Is my power supply DOA?

[The_Foundation]

I tried searching this site for about fifteen minutes and the Linux server says the search Daemon is unavailable.

So sorry if this has been asked before.

So, I’m trying to build an arcade cabinet using a Neo Geo mother board. I have all the components, a retroarcade 16 amp switching power supply with a -5 volt post and it’s adjustable, a cga to hdmi convert ( some Chinese company ) and an mvs board. I just need to install the mother board and wire up the controls and I should be good to go.

Being a software engineer, I’m doing tests every step of the way. The first step was to see if the power supply works... green light, no load, but a green light. So I figured that was good. Next, I hooked up the video converter and figured I would test the power supply with that load, and see if the video converter works connected to the lcd screen I have, I figured it would at least show the menu ( could be a problem point ). No menu. So I got my multimeter out to see what the power supply was giving out.

12 volt post was about 11.48
-5 volt post was about -8.59
5 volt post was about 1.09

Another test with the video converter no longer attached yield 0’s for all the posts.

The final test was with the tv no longer hooked up and the video converter back in play. I tested the 5 volt post and got -0.36

So, there are two possibilities:

1.) the power supply is bad.

2.) because i don’t have a video input the video converter, is not turning on because it’s “smart” and I need to complete my set up and then the power supply will work and everything will work.

I’m very new at this, first time doing it, so what are your guys thoughts?

Buy a new power supply, or finish the build and see if it works? Or is there something I’m missing completely?

Thanks for your time and help on this.
 

[mahuti]

I don't know specifically what converter you're using, but over the years, I've dealt with a number of different types of video things that would do absolutely nothing without a signal being sent.

That said, I've got a couple HDMI to CGA converters (opposite of what you have) likely created by the same "some Chinese company" and I've been less than impressed by their quality. I went through a few of them before I ended up going a different route. Not saying that's the case here, but when testing for bugs, I always try to reduce the possibility of injecting MORE variables, and I wouldn't trust that particular hardware not to inject more variability.

To ease your mind, you could always try out something else that takes a 5v. I've got lots of little things laying around that I'd rather use as a guinea pig than one of those converters... crappy little 5v audio amplifiers for instance, coin door lights... whatever you've got that's really simple and takes a voltage that you wanna test.

[grantspain]

so all you have connected atm is120vac power in
+5 and common to the converter?