Thermaltake Dr. Power II Automated Power Supply Tester Oversized LCD for All Power Supplies - AC0015

The inexpensive $10 Chinese tester is practical - There is an LCD screen on it. When you first plug in the main motherboard psu plug, it displays LL on some voltages, but this does not indicate a problem - It's a sign that the other voltage it requires isn't present. When you plug in something else, the LL disappears and the voltage is displayed. LEDs are lit by other PSU lines. br>br>I found the tool useful, and after a few PSU failures, I decided to upgrade and buy the Dr. Power II tester for around $35 - In terms of the cost of a power supply and the damage that a failed power supply can cause, this is a minor consideration. br>br>I had a PSU failure that caused the motherboard to be removed - The CPU, however, isn't one of them. It also got rid of the full-fledged-fledged-fledged-fledged graphic card dimensions - We could have been talking about $1000 in components if those items had been brand new. br>br>In my 35 years of personal computer experience, I've only had one other power supply failure, and it was a one-time thing. year- In a Pentium 5 4 GHz single core gaming computer, an old Corsair 450 is running. Because it was under warranty, I contacted Corsair, who advised me to short the green and black wires - which I did. I tried it, but it didn't work. The power supply failed to activate. So they sent me a new Corsair 450, which worked flawlessly. br>br>However, as I previously stated, three power supplies have recently failed. The first was a Thermaltake Toughpower 750 that had been in use for ten years - I got my money's worth, so that's all right. That one failed, resulting in the loss of either the 9450 quad-core processor or the 9450 quad-core processor. It was time to upgrade the core cpu and/or the socket 775 motherboard (probably the motherboard), as it was an old system. That PSU failure had had no effect on my newer $500 GTX 1070 graphics card. br>br>2 Another was a generic 550-watt power supply with a 2-year warranty. computer with a core - It actually passed both tests, and on the bad smaller asus p5e slot 775 motherboard, it would light up the ready light, but not on the bad 6-slot asus p5e slot 775 motherboard. So the PSU is bad - I'm using a core sabertooth X79 motherboard as a "psu load test. " It passes the testers, but not the sabertooth motherboard's actual load test. br>br>That's why people will say - "A PSU tester will tell you whether or not a power supply is bad, but it will not tell you whether or not it is good. " " A load test goes one step further by applying a real load to the power supply. 3. br>br>4. br>br>5. br>br>6. The third power supply, a Corsair AV 850, came with a computer that I acquired from a family member who works as a video game animator - He had one, a 2011 slot (actually, it has 2,011 contact pins, not the year 2011) 6- core 12- I was a big step up from my old 10-year-old thread that had been sitting in his garage for three years. A slot 775 quad core 4-core rig was used last year. thread 9450 machine with 30% overclock up to just below this 6- core. br>br>As a result, I began to put his 6-year-old son to the test. a computer with a central processor He'd taken all of the hard drives out of the computer - I was able to boot to bios, where I saw a nice bios monitor showing the cpu temperature steadily rising until it reached 80 in about two minutes, at which point the 80 number turned red and the system rebooted. br>br>At first, I was oblivious to what was going on because I was too busy looking through the bios – but I later realized that allowing the CPU to overheat in that manner had done it no favors. When I "awoke," I realized that the water pump inside the Intel waterblock had failed. br>br>I dialed my close relative's phone number to talk - "Yes, I seem to recall that one computer kept rebooting for some reason - " he said, trying to remember back three years. As a result, they sent me a replacement right away. "br>br>I remembered calling him three years ago and advising him to go into the bios and reduce his core count from six to four, as well as turn off hyper threading (dropping from eight to four threads) to try to control the heat. That really helped a lot - thank you! Before the next auto-start, he was able to get about 30 minutes of work done each time. While he awaited the arrival of the replacement computer, he rebooted. br>br>So, now that you're sitting there with that hot-dog in your hand, what are you going to do? I figured there must be no water circulation carrying the heat away to the large radiator because the cpu was running. br>br>So I removed the Intel waterblock, laid it to the side with the water lines still connected, and fetched my massive Silver Arrow air cooler, still brand new in the box from my purchase 6 years ago when I was considering upgrading at the time, pasted it in, and then watched the cpu maintain a nice cool 27 degrees for about 5 minutes. "Wow!" says the speaker. "br>br>I photographed the system and monitor display – you can see the "CPU Temperature 27" - But the next morning – the system started acting up – the memory was rejected – hitting the "Mem ok" light caused rebooting as the motherboard tested different memory settings, then that wouldn't happen anymore, and the cpu LED light went on and stayed on, and the motherboard fans stopped spinning – one of them jerked in time to a clicking noise from the power supply. br>br>But the next morning – the system started acting up – the memory was rejected – br>br>The power supply, a Corsair AV 850, decided to fail after three years of sitting in the garage and five perfect minutes the night before - removing the motherboard, as well as the graphics card, as I later discovered. You heard me, motherboard and graphics card. br>br>(I liked the motherboard so much that I ended up buying a used sabertooth x79 motherboard/cpu combo for around $300, which works fine, but I had no monitor display at first, which was perplexing to me because I didn't realize the GTX 680 graphics card had just been ruined. ) )br>br>My much more recent $500 GTX 1070 had been safely stored. br>br>When I finally decided that my video card must be bad, as much as I