+5 volt rail as low as 4.41V....is that OK?

[Yzzim]

I'm having problems keeping my computer stable and am in the process of troubleshooting the problem. Seems my computer loves to display some funky lines when I try to boot a game or run some intense applications. I changed some fans around and I'm now running Prime95 stable for the past 20 minutes or so.

So, here's my question:

I was looking at MBM and noticed the +5 volt rail is hovering around 4.45V with a low currently of 4.41...is that a problem? What's an "ok" range for the +5V rail to be at? I'm using a Raidmax 350W (el cheapo) power supply so I wouldn't be suprised if it's going bad.

 

[AtomicDude512]

That seems getting a little low to me. Can you list every piece of hardware in your system so everyone can tell better?

 

[Davegod]

if i remember right the spec allows for +- 10% on some lines and +- 5% for other; if i remember right its all except cpu line ok to be +- 10%. So 4.41 a bit more than 10% lower, so a bit too low. otoh read/calculation error might be more than -0.09v out anyway... If it aint acting like its broke, it probably isnt.

However, if you're looking for an excuse to upgrade the psu, dont let me discourage you

have a look at the "Pick a number..." dan's I/O 19

 

[spanner]

thats low

 

[godmare]

That is pretty low. What other stability problems are you having?

 

[RedShirt]

If you or a friend has a spare supply handy, test that out and see if your problems vanish.

 

[m1ke101]

wow that seems a tad low...I think your okay if its above 4.7v

 

[bgeh]

that's a little too low.
i would personally sound the alarm if i hit 4.75 and under

 

[Yzzim]

hey, sorry I didn't respond sooner as I was reinstalling Windows.

I booted up my computer to find the +5v rail at 4.95v, so I knew that my power supply was messed up. I got a spare out of the closet and put it in and now most of the problems seem to be gone. I finally got Windows installed (couldn't do that with old PSU) but haven't installed/played any games yet. The +5v rail is at 4.78v on this one, so that's a little more acceptable then 4.41v.

Computer specs are as follows:

Epox 8k7a
AMD 1.3Ghz (non-XP)
512MB PC2100 DDR Crucial memory
Radeon 64MB DDR (8500 non-LE in there now cause I thought the Radeon DDR might be bad)
20gig hdd
12x8x24x CDRW
Realtek NIC
56k modem


That's not too many peripherals for a 300W PSU. The old (now dead) PSU was 350W, but as I stated earlier it was a very cheap power supply.

Only thing that pisses me off is I spent about 15 minutes soldering a new fan in that old PSU last night :|

Thanks for the help guys

 

[BmXStuD]

w00t, u got a duron like me and u got a good video card and i dont. So i want you to play some games and tel lme your fps. If your fps are high im going to get that card than.

 

[txxxx]

I get an average of 5.02v on my el cheapo 300W PSU, lowest it dropped to is 4.92v.
Quite a bit in the computer too, maybe time to get a decent PSU?

Ive also ran my Athlon 1.4 system (which was loaded to the brim) with 4.4v on a old PSU, seemed stable for weeks till I noticed

 

[lenjack]

5 % is the recommend range which would be 4.75. i'm surprised you can run Prime 95 stable at 4.45.

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: Yzzim
Only thing that pisses me off is I spent about 15 minutes soldering a new fan in that old PSU last night :|

Just be happy you caught it before this and this happened