Inverter problem

**girbot** · 04-06-2006, 10:01 PM

I have a 400watt power inverter that powers up to 3.8 amps. My system is a micro-atx board, a cd drive, a hard drive, 2 sticks of memory, keyboard, and mouse. I hooked up everything in a temp case to test out the system in the car. I made sure all the componets inside the case where all in order, and took it outside to test out my new power inverter.

Long story short, it wont boot up. I ran a extension cord out there and plug it in and it booted fine, but whenever I plug it into the inverter it wont boot. Is there a electricty thing I don't know about? It says 115V AC 400W 3.8AMPS, so it should work.

What am I missing?

**m_dunnie** · 04-06-2006, 10:04 PM

Originally Posted by girbot

I have a 400watt power inverter that powers up to 3.8 amps. My system is a micro-atx board, a cd drive, a hard drive, 2 sticks of memory, keyboard, and mouse. I hooked up everything in a temp case to test out the system in the car. I made sure all the componets inside the case where all in order, and took it outside to test out my new power inverter.

Long story short, it wont boot up. I ran a extension cord out there and plug it in and it booted fine, but whenever I plug it into the inverter it wont boot. Is there a electricty thing I don't know about? It says 115V AC 400W 3.8AMPS, so it should work.

What am I missing?

Have you testing anything else that runs on a/c from the inverter?

**girbot** · 04-06-2006, 10:14 PM

I hooked up my laptop to it first to test it and my monitor out, then I thought about my full system and decided to test out the full system.

The laptop booted fine.

**DarquePervert** · 04-06-2006, 10:27 PM

Is your inverter plugged into your cigarette lighter or wired directly to your car battery?

**girbot** · 04-06-2006, 10:52 PM

It came with both a cig lighter plug and a direct to battery cables.

I have it running threw the cig lighter.

**DarquePervert** · 04-06-2006, 10:55 PM

Wire it to the battery. It's likely too much resistance on the cigaretette lighter plug.

**TruckinMP3** · 04-06-2006, 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by girbot

It came with both a cig lighter plug and a direct to battery cables.

I have it running threw the cig lighter.

Yup...

**girbot** · 04-06-2006, 11:05 PM

The length of the cables it gave me are only about 2 feet long. What would be the best and fastest way to extend these?

Note: they look like jumper cables on one end and termenal connectors on the other.

**girbot** · 04-06-2006, 11:08 PM

O quick thing to add:

I have two cig lighter ports one of which dosent work (not sure why, the other works). Can I cut the line to the not working one and rigged it to the inverter?

**numbers** · 04-07-2006, 10:47 PM

Does the inverter have a low voltage or protection alarm/led? The first thing I'd try is breaking off the ground prong from the power cable you have between the inverter and computer, though from the information you've given I can't guarantee that as the definate solution.