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Bought a cheap 'universal' power supply tester for $35 and it gave me a false reading on a laptop board.
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wright.taylor27d agoTop Commenter
Oh man, that's rough. I've been burned by those cheap testers too and it drives me crazy. You think you're getting a deal and then you waste hours chasing ghosts on a board that's clearly bad. The one I had would show good voltages but couldn't handle any real load at all. It's like they're just checking that power is present, not if it's stable or shorted. Honestly I trust my multimeter way more for stuff like that now, even if it's slower to check each pin.
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matthew8641mo ago
Had the same thing happen with a cheap tester from an online marketplace. It showed a good 19v rail but the board was actually shorted. Those universal testers are basically just fancy light shows.
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