Antec Power Supply not powerful enough?

[Seizure]

Antec 400 Watt Power supply.
AMD T-BIRD 1.4 Ghz (no overclocking)
Maxtor 120 GB 8meg Cache
Maxtor 60 GB 2 meg cache
Sony 48x CD-ROM
Plextor 12x CD-RW
Radeon 9500 Softmod to 9700 pro. 350 Core, 300 Memory.
10/100 Network Card
2 Cold Cathode Light
4 Coolermaster Neon LED
Here are the readings for my rails in MBM

Ok. I have a ThermalTake CoolMod fan grill on top of my case

http://store.yahoo.com/svcompucycle/thersmarcasf1.html

It has blue led for when the harddrive is idle and red when it's in use.

Whenever I play an intensive video game or run 3D Marks the Blue LED's on the fan grill will DIM, when it's completely can't be seen then artifacts appear on my computer and I have to reboot or my computer just freezes and hangs, all due to the video card. However my NEON fans don't dim, I think it's because they are hooked into the power supply, while the CoolMod Fan Grill is hooked into my motherboard. I noticed when I unplug one of my harddrives out, my stability is restored and the leds doesn't dim as much leading me to conclude it might be I don't have enough power to go around? I thought a 400 Watt would be plenty especially since i run so little peripherals and PCI slots.

 

[Seizure]

bump

 

[mechBgon]

Please tell me you aren't powering the Smart Fan II from your motherboard header :Q That thing is dangerous, it pulls enough wattage to blow two headers at once on many motherboards. Power it from the power supply or get a good fan.

 

[Seizure]

Nope. there is no Smartfan. I took the Fan off, I am only using the Fan Grill, and obviously it has to be hooked up to my HD headers and such.

 

[Seizure]

bump

 

[Big Lar]

Looks like your +5v rail is pretty low, maybe not too low/ but low.

 

[Seizure]

right now it's dipped to below 4.51 for my +5 Rail.


That's bad right? And I'm pretty sure now it's the powersupply. I ran 3DMark 03 and my powersupply made this whining sound, my LED lights on top start to dim, and then all of a sudden, my Cd-ROM clicks and blinks a few times, and my small LCD screen that displays the temperaturse shows "8888888" and then shows the temp again, meaning a power cycle just happened.


With that new information is it safe to assume my 3 year old Antec Power supply has bit the dust. ANd it's time to upgrade to a 480 watt one? Vantec/Zalman?

 

[Seizure]

oh and one last thing. I used power extensions I got from SVC.com. Do you think this has anything to do with it?

Extensions

 

[Big Lar]

IMHO 4.51 is too low for the +5v rail, and I doubt the extensions would hurt anything if they are connected properly. Could be a Supply that is just worn out, thats how I would look at it anyhow. However, I would look in bios as to voltages given there, and also try maybe speedfan to see what voltage reading you get there, before spending good money on another supply.

 

[Seizure]

this is sooo weird. So I have a plastic floormat for my chair, and when I walk around it, it gathers static electricty, If i touch the top of my case or the side, all is well, but if I touch the bottom front grill, my LCD's reset and my CD-ROM light turns on meaning it power cycled. And this isn't even a strong static electicity that goes zap. I just lightly touch the front grill and those two peripherals reset.

Any insight to that? Should I not put my case on the carpeted floor?

 

[warmachine]

Sound like a short or a leak to ground.
Use process of elimination to find it,
start with the lights CCs first disconnect one thing
at a time and see if problem goes away.

 

[Seizure]

on closer inspection my Lian Li PC65 has a front panel that when snapped in place isn't connected to anything. I don't think it touches the rest of the case. Since the temp LCD touches the front panel as wel as the cd-rom this might explain the static electricty problem.

 

[Tango57]

hmm...i wouldn't put my computer on a carpet floor. can you adjust the lcd panel so it's not in contact with the cd-rom or casing?

 

[Jeff7181]

4.51 is too low for the 5 volt rail... 3.3 also looks too low... how old is the power supply? Could be a sign that it's failing cause that power supply SHOULD provide enough juice to run everything you have and more.

 

[Seizure]

2 1/2 years old. I put a RMA request into Antec. I think it's still under 3 year warranty but I don't have my proof of purchase.


For the LCD the only way to avoid contact would be to maybe put a piece of paper around it, then put the front cover back on. Somehow I still think this is a power supply problem, I'm sure Lian Li did not design such a poorly constructed case. the LCD temp came stock with the PC65 case.

So what do you guys think? Should I get the Antec True 480? or the Thermaltake 480 butterfly? Both got excellent review on Tomshardware and anandtech. What does it for me is the TT comes with all the cables Sleeved.

 

[Tango57]

i'd get the TT with the cables sleeves then.