[geeks] weird power supply behaviour

[Mouse]

>> The PS is willnig to power the MB and both disks, but not MB and
>> disk B alone.  [...]

>> Any theories?  I have no theory to explain this.

Various people have made suggestions and asked questions.  I'll try
things when I next have the leisure to experiment with this and write
back with my results.  I'm writing now because this probably will not
be for a few days, and I don't want people to think I'm just ignoring
them.

Specifically, here are some things people have said that I have
specific responses to.  These next three quotes are from three
different messages.

> The same power cable to disk B is being used in each case...?

I _think_ so; it looked vanilla enough I Didn't bother watching closely
to make sure I WAS using the same connector each time.

> I have heard of, but never seen for myself, power supplies which,
> with too little load, act just as if they had too _much_ load.

I once fried one with too little load (see the sunhelp page about
running an SLC/ELC without the monitor case around it).  But this is a
peecee supply, which usually can do fine over a wide range of loads.
When I get back to this I'll do some thing designed to see if this is
what's going on.

> What happens if you just power the mobo and leave it on a spake test
> or run memtest86 on it for a while?

I'm not sure what a "spake test" is, but I'm also not sure how to get
memtest86 onto it without any sort of external drive - I'd probably
have to connect up a CD drive at least.  I could leave it sitting at
one of the BIOS setup screens, though.

As I said, I'll write back once I've done further investigation.

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