voltage goign CRAZY.. what's going on...

[ImportAce]

I am using a raidmax aluminum 400 W power supply, and am using a program called PC Alert III to tell me temperature, fan speed, and voltage. Under Voltage, there are 4 categories, Vcore, +5v, 3.3v, and +12v. All of the categories seem to show a steady voltage, however, the 3.3v graph is going CRAZY!!! the voltage keeps jumping up and down costantly from 3-3.5 and NEVER stays at a constant 3.3v like it is supposed to. What's going on here?

 

[paralazarguer]

Why did you post this in two sections?
Judgin by what you wrote you have an MSI board. This is normal for this board to show the voltage jumping around no matter what the rest of your hardware is. Don't worry about it, it's just a really crappy brand. Also, when playing games like Bridge Commander where you have to press 4 keys at once the unusually small keyboard buffer will overflow until you can get a better brand like ASUS. If you want the voltage fluctuations to go away change out that crappy MSI motherboard.

 

[Buz2b]

If you want the voltage fluctuations to go away change out that crappy MSI motherboard.

OK, I think I would call that inflammitory and unfounded (not to mention UNTRUE!). In fact, I have had a problem or two in the past with MSI but I would NOT call them "crappy". They are indeed a large player in today's market and do have a decent reputation. I'm not sure what beef you might have with them but it would be better expressed in the B&M or OT forums than here. In this enviornment it is usually best to try to help someone, not flame a manufacturer. At the very least you might have mentioned a MB or two that you preferred over the MSI board and the reasons behind that recommendation. At least that would have been productive. :disgust: Oh, and by the way, I use and thoroughly enjoy my ASUS MB. I also stand by their quality (which many have called into question lately). So, I have no beef with ASUS and no reason to necessarily defend MSI.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming..... As to ImportAce's question, there could be several causes. Although RaidMax has recently been a fairly popular brand because of their inclusion in some pretty nice "mod-able" cases, their PS numbers are just "average". Still, that may not be the cause. You should also look to what others have to say about PC Alert III. Some posts I have seen seem to suggest that the numbers might not be correct. However, I have no actual use to back that up. In addition, it is a good idea to verify the numbers by cross-verifying the figures with another program like MotherBoard Monitor 5. Then you could see a cross-section view and in addition, MBM records the figures to a file (High-Low). You can go back and trace the times that it happens that way.
One last question.... You didn't say what, if any, problem this was causing your system. Is it unstable or causing some trouble at certain times?

 

[ImportAce]

The problem was that my cpu fan which is a volcano 7 is only running at 2000 rpm even though the temperature of my cpu reads 50 Degrees celcius.. i would think that the fan would auto adjust.... The temperature of my system is at 37 degrees.... I'm not sure why the cpu runs so hot... i have good circulation with 4 case fans, 2 power supply fans, all inside an aluminum lian li case... so i would think the air flow is pretty good.

 

[Buz2b]

The problem was that my cpu fan which is a volcano 7 is only running at 2000 rpm even though the temperature of my cpu reads 50 Degrees

If you are sure that this is the reason, then replace it! If I understand correctly, the volcanoe comes with a temp controlled fan. Maybe the adjustment (if there is one) is out of whack. Or possibly the thermister is not in the correct position to read the higher temps. Variables= headaches sometimes. Personally, I think you can get a HSF combo that would perform a bit better. You might want to look at the Thermalright AX-7, an SVC Golden Gate or even an SVC GC68. Either one of those has shown (in tests) to perform better than the volcano.
Just to confuse things a bit further, you should also make sure that the case fans you have are "balancing the airflow" in your system. Long story; do a search on positive vs negative airflow. Have fun!!

 

[ImportAce]

Thanks for your help!

 

[paralazarguer]

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