Asus Probe 2 - 3.3 volt meter going crazy!

[Hyun]

I have an Asus A7M266 motherboard with a 1.33GHz Athlon. It's running great--however, I'm having a bit of problem with the Asus 2 Probe utility. I keep it running in the background when Win2K starts up. When I installed the software, I accepted the default settings for voltage monitoring, which was +/- 10% of the set voltage (12.0v, 5v, and 3.3v--and the VCore).

My problem is that every so often, when I'm using the computer--and not necessarily running a full CPU load--the voltage meter alarm would go off. The 3.3v meter is fluctuating by more than 10%--usually by maybe another 1 to 2 percent, and never for more than a couple of seconds.

So, my questions are: 1) does this indicate that there is a serious problem with the voltage that's coming out of the power supply? The case has an AMD-approved PowerMax 300W supply; 2) if that's not the case, what can I do to fix the problem? Obviously, I can set the alarm threshold to 12 or 13 percent. But it seems strange that this is happening with the 3.3volt meter only--the other three are all running well within the alarm parameters.

Thanks in advance for any help, guys.

Hyun.

 

[DDad]

Hyun-
Had about the same problem, except it was the 12 volt. I tried setting it to go as far as I could before it would set off the alarm (around 10 volts), still kept coming up. Figuring that if the voltage was that far out of spec, I'd be seeing other problems. Being as how the system was otherwise rock stabile (except for the fact that the Owner activated the Sircam virus), I wound up removing it from the system

This maybe a stupid question, but remembered it from some time ago- are you running the system through a UPS, or just plugged into a surge protector?

 

[Hyun]

DDad,

I am using a UPS--it doesn't have the Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR), though. Would the presence of a UPS make a difference?

 

[DDad]

Well, the thing I was thinking about involved a unusual situation involving power flucuation- had a customer who's computer would crash at various times of the day- seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it. Customer had noticed that it only happened during business hours- if she came over and did work after hours it would never crash.
After mucho headscratching I lucked into the answer- I plugged my laptop in to check my mail- and the power indicator would flicker between the plug-in and battery mode. Got a volt meter and checked the line voltage- it would normally stay at 112-115 volts, but would occasionally drop down to 88-90. Installed a UPS and the problem disappeared. Found out later that for some odd reason the business next to hers had a piece of welding equipment that somehow was causing the voltage to drop in her line- hence the computer problem

 

[Hyun]

Hmm, I suppose the ultimate test is whether the computer is stable with the voltage fluctuation. Is it possible that it might damage something inside because of the fluctuation?