I'm replacing a dead supply from a micron millennium P6
machine.

The original supply is a 250W atx supply --- it looks
standard.

Should I replace with a 250W supply, or should I consider
getting a 300W supply?

The machine (in a minitower case) has its original
equipment --- floppy, cd-rom, original hard drive,
video card, sound card, modem and nic.

To this I've added a second hard drive (seagate, ~3Gb),
and am adding a third hard drive (a leftover ~2Gv seagate
from a decommissioned machine).

All the stuff is quite standard --- nothing noteworthy for
its power consumption.

So I'm adding two hard drives to the original package.
Should I expect 250W to be enough?

Thanks.

(BTW, I verified that the supply is dead.  I found the atx
spec.  Pin 14 on the mobo power connector is the atx
PS_ON signal --- assert low to tell the power supply
to power everything up.  So I was able to test the power
supply independently of the soft-power circuitry of the
mobo.)


Roger Griffiths <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> >To me it looks like a dead power supply (nothing at all
> >happens when you try to turn it on).
>
> >However, it has mobo-controlled power.  Two wires from
> >the 'power' switch go to a little connector on the mobo
> >labelled 'sftpwr' (soft-power?).
>
> >How can I test if the power supply has actually gone bad?
> ...
> Hi Frank, sounds like you've pretty much confirmed that the PSU is dead. The only other thing I would do is disconnect the Mobo connection and check for power flow through the various plugs using a multimeter. I see these come into the workshop everyday and it's easier to get another PSU to
attach to the mobo to try - which tells you straight away if it is a PSU problem or not. If you can borrow one with the same ratings to try then that will tell you for sure. All in all they're not to expensive to replace usually.

     Frank R.Brown
     Frank.R.Brown@MailAndNews

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