jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I have several old Dell power supplies in the garage, but undoing all that wiring and then trying to connect the Dell supply to his computer...

Is the plug from the power supply to the computer a standard size? If I could unplug one from the MoBo and plug in the other PSU, that wouldn't be so bad, but I can imagine seeing a puff of smoke when I plug it in.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Remember the $2,500 Apple IIe?

alawry Loc: Timaru New Zealand

Hi Jerry there is probably at least two connectors from power supply to mother board, and then power supply to hard drives although you can probably boot up enough with just mother board for diagnostic purposes. An operating system on a USB drive is handy there. The connectors are reasonably universal; although older Dell did tend to have their own power supplies which were not so generic. That alone was why people tended to put their own system together, Dells own power supply was expensive. Back to the off\on switch it is commonly connected to two pins on the mother board that just need a momentary connection. More good news, generally power connectors only physically fit if they are electrically compatible, it's hard to get it wrong. If you're careful the power supply box needn't be mounted in the PC being tested, nor the suspect unit removed. Good luck. A lot of us follow your progress and keen to hear how you get on. Andrew.

alawry Loc: Timaru New Zealand

I just thought I'd add, the power switch pins are often incorporated in a plug, which goes into the mother board, that combines with the power light. HDD activity light. Speaker, and reset button. Sometimes also a case fan too is on that same connector.. Maybe referred to as "edge connector" although I think I've seen them sometimes no where near the edge of the MB. If you've built a PC you probably know all that but I just thought I would add the information. Cheers

alawry Loc: Timaru New Zealand