Power Supply

I was just wondering if there is a way to test my power supply myself instead of paying somebody, Thank you.

There are a couple:

1. Swap it out with a known good one.

2. Buy a tester. I keep a FrozenCPU Ultimate PSU Tester in my travel tool bag. It is not good as testing the power supply under a true load with a good meter in the hands of a qualified technician, but darn close. The CompUSA PSU Tester is considerably cheaper, less informative, but still useful. And Newegg has several to choose from. These all contain a "dummy load" to fool the PSU into thinking it is connected to a motherboard, and therefore allow the PSU to power on, if able, without being attached to a motherboard - great for testing fans too.

One of the most common PSU problems is caused by placing too great of a demand on the supply. This happens frequently with budget PCs, and PCs built by novice builders. They tend to buy the cheapest PSU they can find that barely meets the demands of the new PC. But then the user adds RAM, a bigger video card, more drives, etc., and suddenly the PSU is underpowered and overstressed.

Use the eXtreme PSU Calculator Lite to determine if your power supply meets your PC's current requirements. Then plug in all the hardware you think you might have in 2 or 3 years (extra drives, bigger or 2nd video card, more RAM, etc.) to see if it will meet your near future needs. Be sure to read and heed the notes at the bottom. I recommend you set Capacitor Aging to 30% and if you participate in distributive computing projects, I recommend setting TDP to 100%. Then look for brands listed under the "Good" column of PC Mechanic's PSU Reference List. Don't try to save a few dollars by getting a cheap supply. A good, well chosen supply will treat your digital electronics right, and provide you years of service and upgrade wiggle room.