A+ Course

Electricity and Power

Supplies
Electricity and power supplies
Unit objectives:
 Identify electrostatic discharge, and
follow ESD safe practices while
working with computer components
 Install a new power supply in a PC
 Troubleshoot faulty power supplies
Topic A
 Topic A: Electrical safety
 Topic B: Power supplies
 Topic C: Power supply troubleshooting
Characteristics of electricity
 Electricity — Flow of electrons
 Conductor — Permits flow of electricity
 Insulator — Inhibits flow of electricity
 Voltage — Force of electricity caused by
difference in charge at two locations
– Measured in volts
– Also called ―potential‖ or ―potential difference‖
– Officially designated as uppercase V
– May see it as lowercase v

continued
Characteristics, continued
 Current — Measure of the flow of
electrons past a given point
– Measured in amps, or amperes
– Must be a complete circuit (closed
circuit)
– Direct current — Flows in one direction,
at constant voltage, through circuit
– Alternating current — Flows repeatedly
back and forth through the circuit, at
constantly varying voltage levels

continued
Characteristics, continued
 Resistance — Force that opposes the flow
of DC through a conductor
– Measured in ohms (Ω)
 Impedance — Like resistance, but applies
to AC
 Power
– Measured in watts
– Calculate by multiplying voltage by current
 Energy — Electrical power delivered over
time
Electricity
 Current can kill
 The 1–10–100 rule
 Calculating current
V = i * r
 Resistance of the human body is
about 500 KΩ (500,000 Ω)
Safety precautions
 Don’t touch exposed contacts
 Touch only insulated handles of tools
 Leave covers on equipment
 Work one-handed
 Don’t insert anything into wall outlets
 Remove jewelry, watches, etc.
 Keep hands clean and dry
 Don’t work in wet surroundings
Electrostatic discharge (ESD)
 Buildup of charges
 Static dangers
 Discharge voltages
– 3000+ volts to feel
– 8000+ volts to see spark
– 35,000 volts created on a dry day on
carpet
– 1000 volts can damage electronics
Preventing static buildup
 Don’t shuffle your feet
 Increase the humidity
 Keep yourself grounded
 Wear cotton, not synthetics
 Remove carpeting
 Use air ionization system
Preventing static discharge
 Equalize charge differences safely
– Unplug the equipment
– Touch its metal chassis or power supply
 Keep yourself and equipment
connected
– Wrist straps and antistatic mats
– Static-safe bags
An antistatic (ESD) wrist strap
Typical internal components
CD-ROM drive

Power supply

CPU/fan

Adapter card

Motherboard

Hard drive
Slide catches
Slide catch, move to open side of case
Determining which side to open
Open this side to access components

Ports and connectors attached to motherboard

Removable front cover
Alignment holes Alignment posts

Spring catches
Topic B
 Topic A: Electrical safety
 Topic B: Power supplies
 Topic C: Power supply troubleshooting
A PC power supply
Voltage selection switch
 Set power supply to run on 110 V or
220 V
 With computer off, slide switch
 Usually located near power cord port
Power supply specifications
 Rated by DC power output in watts
– Modern systems typically =>300 watts
– Older systems <200 watts
 Rating isn’t an indicator of power draw
– Draws only the power needed to supply
internal components
Typical power requirements

Motherboard 30 W
Memory 10 W per 2 GB*
CPU 45–145 W or more
Hard drive 5–15 W
CD-ROM drive 5–20 W
Floppy drive 5–10 W
Adapter card 5–30 W
Standard outputs
+3.3 V 14 A AGP video cards, motherboard
-5 V 0.3 A ISA bus adapter cards
+5 V 30 A Motherboard, CD/DVD drives,
hard drives, PCI adapter cards,
Pentium III and earlier
processors
+5 V 0.85 A ―Soft power‖ switch
-12 V 1A Older network adapters and
serial ports
+12 V 12 A CD/DVD drives, hard drives,
Pentium 4 and Athlon
processors, motherboard
Power connectors
 Two standards
– Drive power connectors
– Motherboard power connectors
Peripheral power connector
 ―Molex‖ connector
Floppy power connector
 ―Berg‖ connector
SATA power connector
 New, for serial ATA drives
Wire colors
 Yellow = +12 V
 Red = +5 V
 Black = ground
Motherboard power connectors

Single power
connector

Dual power
connectors
Wire colors
 20-pin ATX v1.0 single motherboard
connector
 24-pin ATX v2.0 motherboard
connector
Power supply form factors
 Describes size and shape
 Must fit:
– Case
– Motherboard
– Other components
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Motherboard_form_factor
Installing a power supply
1. Shut down computer
2. Unplug computer
3. Remove cover from computer
4. Disconnect all power wires from components,
including motherboard
5. Remove retaining screws
6. Remove power supply
7. Install new power supply and screw it into place
8. Connect power wires to components as needed,
including motherboard
9. Replace cover
10. Plug computer into outlet, and boot system to test
your work
Topic C
 Topic A: Electrical safety
 Topic B: Power supplies
 Topic C: Power supply troubleshooting
Electrical measurements
 Measure electrical values with a
multimeter
 Multimeters can be digital or analog
 Use to measure
– Resistance
– Voltage
– Current
– Continuity
Measuring resistance
1. Turn off the device you’re measuring and
disconnect it from its power source
2. You might need to disconnect the device
from its circuit
3. Set the multimeter to read resistance
4. Touch the two leads of the multimeter
together
5. Touch the black and red probes to either
side of the circuit to be measured
6. Read the resistance from the meter’s
display
Measuring voltage
1. Verify the power supply is on
2. Set your multimeter to read either DC or
AC voltage
3. Touch the black probe to the ground, and
touch the red probe to the spot where you
want to measure the voltage
4. Read the voltage from the meter’s display
You must exercise care when taking
voltage readings as the computer is
powered up
Measuring current
 Break the circuit and insert the meter
in the break
 Ammeter doesn’t require break
 Clamp ammeters are often used to
measure current flow in 110 V and
higher circuits
Measuring continuity
 Set your multimeter to display
resistance (ohms) and look for circuits
with zero resistance
 Also can use continuity mode, if
available
Power supply problems
 Computer fails to boot when powered
on, but boots after Ctrl+Alt+Del
 Computer intermittently stops working
or reboots
 You don’t have enough power
connectors for all the devices you
want to install
 Computer fails to boot at all (no lights
or beeps); fans don’t start
 Computer fails to boot, but fans start
The Power_Good signal
 Signals CPU that power is stable and
sufficient
 +5 V over specific wire
 Must arrive at correct time
Unit summary
 Identified electrostatic discharge, and
followed ESD safe practices while
working with computer components
 Installed a new power supply in a PC
 Identified and resolved issues with
faulty power supplies