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PSU Jumpstart Guide
Date Added - 14/02/2008
Author - Kopi
Ever had a new cooler or fan on your hands that you’ve wanted to see running? Ever build a water cooling loop? Or have you just got a new power supply and just want to check it's working? If so this skill is a necessity. Not only is it incredible easy but it can come in handy in many, many different ways. I’ll be walking you guys and gals through a quick How to on what’s called jumpstarting your power supply. This is the act of tricking your power supply into thinking that there it is plugged into a PC and it begins to provide power to the rails.
Step 1 :
The first thing you’ll need to do is get preferably a paper clip, but any conductive material like a small insulated wire will work. Large paper clips are ideal as they are easy to work with, hold their shape, and fit perfectly into the power supply. After you’ve found your material, bend it into a U shape as seen below. An important warning: use a piece of metal which is sheathed - unlike in the picture, a paperclip with a plastic coating which has the ends stripped is much safer, and we do not recommend even attempting this if you have a sensitive electrical device, such as a pacemaker, which may be affected
Step 2 :
Secondly, plug in your power supply to an outlet. It isn’t crucial that you do this after finding your paper clip, in case you got worried that your power supply was already plugged in.
Step 3 :
Step three is to locate the correct pins on the 24 or 20 pin connector of your motherboard. The pin you are looking for is the only green pin available. You don’t have to worry about getting the wrong green pin, there is only one. You’re also going to want to find any of the black wires which are ground wires. You can use any ground, it does not make a difference.
Step three, part B. This is the most important step in jumping your power supply. Take your paper clip or conductive device and insert it connecting the green pin we located with any ground pin. This will trick your power supply into thinking a power button was pressed, and the PSU will turn on. If you are cautious, you could leave the power supply switch to the off position until the paperclip is inserted, then flip the switch. Just a quick note at this point - it's normally best to have something plugged into at least one of the molex connectors, such as a fan, as some higher end power supplies will shut themselves off after a couple of seconds if there is no load.
Conclusion
There’s your end result. The power supply is up and running. You will see that the clip is inserted into the 24 pin connector and the fan on the power supply is moving. This is why I suggest a paper clip as it will stay firmly into the PSU itself. Touching the clip will not shock you, it’s perfectly safe.
Note: It is highly recommended that you put some sort of load on the power supply. It is not a good idea to jump the power supply with no loads at all. A CD drive, hard drive, fan, anything will do as a load. Also note that neither Mightymodding nor Chillyreviews is not responsible for any damage done by performing this action.
Copyright for this guide belongs to Chilly Reviews - check them out :) (Used with permission...of course!)