>I still thinks it's easier to either buy one or just get one of some dodgy
>old machine somewhere..
Yes, that's usually the case. Those things are designed to be replaced
as a black (well shiny) box.
>Forget the bulbs as they are not accurate enough and power supplies have
>their own loads so it should work without a load I usually throw in a 10MB
>HDD just to make it happy.. bulbs work with different voltages and the
>difference between 5.25V and 5.6V is the difference between a blown BUS or
>working one..
The idea of the bulb is to present a minimum load on the SMPS, not to
calibrate voltage or anything like that. Many SMPS designs will not
start without a minimum load. This can mystify people who unplug
everything from a SMPS and then the fan doesn't even turn when they flip
the switch. Also fortunately for many people, many SMPS will also not
start into a short circuit.
I stress again: do not tinker with a SMPS unless you know what you are
doing.
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