Help with Power Supply and +12 voltage reading

Skinnypup

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Jun 29, 2003
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I have an Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard and an Athlon XP 2600+ cpu. I installed the Asus Probe tool and it says my +12 is currently 13.056 but the status is OK. I do notice that sometime it goes over the threshold and it gives me a warning. Also sometimes my computers just reboots when I’m in the middle of a game or if I have a lot of apps opened. I do see fluctuations in the +12. Does this mean I need a better or bigger power supply?

My voltage monitor readings are:

+12V - 13.056 - fluctuates up and down
+5V – 4.838 – always stable
+3.3V – 3.334 – always stable
VCore – 1.696 – always stable

This is what I’m currently running:

Athlon XP 2600+, Asus A7N8X Deluxe MB, Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM w/8M Cache, Quantum 30GB 7200RPM, ATI RADEON 9000PRO 128MB DDR, Toshiba 16X DVD, LG 52X24X52 GCE-8520B, and two Vantec Stealth case fan. Would it be that I have two hard drives and my power supply isn't powerful enough? I have a 350 watt power supply.
 

pIII_Man

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Mar 19, 2003
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if you have acess to a voltmeter check the voltages of an unused hard drive connector while your computer is idleing...then check full load to see if you are infact getting fluctuation

yellow to black wire 12v
red to black wire 5v

the voltages do not need to be exact but they should be within .3 volts on the 12v and .15 on the 5v...

It does sound like you have a powersupply issue but if you have a voltmeter it would be great to make sure...

So easy to fry yet tastes so good...
Silicon: The other, other, other white meat :evil:
 

pat

Expert
I'll tell you, I have an Antec 300W PS running an overclocked AXP2500+, an ati all-in-wonder video card, 1cd rom, one dvd burner, 2 HD in RAID, 3 case fans and 2 USB receiver for my wireless joystick and ATI remote control...for me, 300w it is definitively not enough,though my system run stable when I dont push my CPU too far and 350w, if it is good quality PS should be enough for yours. But it as to be good quality PS. Which brand you have?

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Voltages between 11.8 and 13.8 volts shouldn't damage anything, but I'd say anything abover around 12.8 does nothing but add heat.

Your -5v line is a little low, I prefer a little high for stability, but as long as it's stable I wouldn't complain.

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Skinnypup

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Well I got the power supply with my case. Its a cheap one. I got both for 35 bucks. The brand of my power supply is Elitech. What is a good brand to buy?
 

vargasjhu

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Jun 5, 2003
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I had a random reboot issue with my pc a while back, it turned out my Vcore was too low. I bumped it from 1.75 to 1.80, using an athlon xp 1700+. You may want to increase that voltage a notch and see if there is any added stability.
 

pIII_Man

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Mar 19, 2003
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fortron makes some good quality cheep powersupplies becasue it seems like this is your problem...

3 386DX-25's...12 volts...glue and some ln2 and a wicked amount of overclocking and you get a willamantee minus 36 pins, 33.75 million transistors and a couple hundred mhz... :cool: