Dave,
I am not technically a TRUPOWER owner, but I felt I?d share my experience with you and anyone else out there experiencing instability problems. In addition to the system specs shown in my signature, I have an Ethernet card, a 56k modem, and 3X80mm case fans installed. I don?t overclock, but since building the system a few months ago I have experienced occasional lockups/crashes while pushing 3D games (NASCAR Racing 2003 Season will suck power to the GPU/CPU). Reading forums such as this one and Viaarena led me to a number of attempted fixes (including replacing memory sticks). Finally, by reducing the load on the power supply via disconnecting the CDRW power (unless actually using it to burn) and removing the modem, I was able to get the generic 300W power supply that came with the SOYO barebones system to run very stable, even when pushing the graphics card & processor.
Since this is not a good position to be in and likely to end up frying my MB or CPU, I researched and ordered what I figured to be the Rolls Royce - a TRUPOWER 550 from BUY.COM. Imagine my surprise when I installed the little ah heck and it wouldn?t finish loading WinXP without locking up or crashing/rebooting ? even with the CDRW and modem disconnected. CMOS was showing low voltage on all rails: 2.45 on the 2.5V, 3.24 on the 3.3V, 4.93 on the 5V and 11.71 on the 12V (my ratshack multimeter confirmed these to be good values within a hundredth or so). My old generic PS read identical on the 2.5V, 3.31 on the 3.3V, 4.89 on the 5V, and 12.48 on the 12V. Assuming this to just be a sub-par 550 unit, I RMA?d BUY.COM (reinstalled my generic PS, which continued to work well as above) and within 8 days had a replacement unit in hand.
Surprise - it did the same blessed thing since the voltages were almost identical to the first unit. Meanwhile, I had read further and noted that in virtually every test that I read, these units show ?low? voltage on the 3.3 and 5V rails (they?re still within published specs however). I?d have thought the fancy power regulating circuits within the ANTEC would have been adequate to assure stability, but they are not ? at least not on my system. I assume that ANTEC is keeping some of these voltages towards the low end to keep from ?burning up? components prematurely, and for the vast majority of systems, this is probably the prudent thing to do and the system will work fine. Since my ?research? had indicated that Thermaltake 480 PUREPOWER units generally test out a ?little? high on the 3.3V and 5V circuits, I ordered one of these (unfortunately from a different company than BUY.COM, but they are a jewel of a company to deal with) and it?s been running very stable with everything hooked up for over a week now ? and I have pushed it.
This is not intended to badmouth ANTEC, just to point out that if you?re experiencing instability problems, a few hundredths of a volt may be critical in whether or not you can get over the hump. ANTEC makes an adjustable voltage unit, but it?s even more expensive than the 550 TRUPOWER and the Thermaltake was about $20 cheaper than the ANTEC 550.
Sorry, didn?t intend for this to be so long.
You can test your board's voltages if you know where to probe it, but if it were not on spec, there isn't much you can do about it.
Facebook
Twitter