uhoh......n00bie

[cardude03]

umm, well, first of all, i dont really know if this belongs in the PSU threads or Software threads, but umm, well, i have this Interactive Monitor thing on my computer, sorta like MBM, but i think it came with the intel proc. so anyways, about an hour ago, it started beeping and saying the Powersupply voltage has gone too high, and it does its little log thing, and after that, it started doing it like every ten minutes, and so now im getting a little worried, so i checked the log history, and this is what i found.....

10/27/04 23:03:32
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has returned to its recommended range.

10/27/04 23:03:31
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has gone outside of its recommended range.

10/27/04 22:51:54
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has returned to its recommended range.

10/27/04 22:51:53
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has gone outside of its recommended range.

10/27/04 22:41:15
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has returned to its recommended range.

10/27/04 22:41:14
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has gone outside of its recommended range.

10/27/04 22:36:46
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has returned to its recommended range.

10/27/04 22:36:45
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has gone outside of its recommended range.

10/27/04 22:17:10
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has returned to its recommended range.

10/27/04 22:17:09
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has gone outside of its recommended range.

10/27/04 22:04:04
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has returned to its recommended range.

10/27/04 22:04:03
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has gone outside of its recommended range.

10/27/04 17:14:57
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has returned to its recommended range.

10/27/04 17:14:56
A voltage (Memory (+1.5 V)) has gone outside of its recommended range.

10/27/04 17:00:53
A voltage (+3.3 V) has returned to its recommended range.

10/27/04 17:00:50
A voltage (+3.3 V) has gone outside of its recommended range.

what do you guys think? and also, i checked my thresholds, and they are like this....
Memory (1.5V) - 2.300
CPU core (1.5V) - 2.300
3.3V - 4.300
5V - 6.000
3.3V standby- 4.300

so im a total n00bie with this PSU stuff, and most computer stuff in general, so hopefully u guys can help me out a bit. maybe my thresholds are out of wack, maybe something else, your guess is as good as mine, if not better.

[Ice Czar]

one the one hand
the mobos voltage regulation modual(s) (VRM) generate the high current, low-voltages (anywhere from ~ 1.5V to around 2.7V ) employed by the CPU and RAM

one the other hand
if the VRM is being fed voltage outside of its spec it might not be able to reliably produce voltage for the CPU & RAM

on the gripping hand
the SMBus (System Management Bus) where the software, MBM and the BIOS pull info from
doesnt always synch or accurately reflect the real voltages, definative values are often wrong, but they are pretty good at relative velues (picking up fluctuations) however they have been known to "miss" a cycle here and there


what PSU? mobo? and Monitoring Ap?

have you tried to replicate it with MBM?


and Finally, both the +3.3 volt and +5V rails are out of spec (by a fairly wide margin)
and you didnt give the +12V rail (often the rail powering the VRM(s) in a modern board)
if they are accurate, you need a new PSU, youd actually test them with a multimeter (http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/faqpowersupply.html)

but that is something you might not even bother to do if someone sold you a doorstop PSU bundled with a case, cheap generics are notorious as the cause of system instability and worse fry very expensive components

[Deadlierchair]

If your voltages were really like that I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even be posting on that PC right now :)

2.300 volts on the CPU is probably instant death for a P4, and all of those other measurements are very far off as well. Check them out with MBM if you can, but if you have a cheap generic power supply, take power supply god Ice Czar's advice and run out and buy yourself a good PSU - they only cost like $40-$50 and considering they're powering probably $1000 of equipment, you should make the investment.

[Ice Czar]

If your voltages were really like that I'm pretty sure you wouldn't even be posting on that PC right now :) .

likely true :eek: :p


but Id start the "good" category at $75 (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-104-968&depa=0) and up :p

overview > Power supplies become increasingly expensive (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11279)

you might be able to get away with less provided you carefully run the numbers (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=823481&highlight=inertia),
you need to do that even for the Fortron linked above
depending on the config

[cardude03]

hmmm, well its kinda interesting, because this computer has only recently started acting up, maybe its jealous of the new comp i just built (my first comp that i built). i have had this computer for a couple years, some friend of my dad just built it for me. its a 1.8ghz P4 (when they first came out). im at school right now, so i cant check what kind of PSU it is, but i will definately check it out when i get back home today.

regarding MBM, i actually downloaded it maybe like 3 days ago, could these two programs be conflicting? i dont think MBM has given me any warnings about anything yet, but i think i need to get my friend to tweak it a lil (right now it says my CPU is -65c). the reason i downloaded it, is because im sort of using this old computer to test alot of the programs, so i can see what i want to put on my new computer. i guess i might start looking into a new PSU, just in case, i dont want anything to fry.

[Ice Czar]

actually they could be conflicting
its possible there is a PSU problem but its now less likely
considering youve been stable for a long period of time
try uninstalling MBM and see if that alters the first program
and if you can buy a cheap multimeter and actually test the rails

in the worse case senerio, the PSU or the mobo's voltage regulation or the RAM is screwed
but do go out and buy anything (other than a multimeter which will serve you well for a long time) till you determine what is actually the problem

borrowing another known good PSU and testing it on that board with the same RAM voltage warnings could point to the mobos VRM or, to the RAM itself

use memtest86+ to test the RAM with the cuurent and the borrowed PSU
(like from your new rig)

[cardude03]

yup, u guys were right, as usual. i guess they were conflicting, i took off MBM a couple days ago, and everything has been fine ever since