dbminter Posted March 31, 2006 Posted March 31, 2006 I'm not much of a hardware person, though I am 1.) more knowledgable than most at it 2.) comfortable working inside the PC with the it 3.) adept at killing many pieces of it. Something I noticed today. I have a possible voltage problem and wanted to get anyone else's opinions on them. I have had Intel Active Monitor installed for about a year or two. When I first started using it, the first value in the Power listings, the first one under Power Supply Voltages, was always dangerously close to the red mark at the far end of the +12v threshold. Now, I am into 13, ranging from 13.2 to 13.75, with fluctuating results in this range. This has turned on IAM's warning for the Power indicator, lighting it red. (!) I haven't added anything that requires a power connection internally to the system since I have used Intel Active Monitor. I haven't changed anything internally in the hardware, either. Should I be worried about this extra 1 to 2 volts? Could the power supply need servicing? Thanks!
spinningwheel Posted March 31, 2006 Posted March 31, 2006 DB; You have better than a 10% voltage increase there, if you were dealing with electrical and not electronic devices it probably wouldn'thurt...just need to be monitored. As you're dealing with electronics meant to act within definite voltages and heat numbers, I would have the power supply checked, if only for my own peace of mind, maybe you have a filter or something else beginning to fail.
lfcrule1972 Posted March 31, 2006 Posted March 31, 2006 With db's reputation for frying hardware I would be setting up an exclusion zone around it now !!!
Kenadjian Posted March 31, 2006 Posted March 31, 2006 DB, I agree with spinner, electronics normaly have a very low tolerance threshold, Ie. +/- 5%, and because the voltage is already in the low range Ie. 12v or 5v, the 5% equates to 2/5 of fuck all.
dbminter Posted March 31, 2006 Author Posted March 31, 2006 With db's reputation for frying hardware I would be setting up an exclusion zone around it now !!! Well, this would be my first major case hardware kill. Better get it out of the way, then! Have never had a power supply issue before. I've broken things before like hard drives, cracked external cases, scratched internal drive cases, broken off toggle switches, broken case panel tabs, broken case bezzle tabs, etc. The optical drives just died on their own. NO fault of mine! Strangely, the IAM warning was a "fluke." I am currently debugging a problem that is affecting system performance. It is not on some of past weekly system backups, so, it's not the voltage there. For some weird reason, system wide, programs were not accepting their options, even though they were listed as correct. Or some would "change" but when the app was closed and reopened, it would forget they were changed. On IAM's side, the upper threshold of the voltage is 13.2. Right now, on one of these restored weekly systems, the voltage is 13.188. Close to the threshold, but, not there. Thus, the alarm is not going off. So... well, what I am saying, I guess, is who the fuck knows?! All I know is there's no money to have this thing checked so there's no money equally to have it repaired or parts replaced. So, I'll just keep monitoring it for now.
Movie Junkie Posted April 1, 2006 Posted April 1, 2006 DB; You have better than a 10% voltage increase there, if you were dealing with electrical and not electronic devices it probably wouldn'thurt...just need to be monitored. As you're dealing with electronics meant to act within definite voltages and heat numbers, I would have the power supply checked, if only for my own peace of mind, maybe you have a filter or something else beginning to fail. I completely agree with what you said Spinner but what about the power supply variable tolerance factor? I'm sure you remember that you must factor in a number that is inversely proportional to the voltage fluctuation pf. In addition you need to add 10% into the calculation for the line voltage drop curve. I really don't remember if you need to consider the harmonic halo effect but you must consider the ampere-hour capacity for you to get a true idea of the condition. What's your opinion Spinner?
Kenadjian Posted April 1, 2006 Posted April 1, 2006 harmonic halo effect but you must consider the ampere-hour capacity for you to get a true idea of the condition. You forgot to factor in the square root of 2/5 of fcuck all.
Movie Junkie Posted April 1, 2006 Posted April 1, 2006 You forgot to factor in the square root of 2/5 of fcuck all. Thanks Kenadjian. I completely forgot about that part of it. That changes everything.
polopony Posted April 2, 2006 Posted April 2, 2006 get a 480 watt or better Antec True Blue power supply they are excellent and then bury the other in your own personal Boot Hill
Movie Junkie Posted April 2, 2006 Posted April 2, 2006 I used a 600 watt EnerMax PS in the computer I built and have never had a problem with it. I am running 2 HD's, a floppy a Zip and several cards.
Recommended Posts