AC-to-DC Power Adapter help, please.

argellix · Post by **argellix** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 6:42 pm

My Linksys wireless/router died recently (no lights at all) and I think at least the power supply is bad. It is rated at 5v, 2.5 amp but I'm only reading 0.2v. Maybe the router is bad too.

I ended up with a new router (with a different PS at 12 v) but I'm still curious if the old one is any good. I don't want to spend a single dime on a universal power supply, so I was thinking if I could test this old router by pulling 5v out of one of the IDE power connectors of my desktop power supply. As I understand these connectors have both +5v and +12v and my guess is that it could handle the 2.5 amps load but I'm not sure.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

zaphod7501 · Post by **zaphod7501** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:27 pm

Probably work. I "borrowed" from a drive power connector to power a USB hard drive enclosure.

I'd suggest taking your meter to the jack on the router and check for a short. You're going to need the connector, so you can cut it off the old power supply, plug it into the router, and measure across the two wires. You would not want to connect a shorted router to the PC power supply.

You'll need to verify the polarity before connecting.

argellix · Post by **argellix** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:31 pm

It Worked! Too bad I didn't think of this before. I could have fixed my old router with a $2 molex connector instead of spending $50+ on a new router. Oh well, the new one looks cool and now I can either put the old one on ebay or keep it as backup.

btw, I ran into this site w/ good info about pc power supplies : www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html

Zaphod, Good idea to test for shorted router first, thanks for the tip.

zaphod7501 · Post by **zaphod7501** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 7:20 am

We lost several power supplies when a power outage lasted over an hour. The UPS produces a waveform that the transformers didn't like and they shorted out. I used old camcorder AC adapters to replace them with much higher quality supplies. The switch-mode supplies will run on the UPS indefinitely where the original transformer wall-warts self-destruct.