Need help w/ViDock+6 port video card+external power supply.

Hi all - throwing this one out there, as I'm way lost on this deal. Any ideas much appreciated...

* Have the old basic(discontinued) ViDock box.

* Have an ATI Radeon Infinity 6 video card, which is a 6 port modern card. Power reqs are way more than the ViDock can provide. It has 6 pin and 8 pin power connectors for hooking up additional power to it.

* So, I tried pulling some old power supplies from junker desktops I had lying around.

* When I hook it all up, the only thing that happens is the fan on the video cards starts whirring. NO connectivity to laptop and therefore, no monitor support.

* The ViDock provides something like 45 watts of power through the slot the card plugs into. All other power to the card must flow through the 6/8 pin connectors. I think the power to run the video card fan is coming from the ViDock's 45 watts...

* I noticed when I plugged in any of the power supplies that they apparently aren't running. Cold to touch, fans not working, etc.

* I tried this approach yesterday with a new power supply I bought off of ebay that's rated at 500 watts max, but it never showed signs of life, either. That's what led me to try some old power supplies that I know worked at one time in the past.

Ideas on what I'm missing here? I figured the power supplies would work standalone, but maybe they have to be plugged into a motherboard/etc. to actually start supplying juice. They're old power supplies; one listed it's power max as 115 watts max, but even so, I thought it might have enough juice just to get the video card to show some signs of life. Even so, the 500 watt new power supply is just as dead as the old ones.

I didn't think the video card would care where the power came from, as it's getting ~45 watts from the ViDock and all of the rest should come from the standalone power supply.

Could be a partially dead video card, but I don't think so, as the fan on the card runs(apparently off the the 45 watts of power from the ViDock).

My goal is: ViDock+card+external, standalone power supply = success.

SOoooo, ideas ????????? All I can think of is that power supplies must have some intelligence in them to want to be plugged into a motherboard before they'll supply any power at all. Or, possibly, the video card can detect where power's coming from and doesn't like mixed power sources.

Unfortunately, the most powerful ViDock box currently available has two 6 pin power connectors, where I need both 6 and 8 pin connectors. So, unless the video card can run in a low power mode off of just one 6 pin connector, buying another ViDock box probably isn't gonna fix this problem.

 

I've since found out that most(all?) power supplies rely on the motherboard to send out a 'power on' signal, which explains why I couldn't get mine going by itself.

Does anyone there know if a brand/model of power supply that can be used standalone and would have 6/8 pin connectors on it? That would solve my problem(I think).

 

I would take a trip to the DIY ViDock thread, It will definately cover the issue you have.

 

Thanks, did so, will see now...

 

Use the paperclip trick to switch on your PSU. Pls refer to ViDock Facebook page to get help from the Villagetronic community. You may consider selling the ViDock in favor of a DIY eGPU PE4H 2.x with no power restrictions. We expect a few of those units will be hitting the secondhand market as Sandy Bridge notebook owners upgrade to the pci-e 2.0 capable PE4L 2.x or PE4H 3.x.

 

Slick...thx. Be a couple of days before I can get to it, but looks like a good workaround...

 

nando4 - I tried the 'paperclip' trick today and it worked great.
Got the PSU going, got the video card going and it all works