Bad PSU?

[MrBlahh]

What types of problems can you get if the power supply is bad? A week or 2 ago I opened up the hardware monitor that came with my Soyo mobo and it said that the 5V rail from my PSU was running low. I dont remember exactly what it was but it was around 4.25 volts. It would eventually climb up a little but it would never really got all that close to 5 volts.

When I came home the other night my computer was off. Ever since then I have been having problems. If it actually gets through post I can only get into safe mode. Once there and Ive logged in I get a Blue Screen telling me that an error has been detected and my computer will be shut down. The error says "Driver_irql_not_less_or_equal" then says some junk and at the bottoms says STOP: 0x000000D1 some more HEX stuff and then something about viamraid.sys. If it doesnt get through the post it doesnt detect the harddrive and I get this error: "Hardware initiate failed, Please check Device!!!". I havent added anything except for when I swapped my old USB hub with a new USB 2.0 hub about a month ago.

What my initial guesses are:
1. Bad power supply. Maybe I got unlucky and received a bad Antec PSU
2. Bad Harddrive. Dont they usually give more warning than this?


Any ideas? Thanks in advance.



The power supply is an Antec TruPower 380.
The rest of the specs are
Soyo KT600 Dragon Ultra Platinum
AMD Athlon XP 3200+
Crucial 512MB DDR
Western Digital SATA 160GB HDD
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Everything was new and installed by me back in September

 

[ao]

Hmm, what type of voltage are you pushing through your RAM?

 

[FlyingPenguin]

IF that is an accurate measurement it's WAY too low. All voltages should be withing 5%. For the 5 volt rail that means between 4.75 and 5.25 volts.

The problems you're having could easily be caused by low 5 volt rail voltage. I had a system here on my bench the other day with 4.45 volts on the 5 volt bus and the hard drive would spin down immediately after POSTing and the mobo would fail to detect it. Replacing the power supply fixed it.

HOWEVER, so you know, the onboard voltage monitor on most mobos are notoriously unreliable. You should purchase a digital pocket multimeter (about $20 at Home Depot or Radio Shack) and check the voltage by measuring across the red and either black wire on an un-used drive power connector.

People wonder how this can happen - especially with a high quality PSU like an Antec TruPower, but the fact is that PSUs take surges all the time (and a surge protector doesn't always help) and can easily be damaged by a power or lighting surge. I see it all the time.

 

[MrBlahh]

Originally posted by: ao
Hmm, what type of voltage are you pushing through your RAM?

I dont usually mess with this kind of stuff. DDR voltage select option in the bios is set to Default. In the PC Health Status section of the bios it says it is running at 2.59 V.

 

[MrBlahh]

Originally posted by: FlyingPenguin
IF that is an accurate measurement it's WAY too low. All voltages should be withing 5%. For the 5 volt rail that means between 4.75 and 5.25 volts.

The problems you're having could easily be caused by low 5 volt rail voltage. I had a system here on my bench the other day with 4.45 volts on the 5 volt bus and the hard drive would spin down immediately after POSTing and the mobo would fail to detect it. Replacing the power supply fixed it.

HOWEVER, so you know, the onboard voltage monitor on most mobos are notoriously unreliable. You should purchase a digital pocket multimeter (about $20 at Home Depot or Radio Shack) and check the voltage by measuring across the red and either black wire on an un-used drive power connector.

People wonder how this can happen - especially with a high quality PSU like an Antec TruPower, but the fact is that PSUs take surges all the time (and a surge protector doesn't always help) and can easily be damaged by a power or lighting surge. I see it all the time.

While checking the voltage of the memory voltage for ao the voltage on the 5V rail being displayed as 4.2volts. We have a volt multimeter sitting around so Im going to check it tomorrow to see how accurate that is.

 

[MrBlahh]

I just tested the PSU with a multimeter and it is coming up as 4.3 V. I guess my mobo's voltage monitor is doing fairly well. Thanks for the help guys.

I guess its time for me to run up to CircuitCity to find a replacement. Anyone have any trouble with the Antec TruPower 430W?

 

[FlyingPenguin]

On my own personal rigs I use nothing but Antec TruPower. Enermax also makes some good PSUs. For clients I generally nuy ThermalTake Pure Power.

BTW you might want to see if your old PSU is under warranty.