[Sesquipedalian]

I'm building my first computer. I just opened the box of my new Corsair VX450W Power Supply, only to find that one of the wire/connectors is missing in the 24 pin ATX socket, making a total of 23 wired holes. I counted the pins on the mobo: 24--so I'm assuming there should be a corresponding number of wire/connectors in the PSU socket. Am I one wire short, or am I missing something--like "Don't worry about it. They all come that way"?

A second question is that the mobo has a 4 pin 12V connector, while the PSU has an 8 pin socket. The PSU instructions say to separate the extra 4-pin part of the socket, but not how. To make that a question: How do I do that without breaking it?

Thanks!

Edited by Sesquipedalian, 01 June 2008 - 01:43 AM.

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The missing pin is normal. Not an RMA. If the unit doesn't work at all then it's an RMA

The extra 4 pins on the 12v connector normally just slide off in a downwards direction, however a lot of PSUs are now coming with two 12v power connectors, one in the four pin variety and one in the 8 pin variety.

[Neil Jones]

The missing pin is normal. Not an RMA. If the unit doesn't work at all then it's an RMA

The extra 4 pins on the 12v connector normally just slide off in a downwards direction, however a lot of PSUs are now coming with two 12v power connectors, one in the four pin variety and one in the 8 pin variety.

[Sesquipedalian]

Thanks, Neil.

The missing wire in the connector was a mystery to me because there wasn't a loose one hanging out that just didn't get properly inserted. As for the 4/8 12V connector, with your information, I'll play with it confidently. Now I'll be able to put all those shiny, new parts together, after I get some sleep, that is!

Best wishes.

[shard92]

That would be the -5volt line that is no longer used.... just an FYI

[Sesquipedalian]

Thanks Shard92. I've learned a little bit since my first post, like how to read the 12V/ATX Power Connector diagram. The missing wire is the #17 ground. There are 6 other grounds, so this was deemed unnecessary. The -5volt line is actually still there, lonely and neglected, in #20; I suppose to be backward compatible. The Corsair tech said no problemo, which boils down to the same thing as what you and Neil told me. It's nice to know that these topics are still looked at after the first couple of days.

The results are that I built the machine and it seems to work fine, including the PSU. It ran Memtest86+ for 2 hours last night, w/o any overheating or errors, so I'm encouraged. The only problem is that when I try to install my copy of UBUNTU (Dapper), it fails with a msg: "MP-BIOS bug: 8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC." I'm not seeking help for that in this thread; I include it as part of my update, or therapy, after a long, hard night and morning. Wish me luck!

[shard92]

Ok cool glad you got it sorted... and things are working for you...

Well I couldn't really help you with the ubuntu other than to send you to their forums as I'm not familiar at all with that particular flavor of linux....