In a message dated 97-12-22 17:24:03 EST, you write:

<<
 I know this has been up here before but....

 There is a way to fool a PC power supply to work without plugging it into a
motherboard. If I remember, it involves shorting two wires, it's just which
two.

 Any ideas would be great.

 Many thanks

 Peter Shoebridge >>

Hello Peter,
I have never heard of shorting anything to get a PC power supply working.
These are Switching supplies that will shut down if they don't see a load.
The old ACER computer had a load resistor mounted in a little cage (because it
tends to get quite hot!).  If you planned on using your system for a diskless
workstation on a network, you needed one of these little power wasters to keep
the power supplies from shutting down.  Use a 5 or 10 ohm 10 watt power
resistor accross the 5 volt supply (Red and Black on most PC supplies).  If
the supply won't start lower the value while raising the wattage.  You need a
draw of about 1 or 2 amps.  Some of the cheaper supplies from Taiwan will work
fine without a load.

Good luck
Dave Duley