Anyone Know Voltages and what they mean?

[compnut5x]

I have been having trouble with my graphics card, and I was thinking it was a power issue. So I installed Motherboard Monitor 5 and pulled up the voltages on my system. It reads:
+3.3 = 3.14
+5.0 = 4.18
+12.0 = 11.95
-12.0 = -9.43
-5.0 = -4.86

Now what exactly do these numbers mean? What concerns me is that I am not getting close enough to the voltages they should be, esp the -12. And they can fluctuate by +- 1.0 often. Of course, it might be reading the board wrong.

I am running a 300watt generic pw supply with 2 hard drives, a dvd,cd-rw, ide zip, floppy, Raden 9800 reg, nforce2 ultra mobo with Athlon 1.2, and 3 vantec stealth fans. Could it be that I dont have enough power? IS there a better way to tell than using MoBo monitor?

Steve
compnut5x

 

[lobadobadingdong]

does you bios have a voltage monitor?

 

[Boonesmi]

the -12v and -5v dont really matter much

but your 5v looks pretty low to me. usually you want them running within 10% of spec and for the 5v line that would be between 4.5v and 5.5v



but first i would check the voltages listed in bios, mbm is sometimes wrong

 

[VansTheMan]

The most accurate way would be to take the PS out and take readings with a multi-meter on each individual rail, but then you wouldn't be getting a reading of the rails under load. You could also try disconnecting all your unnecessary stuff and seeing if that makes a difference in your Radeon's performance. If it performs normally without all that stuff eating up power, then your PS is probably going down the hole.

 

[DOSfan]

With an nForce 2 mobo, compnut5x should have a BIOS hardware monitoring selection.

Now, if those numbers are right, that means that you PSU isn't putting out enough power.

I can come up with several possibilities for why this may be happening, but - no offense - if you are asking what the numbers mean, the ideas won't do you much good.

Double check those numbers in BIOS, and if they match - plan on getting a new PSU.

Removing components won't help much (unless there is a "problem" component) because voltage stays the same no matter how many components you run.

Amperage (and therefor Wattage) decreases with too many components. So, unless you have a lot of time on your hands, or just want to be AR, you should not have to remove components.

If you do start removing components, make sure to take readings after every components you remove. If it is a component, only one should be causing the drain, and that component is probably the culprit.

Keep us updated, so we can help explain what is going on.

 

[compnut5x]

DOS - thanks a lot for the good ideas. I will try them and post the results.