I have a new PS that I just bought to replace the one in my machine that just died. Having not payed so much attention to hardware for the past few years, I didn't know that a 24 pin connector had become standard until I tried plugging it into my 20 pin motherboard. That's also when I noticed that the extra four pins could disconnect from the rest of the connector. I looked through the PS manual, but it didn't say anything about it other than listing the connector as "24(20) Universal". I'm guessing that means that I can just use the 20 pins and it should work. But, when I try that, my machine freaks out when I power it on. The pc speaker lets out a constant beep until I turn it off and the display is a jumbled mess. There's also a neat ionized air scent that comes from the PS. So, what I want to know is am I wrong in assuming that I can just plug the PS in or is there something wrong with the PS?

Is it a brand name computer? (Dell) If so, how old?

i fix computers every day for the past years

yes ive been using these new 20+4 connectors on old 20pin mbs, yes it works correctly and perfectly

to me it seems your mobo got also fried as well

either get a friends or another computers psu and test but the beeping can only mean "no memory" "no video" or "no cpu" only

;3