couldn't believe it, I was hesitant to take my newly purchased 1070 out of safe mode. I was going to keep it, but then I remembered that I had an old known- To test the new motherboard/processor combo, I had a good GTX 8800 Ultra on hand. I also had a couple of well-known-to-me characters. Many newer games are not coding for sli or crossfire, because one really good modern card can usually handle the load, so I could have used good AMD 7950s that had been in crossfire service until I picked up the GTX 1070 because "sli is dead," as they say – many newer games are not coding for sli or crossfire because one really good modern card can usually handle the load. br>br>(I can now see how important it is to keep old, well-known information. ) rather than selling everything, keep good components on hand - in the event of a failure, substituting a known-good The most certain way to isolate and diagnose the failure and put an end to any guesswork is to use a good component. work. )br>br>Of the seven power supplies I tested, three were defective, as I previously stated. br>br>In terms of using the testers on faulty power supplies, there was one PSU that appeared to be in good working order according to the cheap tester. There were all of the voltages. However, because the display on the Dr. Power II flickered, it was clear that the PSU was bad. That power supply would fail the load test as well - Instead of staying a nice steady green, the sabertooth motherboard's green ready light flickered. br>br>Another bad power supply showed no signs of failure on the $10 tester, but the Dr. Power tester lit up red - Failure on multiple voltages was indicated by the letter "F. " A red display with a slew of "Fs" strikes me as a far more definitive "Failure" than nothing at all. I wouldn't mind if I got rid of my cheap tester. Why do you think you're keeping it? I'm pretty sure I'm going to throw it out. The Dr. Power II is miles ahead of the competition. br>br>By the way, the Dr. Power tester's manual states that "the tester may become warm as it attempts to place a small load on the power supply while testing the voltages. " " It has warmed up a little for me - That's fantastic – it made me respect the Dr. Power tester even more after reading it. br>br>However, as I previously stated, nothing beats having more of a load, and my old bad sabertooth motherboard, which has two built-in tiny 35mm fans cooling two sections of the motherboard, is a fantastic load test. br>br>Why is it a fantastic load test?br>br>PART A: To begin, check to see if the ready light is solid green. That's a good sign that the power supply is in good shape. PART B: PART B: PART B: PART B: PART B: PART B: PART B: PART B However, when I connect the two power-supply lines in series, Wires 4 and 5 are protruding from the board's bottom right corner. A good power supply will "start" the board 5 times from the right. As a result, the board will turn on the cpu LED light, and the two small fans will begin spinning furiously. The circuit breaker has been activated. br>br>(However, keep in mind that this is still a bad motherboard; even with a good CPU, the CPU LED light will glow - That's where the board went wrong – some circuitry was messed up. However, aside from that false indication of a bad CPU, the board boots up and turns on. It might not make sense to put the board starting, given the power supply, I tried with that board, at the very least, for that green ready light. It wouldn't make sense. Although that PSU is rated at 550 watts, I have a known-good power supply. Good Corsair 450 watts (old replacement for the Corsair 450 that failed under warranty) that turns on the sabertooth ready light and starts the board with both fans spinning like crazy. The 450 performs well, while the 550 performs poorly. br>br>Now let's return to the Corsair AV 850. That was an excellent power supply unit. I like Corsair, and in addition to a Toughpower 850, I recently purchased another Corsair 850. Why did the Corsair AV 850, after a successful 5-day test, fail the next morning? a five-minute run with the now-defunct air- CPU that has been cooled? br>br>Did I say that the 6-foot tall core 12- For three years, the animator's thread x79 computer had been hidden in his garage - And, based on my research, it appears that tiny spiders or other insects can nest inside a power supply, causing it to be damaged when it is turned on later - It's possible that spider webs obstruct proper air circulation - I'm not sure how that would cause harm, but it was mentioned that webbing could be used. Yes, I suppose if webbing blocks air flow, components may become overheated. ruined by the heat br>br>So that successful 5 minute run showed that the cpu heat problem had been solved, but what I didn't know is that during that run, perhaps spider-infested computers were being used. Because of a lack of airflow, the internal components of the webbed PSU were burning out. The successful purchase of the sabertooth x79 motherboard/cpu combination provided a satisfying conclusion to the events, but witnessing that seemingly random destruction was extremely disturbing. I'll probably make it a habit to replace all future PSUs after 5 years in service, just to be safe. br>br>As for the tester, you can get a cheap one and it will tell you some voltages and may or may not tell you that a PSU is bad, but it may let one bad PSU slip past you - For example, my Thermaltake Toughpower 750 passes all of the voltage tests on the cheap tester but fails the Dr. Power test. br>br>So what's the point of wasting $10? I recommend just getting the $35 Dr. Power tester and knowing that you've got a very good (far superior) tester. Final thoughts: br>br> Throughout my reading and research, I kept coming across the idea of putting a troubleshooting system to the test. Using a "known good power supply," there is a hardware issue. " Given the potential for damage from a failing power supply, I purchased an extra 850 watt power supply, a Corsair RM 850, for about $135 and stored it safely, after testing it on the Dr. Power tester and the load test, and wrapping it in plastic wrap to keep bugs out, and then taping the box for good measure. So now I have the "known good power supply" in case I ever need it.

