’s better to call a repairman and wait with peace of mind until he repairs everything, paying him a certain amount of money for it.

If you need to use the computer quite urgently, then perhaps you should use the following advice.

First, you need to find a flat surface and carefully place the system unit so that the left cover is facing you, while you should not disconnect all the wires in order to complete everything faster, but you should make sure that these wires are not strained. In addition, a prerequisite must be that the computer is disconnected from the power supply, as they say, you never know. Next, what needs to be done is to remove the left housing cover. In modern cases, this usually does not require any great effort, so this should not be a problem.

After removing the cover, a stunning picture will appear in front of you. You will see everything that at one time you paid a round sum for, and that usually works peacefully, making an innocent noise, and that which now does not want to “start up”. Our attention should be primarily focused on the multi-colored wires that run from the front of the case to the motherboard. There can be a lot of such wiring, and it’s not surprising, because there are also connected POWER buttons And RESET button, and USB ports, along with audio outputs. So, at the next step, we may need a little knowledge of English, which many received at school, because on the wiring themselves, as well as on the motherboard, near the connection of these wiring, it should be written what they mean. For example, you can take USB ports. On the motherboard itself, near the connection, there should be an inscription USB1, USB2, etc. This means that the wires connected to these connectors are nothing more than USB connection ports.

But we shouldn’t forget about our problem, and this means that we need to look for POWER postings(usually these are two wires woven together). Typically, the connectors to which the power or reset buttons are connected are located on the lower right side of the motherboard:

On most motherboards, these connectors are the same and consist of 9 pins arranged in two rows. The last two pins in a short row of 4 plugs are responsible for turning the computer on/off.

Here are connector diagrams for the most popular motherboard manufacturers.

MSI

AsRock

Asus

Biostar

Epox

Foxconn

Gigabyte

Intel

Once these two wires have been found, you should find where they are connected to the motherboard. Once the connection location has been discovered, it is worth carefully disconnecting these wires so that the small plugs are exposed.

That's it, now we're almost done. The final step is to turn on the computer; for this we need an ordinary stationery pen, preferably one that writes boldly. Once you have found such a pen, you can connect your computer to the power supply, and then carefully run the tip of the rod over these exposed needles. Or in other words, you just need to close these contacts. After these steps, the computer should come to life and the download will begin. If nothing happens, then you should repeat the procedure, but close these needles quickly enough.

Thanks to these simple steps, you can start the computer without any problems, but this should not be neglected, and it is better to quickly repair the start button on the case to avoid unnecessary problems.

Attention: Neither the author of this article nor the administration of this site bears any responsibility for possible problems that may arise when turning on the computer in this way. You will perform all of the above actions at your own peril and risk, and will be solely responsible for possible problems that are not described in this article.

Hello, dear blog readers. I bring to your attention an article on the topic “ Turn on the power supply without the motherboard”. Breakdowns that occur during computer operation require elimination. If the computer does not start after pressing the power button, the likely cause of the malfunction may be a faulty motherboard or power supply. It will not be practical to buy both components; initially you need to check which part has failed.

In this article you will learn how check the functionality of the power supply.

There are several other reasons why you need to make starting the power supply without a computer, namely in the case of using two power supplies in one case, if it is necessary to check the functionality of new circuits and, of course, starting the power supply to check its serviceability.

Fig 1. Power supply.

A computer power supply is a secondary power source that provides computer nodes with uninterruptible power supply and converts the mains voltage to a specified value. In a way, using a power supply stabilizes and protects your computer from minor power outages. And the fan of this device, which starts working after turning on the power supply, is part of the cooling system of the internal parts of the system unit.

The POWER button on the computer is connected to the motherboard, which is powered by the power supply. And it would seem that it is impossible to turn on the power supply outside of this circuit (since the power supply does not start without a load). But that's not true.

Turns out, run power supply without motherboard does not present any great difficulties. This is easy to do if you have a computer at hand on which you can run the power supply, a paper clip and tweezers and follow these instructions:

1. Any operation involving disconnecting and connecting wires and connectors must be carried out with the computer turned off, the network cable disconnected and the system unit cover removed. Do not forget about safety measures, since some installation elements will be energized.

2. Disconnect all connectors that connect the power supply to the motherboard and other devices. Since the power supply can only be started under load, it means you need to leave one of the devices connected (hard drive or DVD/CD drive). The picture shows main power supply connectors

Fig 2. Power supply connectors.

Where:

1 – connector for connecting a floppy drive. Turn it off.

2 – ATA( IDE)-connector. Connects power to an ATA hard drive or optical drive. We leave one connector connected to the connector on the hard drive or drive (DVD/CD).

3 – SATA connector. Connects power to the S ATA hard drive. Turn it off.

4 – ATX 12V connector (connects power to the processor). Turn it off.

5 – connector (main 8-pin and additional 6-pin) power supply for PCI-E cards. Turn it off.

6 – 24-pin ATX connector (connects power to the motherboard). Turn it off.

7 – if there are other connectors, we also disconnect them.

To start the power supply we need 24-pin connectorATX(see picture).

Figure 3. 24-pin connector pinsATX

3. The connector that connected the motherboard and the power supply is equipped with pins PS-ON and GND. Where the PS-ON pin is switching on, it is the 16th pin of the connector, on which most often the wire is green (less often this wire is gray, since Chinese manufacturers confuse the English words green and gray). And GND is ground, this is the fifth wire in the connector, which is always black. In order to make sure that the wires were chosen correctly and starting the power supply will not damage the power supply itself, you need to look at the inscriptions that are on the power supply board near the points where the wires are soldered. You can turn on the power supply by connecting the PS-ON and GND wires and applying voltage to the power supply.

