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Quick PSU testing question

I

ilikecake

Gawd
Joined
Feb 20, 2006
Messages
759
Hi

I am having intermittent cold boot problems with my computer, and am thinking it may be PSU related. (though I hope not) I was wondering about the merits of buying a dedicated PSU tester like this.

I have measured the supply voltages in-situ using my DMM. Is this enough? Would a dedicated PSU tester tell me anything more than the DMM?
 
With that you're just testing the powersupply just to see if it powers up.
Problem is I don't think you can use that tester with the powersupply connected to the motherboard.

A digital multimeter you can test your powersupply while it is connected.
Also the computer will have other components such as videocard,etc that will put a load on your powersupply. With the dmm you would be able to gauge how you powersupply runs under a load while running games etc.
 
That product doesn't seem to provide any features that a mid(heck even a low) range DMM couldn't handle.

I would pass.

Edit:
Yeah i don't think that unit has a sort of a load in its IC that is test worthy, so it would not test it as well as it needs to be.
 
As the other posters have said, unless that tetser does something more than just check voltages, your volt meter is alll you need.

What PSU do you have and exactly what problems are you having? It could be overloaded and shutting down. Does this happen at random, or under load and what do you have to do to get started back up?
 
I have the Seasonic M12-600 power supply. There seems to be some sort of cold boot problem. Sometimes the computer will start fine, sometimes it will get to the desktop and freeze a few seconds later and sometimes it will hang during the startup screen. When it freezes, a reboot via the front panel switch is required.

Once the computer has been on for a bit, rebooting does not cause a problem, but when starting up the computer after it has been off for a while, it may take 2-10 reboots before the computer is functional.

I tested the 5 and 12v lines via an unused Molex connector when the computer started up, up to and including the crash and both of those lines looked rock steady. I don't remember the exact values, but the 5v line was a tad below 5v and the 12v was a tad above 12v.

I know there are an assortment of other voltages that the PSU puts out, but I didn’t have a good way of measuring them.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to go about testing the PSU? I am not sure it is the PSU, but the randomness of the problem makes me think the PSU is a reasonable possibility.
 
ilikecake said:
I have the Seasonic M12-600 power supply. There seems to be some sort of cold boot problem. Sometimes the computer will start fine, sometimes it will get to the desktop and freeze a few seconds later and sometimes it will hang during the startup screen. When it freezes, a reboot via the front panel switch is required.
Click to expand...

Are you using a DFI motherboard?
 
He does have DFI motherboard from his system specs. If it is not the PSU, these types of issues can be from several sources.

To start, I would download Memetest86+ (bootable from a CD or floppy) and test your memory 1 stick at a time and then togther. You have OCZ memory, so I can officially help you if you have a problem.

Which OCZ memory do you have (speed, XTC, VX, GX? ) and are you overclocking? What RAM voltages are you running?

Beyond that, you could have a motherboard issue, or even a BIOS setting problem.

Here is a link to the OCZ support site. Just locate your memory and you should find settings that will work.

OCZ Support DFI Ultra-D Settings

Let me know what you find.
 
Yeah DFI boards are absolutely horrible with spec complaince and PSU's, dime to a donut hole it is that DFI board but not because anything is wrong per se but becuase of the design choices DFI made.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
Yeah DFI boards are absolutely horrible with spec complaince and PSU's, dime to a donut hole it is that DFI board but not because anything is wrong per se but becuase of the design choices DFI made.
Click to expand...

That sounds resonable. Those boards pretty much work or they don't and are very picky. Maybe the settings I linked to will help.
 
Wow, there are quick responses in this forum. :) I have OCZ Gold memory. I have forgotten the serial number, but according to CPU-Z the part number is OCZ5001024ELGE. It looks like this a discontinued product, but at the time I bought my motherboard, the memory was listed on DFI's support forum as being recommended for this board.

