martini1179

Hey guys,

I have a question about a PSU upgrade. Right now I have an HP Pavilion a1267c and I'd like to upgrade the power supply so I can use my 8600GT to play a couple of games whilst I save up the money for a sweet gaming rig. Sidenote: I ordered a Corsair 450W, and it should arrive tomorrow, but after having done some more research, I'm beginning to wonder if my HP will have proprietary parts to somehow prevent the Corsair from working.

The stock PSU, from what little info I found, is a 300W "(Merlot C) regulated" with the following rails:

+3.3V 28A
+5V 30A
+12V 19A
-12V 0.8A
+5VSB 2A

The HP part number is 5188-2625. Not much more is known. Is it a bad sign of this part number shows up on third party PSU retailers that seem to only provide replacement PSUs for the major manufacturers on their websites?

The motherboard is a AmethystM-GL6E, more info can be found here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...847035&lang=en

I've read the power supply info sticky, but I'd like to know specifics:

1) Has anyone ever used this mobo/PSU/Pavilion model? If so, were you able to upgrade?

2) I want crack open my case and look to see if there is anything proprietary under the hood. What exactly would I be looking for?

This setup will only be temporary, as I'll be building my own system soon, so in other words I don't want to hear "OEM sucks! Just build your own!" :)

Thanks, guys

Fox

Do a search online or through your computer's documentation to see if you can find the pinout of your current power supply. Compare this to the standard, and see if it deviates.

If you find it's different, you could make a temporary solution by switching the wires around on your new one to reflect the layout of the old one, although there's no guarantee that there aren't extra weird proprietary things, like extra ground wires or non-standard leads.

If you can't find any documentation online for the pinout of the motherboard, at the very least you should be able to find something out based on the color of the wires coming out of the PSU. If they match the standard, then I would be on it being a standard PSU.

Doby

You have a standard atx psu here is a replacement with specs, most hp's come with bestec 300w psu's and that problably what yours is

http://itwinkle.stores.yahoo.net/beathp3024ps.html

Any way you should have no problem using the corsair 450w the only thing it could be a bit tight fitting in the case especially the clearence between the back of the supply and the cdrom drive

martini1179

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Doby, when you mentioned Bestec, it rang a bell and I now remember checking the PSU one before. What I did not know if if the Bestec was a standard ATX, but with your input, it looks like it is. Thanks for the info.

A funny thing happened when I attempted to find out from HP. They're response to my asking if they had proprietary parts installed in my Pavilion is just precious:

"You can upgrade the power supply on your HP Pavilion Media Center a1267c Desktop PC to 450W. However HP does not recommend doing the same as we have not tested this computer to work with 450W power supply. This computer has 300W power supply and we have tested the computer to work with that specification.

We suggest you to contact a local authorized service station and get the power supply upgraded and check its functionality."

I opted NOT to send them an angry response...

Fox

Lol, I wonder if they're just out for money, or if they're really that naive...

martini1179

Well the reason I didn't write them back yelling at them was because I realized that I might have erm ... fudged my purchase date on the support form and this dude might be required to say what he said so as to discourage me from possibly voiding my "warranty." LOL!

But its just easier to think that HP is a greedy company, and/or staffed by idiots.

Doby

There just out for the money, trained to be that way.

In some hp models there is a special plug/connection that plugges into the motherboard to feed the onboard video, standard atx psu's don't have this connection so therefore a standard atx supply would not work if you are using the onboard video.

In your case this don't apply because you are using a video card, so I guess there half right in some cases

martini1179

Ok, well, after a little confusion with a certain 4-pin CPU power connector and a badly written manual, I installed the 450w Corsair. It fits nice and snug, and while I did have little clearance between the PSU and the optical drive, it wasn't an issue. I've had it running for about two hours now, with my trusty 8600GT and nothing has melted yet.

Its a big deal for me because I've never done anything as advanced as installing a PSU before, and after a little research this was a piece of cake. Looking forward to building my own soon. Hopefully I can rely on you guys if I hit a snag.

Thanks again for the help. If sites like this weren't around, things like this would be a lot harder.

Doby

Great news and we'll be here when you get around to that new build, in the building section of the forum check out the sticky about bench testing, its a great guide for anyone building new