4. In order to starting the power supply occurred immediately after power was applied to it, the PS-ON and GND wires must remain connected. But it’s better if there is a switch between these wires and when you turn on the power supply, you yourself will control the power supply.

5. In the case when it is necessary to use the power supply for long-term operation, and not for testing purposes, you need to take into account the fact that the power indicated on the power supply is peak. If you need to turn on the power supply for the purpose of its long-term operation, then you need to use average power.

If you need to check the functionality of the power supply, but you don’t have a PC at hand, there is a simple way to carry out this manipulation. You only need a piece of wire. How to turn on the power supply without a computer? Let's answer this question.

We turn on the power supply without third-party components

Now all power supplies are ATX standard. They are not intended to be turned on without other components, since they are waiting for a start signal from the motherboard, but such an operation can be carried out.

To do this you need:

• First, take a small piece of wire and strip the ends.

• Then we pay attention to the power supply connector. The essence of our manipulation is to close the PS-ON and GND pins. These are the green and black wires, the first is number 14 on the twenty-pin connector, and the second is always located nearby. You can also pay attention to the color markings, but the Chinese sometimes confuse the wires, so it’s better to clarify the pinout.

• Now we close these contacts with a pre-prepared wire, connect the power supply to the network and turn it on. The power supply will start, the cooler will start working. There are systems with load regulation, then the fan will not spin without connected devices. In this case, attaching the optical drive will help ensure that the device is in working order.

Helpful information

If you need longer startup times, take two pieces of wire, strip them, and solder them to a power switch you previously purchased or removed from your PSU. Connect the remaining free ends of the wires to the previously designated connector contacts. Now the power supply can be turned on by pressing a key.

What if it doesn't turn on?

If the computer refuses to work, you need to check the presence of power at the power supply input. If it is there, even when the computer is turned off there will be a voltage of +5V. This is easy to check by arming yourself with a multimeter and checking the ninth pin (purple wire). If it is not there, then there are technical problems. There are many of them - from a cable break to a short circuit at the output; with such a problem it is better to go to a service center.

There are times in life when it is necessary turn on the power supply without connecting it to the motherboard. There are several reasons for this inclusion. For example, check the functionality of the power supply or find out the noise level of its cooler.

Now all power supplies are of the ATX standard. Such units have several “pigtails” with SATA and Molex connectors for connecting drives, several connectors for supplying power to the video card, 4-pin or 8-pin power supply to the processor, as well as 24-pin (possibly 20-pin) power supply to the motherboard.

In addition, there is a latch key on the connector for connecting to the motherboard. So next to it there is a black wire with a hexagonal contact. If you turn the cable with the locking key down and count the fifth contact from right to left (can be labeled COM or GND), then this will be exactly it. Near this COM pin there is a green wire, in the same row. This is the only wire and can be called on the cable as PS-ON. If in doubt, turn the cable again with the locking key down and count the fourth contact from right to left.

This method of finding the desired contact is universal and does not depend on the number of contacts on the cable. Whether it's 24-pin or 20-pin. By the way, there are power cables with detachable 4-pin connectors. They are also labeled 20+4-pin.

It may be that you have a Chinese power supply from an unknown manufacturer and the green wire is missing. Don't worry. The order of the wires does not change from this.

Now you need to take a small piece of wire or paperclip, expose its edges. One end is connected to the fourth pin contact, and the other to the fifth pin contact. Although you can connect another contact to any of those that have a black wire. For example, to the third pin contact.

Now you can turn on the power supply by connecting it to the network. The power supply will work immediately. You will know this by the rotation of its cooler. If the power supply has a controlled cooling system, in which the cooler does not rotate at low loads, then try connecting a cooler from the system unit or an optical drive. This will also help ensure that the power supply is in working order.

How to turn on a computer power supply without a computer?

It can work in this mode for no more than 5 minutes. After all, this mode of operation, without load, should be short. So before connecting to the network, still connect either a cooler or a disk drive, or a hard drive. Check what worries you and turn it off. Read more interesting tips in the section

It happens that it becomes necessary to turn on the PSU (power supply) of the computer without the participation of the computer itself, or more precisely, without connecting to the motherboard.

Basically, this need arises when, for example, it is necessary to check the health of the power supply or in order to power some device with a voltage of 5 V or 12 V.

I once had to use an ATX power supply as a power supply for my D-Link modem.

You can also use the ATX unit as a power supply for an old radio and for much more.

Turning on the power supply without load

I will describe two options.

First way

In order to start the ATX unit, you simply need to short-circuit the green and any black wires on the power supply connector (PS-ON and GND pins, respectively, see the figure below).

This is what it looks like in real life:

It also happens that on some power supplies these wires may be of different colors (you understand - the Chinese), so I recommend taking a closer look at which wire you have as the PS-ON output.

Second way

If you don’t have a piece of wiring at hand, then the same steps can be done using a regular paper clip. We close all the same colors of wires.

Read also:

Why can't you turn on a computer power supply without a load?

Now a few precautions.

If you don't do this, the voltage conversion circuit may fail and require expensive repairs. ATX power supply repair, and maybe its complete replacement due to the economic irrationality of repairs.

By the way, it happens that some power supplies simply may not start without load.