Turning on a PC power supply without a mobo

[Trebeck]

I have a pc power supply (400w) just sitting alone.  Can I turn it on without a motherboard connection?

Thanks

[Kevin Mullins]

There's typically a single green wire in the harness that needs tied to ground in order for it to turn on.

[ideft]

yes on main header pins.  On an ATX power source I believe it is the green wire and you have to jump it to a neutral wire(black).  Just look on the internet for the pin outs for your power source.

example:

http://pinouts.ru/Power/atxpower_pinout.shtml

look at the description for the green wire.

[Bleagh]

You don't want to run it without it powering anything.  It will burn out.  I assume you plan on powering a jamma board or something?  That should work fine.

[garnerb350]

You don't want to run it without it powering anything.  It will burn out.  I assume you plan on powering a jamma board or something?  That should work fine.

I was thinking of hooking up 2-4 cooling fans to a power supply to supply air through my cabinet enclosure. Would that be ok to run and not burn out a power supply?

[HaRuMaN]

You don't want to run it without it powering anything.  It will burn out.  I assume you plan on powering a jamma board or something?  That should work fine.

I was thinking of hooking up 2-4 cooling fans to a power supply to supply air through my cabinet enclosure. Would that be ok to run and not burn out a power supply?

A 400 watt PSU is overkill to run 2 - 4 fans...

Just get a 12 V DC wall wart and hook them up that way.

[FrizzleFried]

...or just buy a couple 110v fans... 

[garnerb350]

The power supply is a hand me down( free)...I was just wondering what to do when i cross that road...
I was wanting to hook up the fans and also coin door lights....

You don't want to run it without it powering anything.  It will burn out.  I assume you plan on powering a jamma board or something?  That should work fine.

I was thinking of hooking up 2-4 cooling fans to a power supply to supply air through my cabinet enclosure. Would that be ok to run and not burn out a power supply?

A 400 watt PSU is overkill to run 2 - 4 fans...

Just get a 12 V DC wall wart and hook them up that way.

HarumaN.... what does the 12 V from wally world look like?
 

[Ginsu Victim]

HarumaN.... what does the 12 V from wally world look like?
 

He didn't say Wal-mart, he said wall wart. 

[HaRuMaN]

HarumaN.... what does the 12 V from wally world look like?
 

He didn't say Wal-mart, he said wall wart. 

 

Any 12 V DC transformer that you plug into a wall, usually an ugly black box that takes up too much space on an outlet, therefore a "wall wart"...

 

[garnerb350]

 

I'm an idiot....LOL

[fatfingers]

Your fans and coin door lights will do just fine with that PSU.  I am doing just the coin door lights (well, and my marquee light) using a PSU.

[garnerb350]

Thanks!....

[Trebeck]

Maybe I'll try the wall wart route.  Thanks all.

[vputz]

I once ran a bunch of "zombie" SCSI drives (+controller) in a raid array using a non-mobo PSU by jumping the connectors with a switch.  It worked just fine for many months (and acted like it would have kept on working).  Really silly-looking; I ripped the controller and drives from an old Dell server, but since the Dell PSUs are nonstandard (and I couldn't match the connector to the SCSI board) I had to have a regular PSU for the mobo and keep the Dell PSU running as a zombie for the drives.

Worked fine for months.  It's probably overkill as mentioned, but you should be able to do it no trouble.

[ark_ader]

You can still get those 85W AT power supplies.  They are great for lights, fans, and anything 12v.