Power Supply Help
 

I searched some of the posts about powersupplies but I didn't hit on one that was my current problem.

I got a new motherboard, memory and hard drive this week. However, my problem is that my asus A8V board doesn't seem to like the 300w powersupply I have. The manual to the board said that the 300w was minimum to have.

The computer will sometimes come on... sometimes not. When it does come on, it'll boot all the way thru Windows XP to the desktop and I can do things for about 10 to 15 minutes before it hardlocks.

So, I think I'm having a power supply problem with not enough power. Mind you, the only things that were connected to the power supply was the motherboard and hard drive, and one case fan.

I went and bought a new 400w power supply. It says the same exact things as the 300w does. ATX 400w 12v complies with intel p4 & amd motherboards.

But here's the catch. The 300w power supply and the mother board connectors are 20 pins. This 400w is 24 pin. Now, I'm feeling that I'm getting alittle bit of wrong information from the dude at the shop. He says that I can remove the 4 pins to the left end and it will work fine, or I can buy this 24 pin to 20 pin convertor. However, I can go to the Radio Shack (this one isn't very good) and get a 350w one with the 20 pin connector.

Mind you, in this area it's either Radio Shack or this other shop. The closest one to get one without ordering and shipping (which isn't a option right now) is a 2 hour drive.

Is this guy ripping me off by trying to get me to buy this convertor or can I actually trim of these 4 pins and it work .. ? I'm very relucant to go on this since this has been a very horrid time since we found this problem.

I appreciate any and all help. I really just want to be on my computer and not this one that isn't mine.

Thank you in advance to any replies!

you shoudln't need to trim off the 4 end pieces - they should be clipped on, or slid onto the 20 pin piece with a little track. Be sure to look around ont he motherboard - it may have a slot for that 4 pin connector as well.

You should be able to just leave the rest of the pins unconnected. The first 20 pins are the same in both 20- and 24-pin power connectors.

Well.. the problem with getting the connector in place is that the ide controllor (i'm thinking that is what it is) is right next to it and the connector won't be able to fit down on there that way.

The dude said to carefully cut it directly down the side between the pins if it was going to be blocked.

And, this 24 connector does not break apart to a 20 in any form like one other person suggested at Radio Shack that it might do.

Would it really work if i were to trim off the 4 without damaging anything in the pins and to neatly tuck the extra 4 up on the case?

Edit : In order to bring this from a 24 pin connector to a 20.. I'd have to cut it down the side between the used 4. Not sure if that would create a problem or didn't situation

It would probably work, but I would get an adapter anyway if it's not too expensive just to avoid having to go to the trouble or accidentally cutting the wrong part. (I'm not sure what you mean in your edit, but it would be a 2x2 block at one end that would need to be removed)

Well, I stated it because I didn't want any misunderstanding if I was wording it wrongly.

It is blocks of 2s all the way across to make 24. I'd have to cut the side of the 4 off to make 20.

I don't think that it'd be a problem to do the cut since I'd have someone else do it that is more precise. I'm not exactly sure how much the guy is selling the convertor for. The power supply was the only 400w type he had and Radio Shack didn't have any 400w at all. I was told that I over paid for the power supply. And I don't really think the guy will take it back since I took it back up there once already meaning to return it and try out the 350w that I knew would fit just fine.

Sickening to have new things that you can't play with that you waited 3 months to finally get LoL

Yes, it'll work. Use a razor blade or exacto & scribe repeatedly before trying to separate the plastic. Start at the top (the wire side) so you don't cut the divider off. What was the divider between pins 19/20 and 21/22 will be the new end, otherwise 19/20 can fall out.

Insulate the orphaned lines (+12/+5/+3.3/gnd) well so they don't float into contact with anything.

Follow up:

Took me a few days to get to this point, but I finally have a working computer!

The actual problem was the motherboard we had gotten. After trying different power supplies, we still couldn't get the board to power up.

We ordered a new board and the 400w power supply worked without any problems at all.

If I hadn't checked with you guys on the trimming, I'd probably would have been stucking buying another one. Thanks! :)