odd voltage readins with an Epox 8RGA+

[crallers]

I just bought a new motherboard, memory and cpu combo:

Athlon XP 2200+
2 Crucial DDR333 modules
Epox ERGA+ board

The power supply is about 3 years old: PowerMan 300W.

I haven't set up any other hardware other than a linksys lan adapter. After setting up xp and installing the appropriate drivers for the system board and the integrated graphics, I've been getting a few odd voltage readings for 3 of the power supply leads in the hardware monitor (in windows):

-12V reads around -7.0V, without much variation
VBat reads around 3.1V, but it dips down to around 2.9V occasionally
5VSB reads around 5.4V, but has varied some, up to 5.6V once

I've heard that some of the new boards don't use all these lines, so perhaps that explains the odd behavior? Should I be concerned about this? I don't want to fry a new board.

Thanks.

 

[Anubis]

Up
someone help here cause I couldent

 

[stevewm]

As for the -v lines (-12v and -5v) its normal for them to read incorrectly most of the time. Most switching power supplies are not able to regulate properly without some load. (its the nature of switching power supplies) The -5v and -12v lines are not used by any modern motherboards, thus they do not get regulated properly and give odd readings. The voltages shown will also vary as loads on the power supply changes. As long as all your voltages stay within + or - 10% then you are fine!


+5vSB is the 5v Standby line, its used when your computer is in soft-off state (computer off, but switch on power supply is turned on). When your computer is running there is very little load on this line, thus it gives slightly off readings.

Vbat is the CMOS battery on your mobo, it has nothing to do with your power supply. A dip to 2.9 is falling a bit low, is most likely just a mis-reading however.

Remember the voltage monitoring hardware on mobos is not by any means accurate. If you want accurate readings you'll need to test them yourself with a multimeter.

In short, everything seems in order