High voltages on +12v rail

[MarcoThaDon]

Hey guys, recently my system monitoring program (asus probe) notified me of high voltages on the +12v rail of my PSU...It usually fluctuates from 12.8v all the way to 13.2v...It will then notify me that it is going past its voltage threshold of 10%. Is this a warning of my PSU giving way or is this something I shouldnt worry about?

I just got this PSU with my sonata case, so I'm reluctant to think it could be my PSU as the root of my problems. My PSU is an Antec 380w TruePower. I don't have much attached to it, just a AMD 64 3500+, 200GB HD, and 2 optical drives.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here's a screenshot of what I get.

 

[[Spectre]]

Well that would be dangerously out of spec.......and I would believe it if it weren't software reported. Get a multimeter on it and check for sure.

 

[MarcoThaDon]

Sorry, I'm somewhat of a n00b in this stuff, as my name states but what exactly is a multimeter and how do you use it?

 

[[Spectre]]

Sorry, I'm somewhat of a n00b in this stuff, as my name states but what exactly is a multimeter and how do you use it?

Here you go:

http://www.driverheaven.net/guides/testingPSU/

 

[honkee]

use motherbaord monitor or speedfan to monitor voltages.

asus probe has always been flaky

 

[[Spectre]]

use motherbaord monitor or speedfan to monitor voltages.

asus probe has always been flaky

Also useless they all pull from the same source.

 

[MarcoThaDon]

If I keep riding this through the way it is now is there a chance my PSU will die and take all my components w/ me? How long do I have until my PSU dies?

 

[[Spectre]]

If I keep riding this through the way it is now is there a chance my PSU will die and take all my components w/ me? How long do I have until my PSU dies?

To be honest unknown for lot's of reasons.....if the multimeter bears this out though get rid of it fast. If it is under warranty RMA it.

 

[Elledan]

My money is on this being due to a faulty sensor on the mainboard.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Yeah. I can't see the 12V being that high and the system actually working properly.

 

[Ice Czar]

I can
the mobos voltage regulation modual is tested to deal with a 10% load regulation range
sure would be tough on the drives and the mobos voltage regulation and wouldnt be a good idea at all to run that high but it could likely work for awhile

MarcoThaDon the actual spec calls for a 5% range

cut and paste

closer to the reference value is better than either higher or lower
stuff also doesnt tend to get fried from lower values as much as higher values
anything higher than the 5% range is called an overshoot and that fries most stuff
anything lower is called an undershoot and that makes things unstable


for reference Basic Spec compliance of 5% is
+12V....11.4V to 12.6V
+5V......4.75V to 5.25V
+3.3V...3.135V to 3.465V
but its also a dynamic range
the supply converts power from AC to DC as the load changes from the components
well it also has to keep the reference voltages within the range above while it doing that
so measuring at one point is like watching a single frame in a movie
so logging the voltage is a good idea

that said your BIOS and software is lying to you
what you dont know is by what amount
for that youd need to measure it with a multimeter
cheap ones can be had for $20 or $30 though their accuracy isnt all that much better than the BIOS
they scale up to hundreds of dollars and increasing accuracy

ideally you calibrate your software to a hard measurement (like at idle)
then log till your confident that your within spec at all times

a high reference voltage at idle means that while the supply might be regulating the load within its own parameter,
under some circumstances it could be letting overshoots through
now there are advantages to having a higher reference value if your overclocking
but only if your not allowing overshoots
thats one of the reasons overclockers like supplies with tighter than spec load regulation
so instead of a supply with a range of 5% regulation it has 3% or 1%
and can thus have a higher reference value without letting through overshoots

most components can deal with higher than 5% values and are commonly tested to survive split second 10% values, but these wear on the components

since IC Chips (integrated circuits) vary from pristine to just barely passing the functional test, that means a little "wear" (electromigration) could cause immediate failure or not be noticable degredation for years

more to the point though, the odds are greatly increased for some failure somewhere by the sheer number of IC chips throughout the computer as a whole.
some are behind buffers like the CPU and RAM which have the voltage modified by the motherboards voltage regulation modual, while other lack any buffer at all, like the drives

definately test it with a multimeter
but the odds on favirute is bad software

an additional link on how overshoots "wear" on components
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=761614

 

[macrospect]

use motherbaord monitor or speedfan to monitor voltages.

asus probe has always been flaky

So are the winbond chips on them. I have a bad one on mine. It has no ability to correctly report temps/voltages. I may RMA the board, I think I can live without a system for a week while they evaluate it