Getting extreme voltage spikes

[napster100]

Hi guys. My computer gets a little jumpy every so often, and I'm not sure why. CPU usage is ~30% or less usually, since I have various programs running in the background, but was never jumpy before my new PSU and custom loop.

I figured, the only way the custom loop would effect it is because of a leak, but there is none. So I turned to the PSU... I always have HWinfo running from startup, and it appears I'm getting quite a large voltage spike which I'm really, really not liking the look of!

Just in case it was maybe the program incorrectly reading the info say at startup, I set alerts on each rail and gave them 10% each side, then after some time, maybe around 3 hours of quite an idle load, I got another spike, this time I looked at my program list and it seems my anti-virus has initiated a scan which caused increased CPU usage.

Could it be my PSU causing instability in my system? Or would it be just the false readings from the program, because the voltages are otherwise really stable. I'm not sure what effect 8 volts or 18 volts on the 12v rail would have, but my PC is still alive... Somehow. I thinking it may just be the program, because I'm running the latest beta of it which was released today.

Oh and I'm using the Corsair HX1000i, which is 80+ plat. I was expecting good quality from this one 🙁 Maybe all is not lost yet, though.

Tomorrow I'll run the latest stable version of HWinfo and see what readings that gives me.

 

[napster100]

Okay, so it won't let me post the image in the OP...?
http://imgur.com/yIxjTq8

 

[f-14]

possible bad capacitor in the psu or on the motherboard (possibly from the install of the cooler?) also possible bad thermal transfer. need to know the temps on the cpu, but really if you are having this problem go back to the old parts first have the psu checked by newer psu testor. other wise suspect the cpu cooler. after going idle it only has this problem? never on start up, and only when going off idle for a period then going into a load? possible bad fan bios settings.
could be any combination of those or just one of them. lack of info such as cpu temps and load and fan speed/water pump speed.

 

[napster100]

My entire build can be found in my sig. From what I can see, the capacitors in view at least are looking to be fine, even around the cooler. They all look relatively snug on the board. CPU temps sometimes drop below 30c which is great! ah, but hasn't been above 34c at all, even while doing a casual browse on the net, watching a video or two, checking email etc... You get the gist.
The spike is somewhere between being random, or possibly due to sudden load. I should run a game to see what happens, as I haven't done that since installing the loop, been too busy.

I've only noticed the extreme voltage today, so I couldn't say whether one happened at start up, but it has been noticeably slower. I've only got one fan connected to the board in the CPU header, incase it didn't want to start up without one (haven't tried without it, but I see no need really). All other fans are connected to my fan controller on the front (apart from the side and front case fan, connected to the built in controller), and I usually have them running around 50% with the front and side running on the low setting because I only have that or high to pick from. My D5 pump is on the speed 1 setting as I haven't needed it any higher.

I should also say that my CPU is overclocked to 4.6GHz. I've set it on dynamic with speedstep on so thats my turbo clock rather than fixed, along with a voltage of 1.270 plus adaptive mode there. Its the same clock I had before the loop too, that hasn't changed.

 

[napster100]

Okay... I've been quite silly

Noticed that my multiplier was at 8 for both min and max... And I also know windows power plan options can effect the CPU , it turns out, right after I installed my loop, I happened to have gone through those settings, and me being really tired, swapped the values for min and max CPU usage... So I've been capped at 5% usage max, which for sure explains the slow loading and stuttering of things...

I guess the moral of the story is don't touch sensitive things when you had no sleep haha! I'm hoping that is what has cause the voltage spikes, or better still, caused inaccurate readings! If those voltages were actually correct, that surely would have fried my CPU right? Or at least something...

 

[napster100]

Okay looks like its here to stay, the 5V rail dropped to 0.00V then back up. I've got to try a stable release of HWinfo, because this really doesn't look right, that cannot be an accurate reading, surely...