Signs of a bad PSU?

[Jeff36]

My new system has a 2-yr old Enermax 431W PSU (EG465P-VE FCA). ASUS Probe utility reports the following voltages at idle:
12V - 11.491 occasional drops to 11.43 (down to 11.2 if games are run)
5V - 5.08 steady
3.3V - 3.312 steady
Vcore - 1.552 with fluctuations from 1.536 to 1.568 (BIOS set to 1.55V)

I thought the low 12V reading might just be inaccurate motherboard (A8V) voltage sensors, but the fluctuations are worrying. Also when I first built the system it had a Radeon 9800Pro card (Omega 4.6 drivers). The system would hang in 3D games after a few minutes with artifacts and/or reboot, sometimes reporting video card error messages. When I was trying to install another driver the system locked and the card will not generate a signal any more. The system currently seems to be working fine with a GeForce Ti4600 card.

I've read about problems with the Asus A8V and ATI cards, but I also suspect the PSU and do not want to damage a new 6800 GT if the PSU is bad.

Should I get a new PSU or should I look for another problem?

My complete systems is:

Asus A8V (latest BIOS), FX-53, 1GB Corsair PC3200XL Dual DDR (nothing overclocked for now)
GeForce Ti4600 (latest drivers)
Soundblaster Audigy Platinum (latest drivers)
2 WD740G raptors in RAID 0
1 60G Maxtor 7200rpm IDE drive
16x Toshiba DVD
TDK 32/10/40 veloCD CD-RW
Zip-250, Floppy
WinXP Pro SR1

 

[9KingDiamond9]

It could be the PSU, but it could be something else. The best way to tell is if you have extra parts, to swap them out to see which ones are stable. If you don't have extra parts maybe u should take it to a computer shop. I remember when I had a cheap PSU and tried to play UT, it would randomly restart. Also lately, my hard drive would 'restart' (you could hear it turn off and on during windows) and would either temporarily or entirely freeze. Took it to my local shop and found out the capacitors inside were blown, even though my monitor software didn't detect changes in the PSU voltages.

 

[Jeff36]

I did swap out the 9800Pro with the Ti4600. The system now appears to be running fine. However, the 9800Pro uses a lot more power (has its own molex connector) so I'm not sure it was just a bad video card.

I guess my question is this - Should I be concerned about the power fluctuations showing up on the ASUS probe utility? Are these power fluctuations likely to damage components if allowed to continue?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[baz55]

hi jeff, just a quick comment. i am an asus user myself but have heard so many people say that asusprobe is not reliable that i have stopped using it. might be woth trying to get a second opinion from MBM5. seems to be pretty highly rated; if you have not tried it before.

 

[ROcHE]

Check the voltages with a multimeter.

 

[Sonix7]

rarely a bad PSU, it could be that while you're gaming, the system is stressing the PSU out its limits, perhaps you need a psu more powerful, or it might be that PSU is overheating, but in that case the system would just shut down sudddenly and violently (that happens to me for somewhile, i realized taht the PSU fan was damaged).

 

[Jeff36]

Hi baz55,

I tried MBM 5.3.7.0. It doesn't have the A8V listed yet. If I set the voltage readings for an P4P800 it gives the same readings as asusprobe. If I set it to a P4C800 E Deleuxe it has the 12V listed at 12.14 with no fluctuations, although the Vcore varies as I reported with asusprobe.

Unfortunately I don't have access to a multimeter.

 

[So]

Is the system stable now? If so, don't sweat it too much. Oh, and welcome to the forums :gift:

 

[So]

I agree with roche tho' try to get a multimeter & test if you're really worried.

 

[Jojo7]

Originally posted by: Jeff36
I've read about problems with the Asus A8V and ATI cards, but I also suspect the PSU and do not want to damage a new 6800 GT if the PSU is bad.

Where did you read about these problems? In the manual? On page 2-17 it states "If installing the ATi 9500 or 9700 Pro Series VGA cards, use only the card version PN xxx-xxxxx-30 or later, for optimum performance and overclocking stability."

Other than the note in the motherboard, I haven't read anything about problems with ATI cards.

As an additional side note, I originally had my old ATI AIW 9700 pro in this system and it had big problems. Games stopped responding (lock ups) and the Ati vpu recover thing would sometimes kick in.
However, I did originally "tweak" some of the bios settings at first and I think that's what was causing my problems. Like you, I've got a GF4TI4600 in this system now and it's been fine ever since I set the bios back to default (I had problems with the 4600 too until I reset to default). If I get some time, I may pop the AIW 9700 back in there and see if it still gives me problems.

As far as your problem goes, are you using the latest bios? The latest version 1006 release notes state "Increase some AGP cards stability."

Hope that helps. Keep me updated.

Edit: Duuuh. I re-read your post and it says you are using the latest bios. Version 1006 right?

 

[Jojo7]

Update?