Question 1

What is the maximum wattage that this will handle? Will it work with power supplies in excess of 1000 watts?

Accepted Answer

It will test for proper voltages with a minimal load. That being said is it possible for a power supply to be bad but test good? I would say the most likely way for that to happen is for a diode in the bridge rectifier to blow open. This could result in a small load testing good while a heavy load would test bad. Another possibility would be for a filter cap to be on its away out. Once again small load may test good heavy load bad.

I bought it because I wanted an easy way to tell if a supply was definitely bad. The only way to be one hundred percent sure would be to load the whole supply at once to its manufactures limits and then test to see if its within its voltage and ripple specs.

I don't know why you need to test 1,000 watt supplies but the biggest loads are always in the Microprocessors and Video cards. They all require 12 volts input. Avoid daisy chaining them. If possible run everything from the supply itself to CPU'S and GPU's making sure to use all the rails if you have a multi rail unit. The rest of the stuff including the board and drives is peanuts in comparison.

Question 2

Will this allow the power supply to power a water pump for a leak test while not being plugged into a motherboard?

Accepted Answer

This device is intended to test the power supply of a PC.   The power supply is not connected to the motherboard when you test it.  Even though the tester does allow a complete circuit such that the power supply will turn on, I highly doubt any of the other ports on the tester will provide a voltage output.

Question 3

I used this tester on a PC that was giving me various BSOD. The PS gave a "LL" on the 12v indicator so naturally I thought the PS had gone bad. After replacing the PS, I was still getting the same BSOD problems.  I used the tester on a known good PS and I still got the same "LL" indicator on the 12v.  Could my tester be bad?

Accepted Answer

If P4 P6 or P8 connector is not plugged in you will see the LL and that is normal. If you have one of those plugged in and still see LL then the levels are too low and power supply is faulty. Look up the instruction manual for an Apevia power supply tester and it will review what i just described in full.

Question 4

When I use this tester I will always just use the 24pin area. I have an older tester and when I plug in a power supply to test it says good or fail. This one doesn't. With all those numbers on the screen and the LL blinking and chirping how do I tell if my PSU passed or failed?

Accepted Answer

This tester required me to plug in the 20/4 pin, as well as the 4/8 pin for aux power.  Without the 4/8 pin, this will detect lower voltage, and report LL.  Once the 4/8 is plugged in, it will show you a detailed output, and stop chirping if the PSU is good.

With those 2 plugged in, you are able to also plug in any of the additional plugs to test, whether molex, floppy power, SATA, or 6 pin PCI-E.

Question 5

Is this made in the USA?

Accepted Answer

I purchased this on 9/11/2013.  I still have the box and the user instruction sheet that came with it.  However; the unit, box and instruction sheet give no indication of where this is made.

Question 6

can i use this to test the dc power in on my laptop, or on the power adapter, to see which one is borked?

Accepted Answer

nope, you better off using a volt meter.

Question 7

Two quick questions

Can this test the 8pin connector for Ivy/Sandy bridge processors?

Can this test the 12pin connector for discrete graphics cards?

Accepted Answer

This can test the 8 pin motherboard power, but I do not believe this is able to handle a 12 pin graphics adapter.  This will handle the 6-pin graphics,  however.

Question 8

Can this be used to test the GPU and CPU leads as well ?

Accepted Answer

No. this is a very simple power supply tester that only measures the voltage outputs +12V1 / +5V / +3.3V / 5VSB / +12V2 / -12V and P.G.

Question 9

Do you know if this works to emulate a paper clip test?

Accepted Answer

I did not need one when I used this. I believe the instructions say you always need the 20/24 pin in to test others

Questions & Answers