Enrique Nash

| Aug 13, 2021

This device gets a 5 for the price. Personally, I would prefer a larger, more durable device for a higher price, such as $75, but for $35, they have created a useful device with a great, high-visibility display. Perhaps they will produce a tough Premier model in the future. The procedure is straightforward. br>br> Connect the 32-inch monitor to the computer. At the bottom is a pin connector. Switch on the power. On the tester, press the button. If you're 32 years old, When the pin is good, you can add and remove other connectors. When more than one connector is connected, press the button to cycle through the results. The different voltages supplied by the connector are shown in each result. There are 5 ports on the device, which can be used to connect to the following devices: 32-br>br>32-br>32-br>32-br>32-br>32 main supply pins on the motherboardbr>8- pin or 6- pin PCI- molex 4-E (red)br>molex 4-E (red)molex 4-E (red)molex 4-E molex 4-pin peripheral power supply molex 4-pin peripheral power supply molex 4-pin peripheral power supply molex 4-pin pin or 8- pin CPU power supplybr>SATAbr>br>There is no L-shaped connector on the SATA connector. Because it's a shaped key, you'll need to look closely to make sure it's inserted correctly. br>br>I've already found this device to be very useful because I have a power supply that tests out fine except for one connector, so I can now re-use it. By simply ignoring that one bad spare connector, you can use the supply. It's worth noting that power supplies have a protection circuit that will shut down the entire power supply if one of the connectors shorts. So, if you have one bad connector and it is plugged in, the power supply will shut down, making it appear as if the entire power supply is bad. However, once you've identified the bad connector, all you have to do now is make sure it's not plugged in. br>br>Now that I have the ability to re- Make use of my power supply; I've already saved $100 with this device.

Hana Zimmerman

| Jan 24, 2021

I'm not sure how to rate this, so I'll just tell you how I felt about it. br>br>I connected it to a suspected faulty power supply, and it confirmed that it was indeed faulty. I repeatedly tested it, and it indicated that the power supply was defective across a variety of connection types. I must have put it through its paces at least a dozen times. So I went out and bought a new power supply, and it passed the test with flying colors with this tester, so I was ecstatic. But then I reconnected it to the old power supply, and it now magically reports that the supposedly defective power supply is working properly on all connections. I tested it multiple times and now 100% of the time it says it’s perfectly fine.

I have no idea what to believe it tested bad repeatedly over% And, as far as I can tell, it doesn't even show what it measures, only pass or fail. I'd like to know its justification for its initial failure complaints so that I could use my fluke to see if it was lying at any point.

Paige Arias

| Nov 11, 2021

The user interface is a little annoying, and it requires the 24 pin cable to be plugged in, so it can't just tell you if a single 6 pin or 8 pin connector is working. It only measures voltage and the connectors are strangely difficult to plug in. As a result, it's really only useful for detecting voltage issues. This will not detect any other issues with your power supply.

Carter Hansen

| Jan 27, 2021

The operation is simple and straightforward. There's no need to make any assumptions. If you pass, the LCD will change to a different color, and if you fail, it will turn to a different color. br>br>My only criticism is the low-cost plastic housing. I was inserting molex cable (and we all know how cheap and ill-fitting those are) when the housing popped open due to the moderate amount of force I used. Fortunately, it simply snapped back into place, despite the fact that it appeared to have broken the connector. For $30, you'd think they could at least add a couple of screws to hold this flimsy thing together. br>br>One star deducted for the poor quality of the construction, and another for the price not reflecting this. Overall, it appeared to work and allayed my fears of a faulty power supply.

William Travis

| Aug 02, 2021