Is there any such thing as a GOOD PSU tester?

[stilly]

It seems that all of my PSU testers that I have are basically to be treated like Memtest in that JUST because they say that the PSU is good does not mean that it is good and vice versa, but with a grain of salt.

Example. I bought a used corsair 600CX PSU and I thought I would test it out because I did not like how it looked (lightly used...)

ONE tester said PG 750+ and was beepign and flashing
ONE tester just BEEPED and refused to give me a screen
ONE tester showed no +5usb AND never gave me a GTG light (but did not say bad either)
ONE tester lit up several lights, but did not say anything bad.
The 5th tester I did not bother with since it is meant for older psu and I know that it will trip BAD because there is no -5v wire on this psu.

So how do you do a quick test on a PSU to see if it is good or bad at a glance? Are there any special BETTER then the rest testers?

I do NOT want to have to pull out a multimeter...

[the86d]

I use an old version of this updated one, and :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-9-in-1-CoolMax-Deluxe-Power-Supply-Tester-20-24-pin-ATX-6-8-pin-PCI-E-Molex-/390936045186?_trksid=p2054897.l4275

This is what mine looks like:

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556029373.html?productid=840556029373&channelid=FROOG&gclid=CPv9tP6ShMECFYdlfgodf0EAeA

Vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVc9fb1ECAQ

It beeps if you don't plug in the 12v 4-8pin "CPU header(?)" required on the newer boards.
It has let me know when voltage bounces on power supplies.

The old one I used was basically LEDs that just lit up if they got voltage per wire-set, but the digital display one is better and tells accurate voltages to .1v.

[stilly]

I use an old version of this updated one, and :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-9-in-1-CoolMax-Deluxe-Power-Supply-Tester-20-24-pin-ATX-6-8-pin-PCI-E-Molex-/390936045186?_trksid=p2054897.l4275

This is what mine looks like:

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556029373.html?productid=840556029373&channelid=FROOG&gclid=CPv9tP6ShMECFYdlfgodf0EAeA

Vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVc9fb1ECAQ

It beeps if you don't plug in the 12v 4-8pin "CPU header(?)" required on the newer boards.
It has let me know when voltage bounces on power supplies.

The old one I used was basically LEDs that just lit up if they got voltage per wire-set, but the digital display one is better and tells accurate voltages to .1v.

That is like what I got. I got a gray one and a black one, the black one has a button that turns it on when you hold it down. The black is is made by coolmax. The gray one is hmmm, I forgot, but they look identical cept for the button. And the gray one told me that PG was 750+ which I thought was too slow and meant the PSU was bad.

I thought that I had the entire mobo plugged in though, no real place to plug anything else unless it is a molex or floppy... Hmmm, I will check and plug in the 4/8 pin too and see if it sings differently...
Thanks.

[billofrights]

I've always just shorted the mobo connector with a bent paper clip to see if the fan works, then hooked it up to an old board to test function.

[Fizz]

I did OEM computers for years (which also meant some repairs/rmas). Had a few PSU testers and IMO they all were fairly worthless. If they failed the tester, it was probably bad. If it passed it didn't mean it was good. The problem is that they don't put any actual load on the power supply. They test for presence of voltage and that's about it. A PSU on its way south might give normal readings at idle-like utilization, but fail to deliver clean power as the consumption rises.

For this reason, the best power supply tester is a known good one, IMO.

I had a computer setup that I used a kill a watt meter to get baseline consumption readings for various components at various levels of utilization (this could vary significantly between efficient and inefficient PSUs). If I wanted to stress a PSU I would add/remove components and/or tweak stress test params until I was hitting about 90% of the rated aggregate output while not exceeding the output of any one rail/rated sub circuit. Used this rarely and generally only because it was easy to set this up and leave overnight (had reasonable fire protection) while I threw the known good unit into the original system to note if where the problem chased.

[the86d]

That is like what I got. I got a gray one and a black one, the black one has a button that turns it on when you hold it down. The black is is made by coolmax. The gray one is hmmm, I forgot, but they look identical cept for the button. And the gray one told me that PG was 750+ which I thought was too slow and meant the PSU was bad.

I thought that I had the entire mobo plugged in though, no real place to plug anything else unless it is a molex or floppy... Hmmm, I will check and plug in the 4/8 pin too and see if it sings differently...
Thanks.

I don't know what specs for normal operation should be, but I think most known-good P/S's have never gone over 500ms... ahhhhhh here we go: "Power good value is based on the delay in ms, that a power supply takes to become fully ready. Power good values are often considered abnormal if detected lower than 100ms or higher than 600ms." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_good_signal