ATX when?

When did Compaq begin using ATX motherboards? I have a broken Gateway
(with FlexATX MB and ATX PS) computer, and I think the power supply is
what's gone bad. I'm hoping to use the power supply from a Compaq that is
about 6 years old. I haven't seen the old Compaq yet, and I don't know if
it's worth the trouble to go and get it. I don't even know the model
number at this point, just its age.

OTOH, I'm not sure it's the PS that is bad in the Gateway, and don't
particularly want to buy a new one at $50. So, is there a chance that the
PS from the Compaq will work? Thanks.

A chance, yes. 5-6 years ago is about when Compaq began dropping the
proprietary PSs and switched over to standard ATX supplies.
HH


"Al" wrote in message
. ..
When did Compaq begin using ATX motherboards? I have a broken Gateway
(with FlexATX MB and ATX PS) computer, and I think the power supply is
what's gone bad. I'm hoping to use the power supply from a Compaq that is
about 6 years old. I haven't seen the old Compaq yet, and I don't know if
it's worth the trouble to go and get it. I don't even know the model
number at this point, just its age.

OTOH, I'm not sure it's the PS that is bad in the Gateway, and don't
particularly want to buy a new one at $50. So, is there a chance that the
PS from the Compaq will work? Thanks.

"HH" wrote...

A chance, yes. 5-6 years ago is about when Compaq began dropping the
proprietary PSs and switched over to standard ATX supplies.
HH

Thank you. Does the proprietary PS have a standard ATX plug? That would
seem like a dangerous thing to encounter, since it could send the wrong
voltages to the wrong places.

For a while, during the Pentium 2/3 epoch, Dell used a standard-looking ATX
connector with different voltages on the wires. Plugging a Dell pseudo-ATX
power supply into an ATX board, or vice versa, is a sure recipe for burning out
a board.

AFAIK, Compaq did not play the same stupid game that Dell did. But just to be
doubly sure, compare the wire leads from the power supply to the ATX-looking
connector. The colors indicate the voltage and polarity. There is no standard
for the colors, but if the groupings of colors are the same between the two
connectors, you are probably OK using a generic ATX power supply.

Power supplies with true and real ATX connectors come in several sizes,
depending on the computer chassis where used. But the connectors are the same.

.... Ben Myers

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 22:20:11 GMT, Al wrote:

"HH" wrote...

A chance, yes. 5-6 years ago is about when Compaq began dropping the
proprietary PSs and switched over to standard ATX supplies.
HH

Thank you. Does the proprietary PS have a standard ATX plug? That would
seem like a dangerous thing to encounter, since it could send the wrong
voltages to the wrong places.

In article , ben_myers_spam_me_not @
charter.net (Ben Myers) says...
There is no standard
for the colors, but if the groupings of colors are the same between the two
connectors, you are probably OK using a generic ATX power supply.

Power supplies with true and real ATX connectors come in several sizes,
depending on the computer chassis where used. But the connectors are the same.

Thanks for the tip, Ben. I pulled a working ATX PSU from an old Presario
and compared the colors. In this case, they were in fact the same. (There
were some minor differences - the Gateway had one wire [white] missing;
and at one pin, the Compaq has two wires into one pin.)

The end result was the same behavior, though; so I guess it's not a PS
problem.