This happened a while ago, but I finally got off my . to fix it, so here is the story:

As some of you know, I write for O², well a while ago I had to evaluate a rather unique product, a 'SATA/IDE Cable' which basically converts either IDE/ SATA/ mobile hdd to USB. For IDE/SATA drives, external power is needed so they supplied a power brick which took AC wall outlet and output power like a 4 pin plug on a power supply. You can probably guess what went wrong, but Ill continue.

The second I plugged it into the wall I had a feeling something was off, the LED flickered like crazy but me being in a rush, plugged in my 80 GB SATA drive from my old P4 rig. That second, there was a flash, pop and lots of smoke. Needless to say, the drive just got the electic chair.

Later on I measured it and instad of 12v, it read 18 and instead of 5 it read 7 . An hour later when I measured it the voltages went down a big, but still wayyy above specs.



So, let this be a lesson, always measure before you plug your stuff in! Today, the drive was replaced with a 320 GB so all wasn't exactly lost

http://xoxide.com/coolmax-ultimate-psu-tester-lcd.html

Grab one of these. I'm using a cheap one for when I build computers for clients. They ROCK!

Looks cool but for 24 dollars, Ill stick to my multimeter

there are two basic types of power supply... regulated and unregulated... regulated power supplies are generally right at what they are supposed to be regardless of load...

unregulated power supplies will read anything up to like 50% higher than the stated output because there is no voltage regulation... especially when reading the output with a dmm and no load whatsoever

it's probably an unregulated power supply in the unit, so you'd see the voltage drop somewhat under load, but how far it drops is anyone's guess... it really should be a regulated power supply, even if it was a cheap switched-mode ac/dc adaptor

Digital Multimeters FTW!