ATX (v2.2) Power Supply Voltage Tolerances

Todays article is about power supplies and their voltages, when troubleshooting hardware faults often the practice in small time operations is simply a trial and error type of fault finding. This is usually done by removing components untill the problem vanishes and by swapping out critical components like the power supply, however if your serious about fixing computers to be profitable you cant really waste too much time on this kind of methodology.

This is where your trusty power supply tester comes in handy and whilst they usually indicate when theres a problem sometimes this may not be detected immediately. As the power supply heats up problems may arise that would not be detected right away or may be just below causing a warning from your tester.

Thankfully with a little information you can assess the condition of the power supply based on the voltage readout and make reccomendations of replacement prior to the problem manifesting itself further and potentially damaging existing hardware. Below you will find a table that outlines acceptable voltages based on the ATX v2.2 specifications.

So bear in mind next time you test a power supply that while you may be within these ranges should you see large fluctuations that near these values then you would do well to replace it before it actually starts casusing problems.