I have heard about cold boot problems with these DFI boards, and I always thought I had dogged a bullet. I have never had a cold boot problem with the board until very recently. (Except for when my Antec sp500 died, but that is a different story)

Thanks for the quick responses. I am off to run memtest to see if there are any problems there. If anyone has any more suggestions, please let me know.
 
The memory you have is great. I stil have that in my DFI Ultra-D board, We have few problems with it. The problem was with higher voltage memory and the ammount of current these boards were providing, among other things.

Check that memory out just to be sure .You might also want to un-plug and replug all of your PSU connectors and make sure you have the floppy power connector next to the video card hooked up as well. Often connections get oxidized and cause problems.

I'll check in later.
 
Thanks for the heads up on the memory. I ran a short memtest run and everything seemed fine. I will be running a longer one overnight and will let you know how it goes.

I have a related question for the power supply gurus: Does the computer typically use a lot of power at startup? I have noticed that the computer seems to crash when I put a heavy load on it. I haven't tested this yet with SP2004 and RTHDRIBL, but I was trying to encode a video a few minutes ago, and crashed my computer. Before the crash I was monitoring the usage of the CPU and it was at around 75% (on both cores) however, the temperatures all seemed fine. (~37C for the CPU) Now I once again can't get the computer to boot to windows. (I am posting from my Linux backup PC)

I may be way off, but if the computer takes a lot of power at boot, then maybe the PSU cannot keep up with the load and crashes the system. It is hard to believe that my system is even capable of drawing close to 600W, but it is something to consider. Also, what are the acceptable bounds on the PSU line regulation? (+/- 1%, 5%, etc...) I want to know what to look for when I measure with my DMM.
 
If you have a memory voltage, CPU voltage, or just bad BIOS settings you can these types of crashes. They tend to occur at startup or when under load.

Did you look at the BIOS settings for your memory? The PC4000 Gold would have the right settings for you.

Are you overclocking?

How long was the system actually working properly with your current gear?

At the very least check your memory voltage and set 2.8v for your memory.
 
Thanks for the reply. I checked the BIOS and set it according to the reference you provided. I noticed in the reference that the DRAM voltage should be set to 2.6v, but in your post you recommend 2.8v. I noticed the ram voltage was set to 2.6v by default. I upped that to 2.8 and am running memtest to see if the changes helped. That having been said, I am inclined to believe that the RAM is working okay, and that there are other problems. Will running the memory at 2.8v for extended period of time damage it?

I have had this motherboard/CPU/Memory/PSU running for about a year now with no problems. Well, at least none caused by the hardware. ;) I have tried to overclock, but never had much success. The system would go unstable even with a relatively mild overclock. I could probably help it by upping the CPU voltage a bit, but I have been hesitant to do that when my computer was running fine without the overclock..
 
ilikecake said:
Thanks for the reply. I checked the BIOS and set it according to the reference you provided. I noticed in the reference that the DRAM voltage should be set to 2.6v, but in your post you recommend 2.8v. I noticed the ram voltage was set to 2.6v by default. I upped that to 2.8 and am running memtest to see if the changes helped. That having been said, I am inclined to believe that the RAM is working okay, and that there are other problems. Will running the memory at 2.8v for extended period of time damage it?

I have had this motherboard/CPU/Memory/PSU running for about a year now with no problems. Well, at least none caused by the hardware. ;) I have tried to overclock, but never had much success. The system would go unstable even with a relatively mild overclock. I could probably help it by upping the CPU voltage a bit, but I have been hesitant to do that when my computer was running fine without the overclock..
Click to expand...

2.8v is just fine for long term use and may help stability. Higher CPU voltages are required for overclocking to be sure.

I'll check back when you post your results. If you still have issues, check each stick by itself. CYA
 
Thanks for all the help. I ran memtest with the new settings you suggested and is passed 10 full cycles without any errors. I also tried loading the computer with SP2004 and RTHDRIBL. I ran that for about 2 hours, and the computer took it just fine.

Is it then reasonable to assume that this is a software problem?
 
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