Hold-Up Time

Hold-up time represents the duration for which a PSU can maintain stable output as defined by the ATX specification without input power. This is very important when the quality of your electricity varies, and there are short drops in the supply (dips or brownouts).

In the oscilloscope screenshots below, the blue line is the AC input mains signal, the green line is the "Power Good" signal, and the yellow line is the +12V rail. The measured timing variable is listed as ΔX.

Hold-Up Time

AC Loss to PWR_OK Hold-Up Time

PWR_OK Inactive to DC Loss Delay

Hold-up time is too short at 10 ms. The power ok signal is accurate but short.

Timings for Alternative Low Power Modes (ALPM)

Sleep mode (S3) traditionally shuts the system off for a long time (minutes or hours) to reduce power consumption. However, this approach adds a few seconds of delay when resuming from standby. Microsoft recently introduced Modern Standby, which brings the instant-on capability to PCs—just like your phone instantly turns on without any noticeable delay. Modern Standby builds on the Alternative Low Power Modes capability, which Intel has defined. To support ALPM, a power supply must wake up from sleep quickly to ensure system stability—think of it as the PSU's boot time.

For the reviewed PSU, we measured T1 and T3 at 20% and 100% load.



Power-on time is below 50 ms, which is good. PWR_OK delay is in the 100-150 ms range, so the PSU supports Alternative Low Power Modes.