Don’t go to Amazon …. Full stop.
They support a facist regime that wants you dead or controlled. Don’t keep giving them your money.
this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2026
87 points (91.4% liked)
RetroGaming
30682 readers
59 users here now
Vintage gaming community.
Rules:
- Be kind.
- No spam, AI slop, or soliciting for money.
- No racism or other bigotry allowed.
- Obviously nothing illegal.
If you see these please report them.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
"But my convenience!" 🤮
I agree, hell, they ARE the fascist regime!
Never use a cheap PSU with anything you care about.
I would say never use a cheap PSU even if you don't care about the device because you probably still care if it starts a fire.
My power outlets are something I care about.
I could rip the wire from the block on this one
yikes
Learn how to recognize certification marks. In the US, the UL mark is common on electronics, and the FCC mark means that it won't have RF emissions that interfere with other electronics. In Europe the CE mark is used. I've also seen TUV marks apply in both places. However, I have had bricks that worked perfectly well in the US which only had CE and FCC marks.
Your brick had no marks at all, so who knows whether anyone at all tested the design. Many electronics manufacturers simply buy their pre-certified bricks off the shelf and slap their own label on them (keeping the marks), specifically so they don't have to pay for the certifications themselves
Atleast CE is not really a certification but a "We fullfill these standarts, trust me bro if not we pay" label.
Worse is C E which is just a made in china mark which looks like a CE mark
UL has different versions one of which basically means nothing
Certification marks are just extra silkscreen printing applied at the factory in China. In my field I've seen plenty of melted UL marked relays that were clearly cheap clones of the original.
If you're buying a 5 dollar adapter off Amazon and it has those marks, you can pretty much assume that they mean nothing.
Never buy cheapo no name power supplies. You can get used ones from a real brand for almost nothing online.
Especially for laptop power supplies since new those are really expensive, and knockoffs tend to do more damage than some 12v 1amp noisy brick.
I get used shit from the thrift or flea market. Like other used things, it's been driven and proven good.
Also, if you're remotely DIY inclined or have basic electronics skill. USB-C all the things
Alternative to skill, you can solve this problem with money.
USB-C "trigger cables" that have the hardware to request a voltage from the supply and a barrel jack on the other end are common enough, and available in most of the standard voltages: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5450
For more money, you can have ones that support PPS mode (3.3 - 48V in 0.1V steps) from a compatible supply, and a dozen interchangeable cables (including centre negative): https://werewolf.us/collections/werewolf-products
A related upgrade is to replace the old 7805 voltage regulator on the mainboard with a more efficient L78S05CV. The console will barely get warm, plastic won't get brittle from the excess heat.
My final decision really is to get an oem or good quality adapter to be honest
Of course. The regulator upgrade is valid with any decent power brick, which is still required.
They sell USB to DC adapters, these can be pretty cheap because the conversation from ac has already happened. I make my own for about $1 at this point. It's nice for running a small router off another but obviously check your requirements.
This. Get an appropriate usb-c adapter of the correct voltage to whatever-the-fuck barrel jack you need for your device
I will trust my ability to reliably select a decent USB-c charger plug much further than I do any third party power supply for any barrel jack.
The catch here is that not all USB-C bricks actually support all the potential voltages. And the Standard allows for supporting a subset of the standard voltages. Usually they downgrade, so asking for say 9v could give you 5v, which at least helps keep the magic smoke in.
Oh 100%, don't buy any usb-c brick, but it's pretty well understood which brands you can trust to do what they say at this point.
Other brands are available, but I'd say the last 5-10 chargers I've bought have been variants of the Ugreen GaN chargers and they do all the standard standards as well as the not so standard standards
Always test for negative center pole on any PSU