AUX vs. ATX

I'm confused, I'm having a really bad time getting a system up and running that I've put together and wondering about the power supply notations. On the front of the manual it says the unit has an AUX power connector but on the inside of the manual, in the specifications pages, it refers to the power connector as an ATX 20 pin power connector. It's an Enermax 450W switching power supply recommended by AMD which I have, a 2000+. What is AUX and could it be making a difference in the way the system is/not operating correctly? I've had it up and running for about a week only to have it completely stop booting up after that period of time. Thanx for any info .................... Froidster

 

I'm afraid what I will tell you will be of little help; but, here goes. "AUX" usually stands for "auxiliary ", as in "an auxiliary connection" of some sort.

It is possible the power connector has another terminal for an AT-style board and that is what they are referring to. Aside from the 20-pin ATX connector, is there another connector right beside it that isn't being used? If so, that might be the AT connector. Frankly though, I doubt there is an AT terminal on any board capable of a 2000+ processor.

If this machine ran fine for a while and suddenly stopped (and you did nothing inside the case that may have caused it), you probably have everything connected properly. I would look for bad parts, such as a failed power supply or failed main board, etc.

 

Yeah, stupid question as I sort of figured it out 10 minutes after posting it. Actually my concern was whether the wattage of a power supply could be wrecking havoc with my components. I've built an AMD XP 2000+, Soyo Dragon Plus MB, GeForce 3 video card, Maxtor EIDE 60GB HD and everything is hooked up to a Power Buster UPS. So far I've had the MB and the hard drive replaced, the hard drive was originally a Seagate so I wasn't too surprised by that failure, and am currently in process of replacing the CPU which I think might have been the problem all along. I have an Enermax 450W Switching power supply and was wondering if that was causing a problem as opposed to AMD recommending a 350W PS. Talking to AMD led me to believe that the wattage has very little to do with the power output being delivered so I think I'll finally be in business as soon as the new CPU arrives but will do a power test on the PS before trying to boot everything up again. BTW, Seagate's technical service really stinks, they claim that all replacement parts are delivered within a week of the faulty units arrival and they still hadn't even shipped it 2 weeks after they received the bad unit, something to consider when buying a new hard drive! Thanks for all the help ............ Happy Computing! Geoff

 

Just so you'll know, the AUX conncetor on the power supply is required on P4 motherboards. As to the wattage question, having a 450W when a 350W is reccomended is not a problem. Having a 250W instead of the required 350W would be a problem!

Tin

 

Thanks all for the help! I'm really glad to have my thoughts that the higher wattage of the power supply has no direct influence on the amount of power delivered as long as the wattage isn't lower than suggested. I'm convinced that the problem is the CPU and resulted from my mistake of relying on Tiger Direct to provide/suggest the proper heatsink/fan for the AMD 2000+ XP. I recall that it just seemed to take a little too much effort to get the other end of the fan latch to hook onto the socket mount. AMD has gracefully agreed to replace the processor and I've since ordered a suggested compatible heatsink for the new processor so should be back to playing games and creating my 3D artwork by next week. It's been a nightmare though, looking back, the level of tech support out there can really be frustrating. Both the MB and Seagate HD people said the power supply was too "beefy ". Seagate would say the MB was the problem, Soyo would say the video card was the problem, GeForce 3 folks would say the harddrive was damaged. hah! AMD was really the only place that seemed to really take the time, care and patience to make the intelligent assumption and they have been real sports in repairing a problem that was my mistake. If your building a computer for yourself from scratch just be sure and do your homework, don't rely on retailers to provide you with the compatible/correct components as it will spare you hours of waiting on the phone to talk to dumb/incompetent techies, spare you a lot of anxiety and not take a toll on your nerves.
Thanks all ...................... Froidster