psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

[playit]

hello , i have a psu 450 zebronics (yes its bad crap) which used to work before with its own sata power cable ,but today its not able to power up harddrive efficiently with its own power sata cable , but when there is a connector which have a thick wire than the psu sata power cable wires - its powering up and working smooth , no problem yet .
i the voltages with multimeter shows 12 ,3.3 v , no problem , but hardrives powers well only with this thick wire sata power cable connector from psu power molex .
any explanation on this ?? thank you ,soon i am planning to buy some branded power supply of 450 watts .

[stj]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

maybe the connector is crap,
harddrives dont use much power, under 2A

[playit]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

but it used to work before , now it seems to work only with thicker wires in the connector , i tried to fix the sata powercable of psu to both drives i have firmly , still similar results ..scratching my head now ^^

[stj]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

i meant the connector on the sata power cable may be crap
is it sealed or can you open it to inspect the joints?

[playit]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

"i have the voltages with multimeter shows 12 ,3.3 v , no problem , but hardrives powers well only with this thick wire extension sata power cable connector from psu power molex ."

its a cutter one , not sealed , but this connector which is a extension is not a cutter, its a sealed one ,
may i dont get it what you saying

[stj]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

im saying maybe where the wire joins to the pin inside the plastic may be bad.

[playit]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

ohh but i checked thier voltages , they gave right 12 v and 3.3v , umm may be they go bad when i connect to harddrive ?? i cant check the voltages while connected to hdd tho .. i am afraid of short circuit duringthat time.. damm it psu in my country is so expensive , just want a 450wats a decent one . any idea how the antec 450watts is ? its litle expensive than the other ones

[stj]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

all good psu's are expensive now,
i was looking at them yesterday and was shocked at some of them!

[CapLeaker]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

ohh but i checked thier voltages , they gave right 12 v and 3.3v , umm may be they go bad when i connect to harddrive ?? i cant check the voltages while connected to hdd tho .. i am afraid of short circuit duringthat time.. damm it psu in my country is so expensive , just want a 450wats a decent one . any idea how the antec 450watts is ? its litle expensive than the other ones

Only because you get voltage, doesn't mean it can carry current.

[playit]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

im saying maybe where the wire joins to the pin inside the plastic may be bad.

umm looks like due to mining , psu makers wana enjoy too much profit

[playit]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

Only because you get voltage, doesn't mean it can carry current.

so whats happening here, any explanation ? i dont have anything to measure current , i only have a basic multimeter

[petehall347]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

so whats happening here, any explanation ? i dont have anything to measure current , i only have a basic multimeter

that is all you need .

[playit]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

oh i saw and kept 10amp knob,10amp positive terminal , ground at same com port , but when i tried to touch the 12v line with my positive terminal and black to ground , i see the spark in red terminal and it feels warm to hot when i touched the red terminal of multimeter, i am afraid to do it again .
on the multimeter i see it says at amp - 10 A , unfused 10A max for 10secmax for every 15 min , no idea what are they .

[stj]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

thats not how you use it!
i'll be surprised if you didnt blow a fuse in the meter - if it has one

[CapLeaker]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

so whats happening here, any explanation ? i dont have anything to measure current , i only have a basic multimeter

Think of electricity behaving like water in a hose. Speed equals voltage and the diameter of the hose equals current.

Besides this, there is a phenomena called "ghost voltage", where you can see power on your meter but actually there isn't any.

For example you have a broken wire on which the connector is only held by a couple of strands and all the other strands have broken away (kind of like i pinch the garden hose). If you turn that PSU on and measure the voltage on the output, you will say: Goodie! Got power!
Now you put a light bulb to it to actually trying to draw current for the light bulb to glow and it will either be dim like a candle or doesn't light up at all. To proof what's going on here is to have a load on the PSU (that light bulb) on the output, put your DMM into Volts DC and probe with one lead on the positive side of the light bulb and the negative probe on also the positive side on the other side of the bad connector. That will measure a Voltage Drop across the bad connection under load. As more voltage drop you get, as worse the connection is.

Hope that helps you understand in this little crash course.

[eccerr0r]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

oh i saw and kept 10amp knob,10amp positive terminal , ground at same com port , but when i tried to touch the 12v line with my positive terminal and black to ground , i see the spark in red terminal and it feels warm to hot when i touched the red terminal of multimeter, i am afraid to do it again .

As said earlier this is the wrong way to use the ammeter function of a multimeter. This will basically short out your power supply, good thing it didn't fry your PSU or cause other damage. There is only one possibly legitimate use for measuring current this way - and that's to measure short circuit current of solar panels - and this is okay only because solar panels are current limited unlike normal PSUs.

on the multimeter i see it says at amp - 10 A , unfused 10A max for 10secmax for every 15 min , no idea what are they .

This means your multimeter doesn't have a fuse and basically will *try* to conduct hundreds of amps until it fries. Bad/Cheap. Better multimeters will have a fast acting, high rupture capability fuse to prevent the meter from becoming fireworks.
10A max for 10 sec every 15 min means you can measure 10 amps for 10 seconds... but after you do so you must wait 15 minutes before doing it again. This means your meter probably has a high burden voltage when measuring current - whether it's from the meter or the probes - and will get hot and burn up if you use it too much for too long.

[playit]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

ya i jumped up and messed up , i was hurried and thought its easy as voltmeter ,oops , i checkd psu is working good , computer running ok , dono if anything happen and will show up later .
about the ammeter in multimeter , i read if anything went wrong in it , i read to see a short btween volt and amp , it shoul give some resistance , if not its a continuity , then ammeter is gone ,i did get a continuity i dont have a fuse in multimeter , the fuse section in circuit is empty . or if there is any other fuse nearby i dont have idea, i see only resistances , r20 r22 somethng, may be ammeter resistance is gone bad , i dont see any burst mark .
umm but multimeter reads the battery voltage wtih voltmeter , those 12 v again i tried , it reads ok , nothing happen, and it gives continuity when 2 red black touching together when continiuty mode.
any other ways i shoudl check if multimeter is bad now because i did a major flaw wtih ampmetering. !

[playit]

Re: psu sata power wires thinner - does it make a difference ?

thank you for explaining , teaching me stuffs here eccerr0r ,CapLeaker ,stj ,petehall347