Voltage reads low

[cumsplat]

I recently got a refurbished Epox EP-8K7A board. I'm running an
Athlon 4-1400 CPU with 512 megs of EEC ram. The board has an
AMD761 system controller and a VIA VT82C686B Southbridge.

The board seems to works fine, but the USDM diagnostic program reads
the 5V voltage as an actual 4.55 V. It keps popping up with the message:
"The 4.484 power line has exceeded Normal Operating Tolerances".
I verified this number in the BIOS setup.

I swapped the power supply and it still reads low, which is not a
problem the PS's have with other boards. The other voltages read
normal; 12.36, 3.37, 1.79, and all the temps are well inside the
safe range.

Is the low 5V reading a danger signal or should I just ignore it?
As I said before, there doesn't seem to be a problem running any
programs (I use WIN98SE) or internet access or downloads.

I have noticed that on several occasions the computer failed to boot
on the first try. After hitting the reset button it came on.

Thanks in advance to the experts,

............ Splat !!

 

[brentkiosk]

A general rule for voltages is +/- 5% . On a 5 volt line, that gives a range from 4.75 to 5.25 volts, so you are in fact a little too far off. Since you say the power supply is OK with other boards, it must be that this board is drawing more current than the other boards. Either 1) that's a normal amount of current for this board and you just need a bigger PSU (I think you should have 175 wattsor more combined available on the 5 plus 3.3 volt lines) or 2) it's due to a fault and the board is drawing abnormally high current.

If it were mine, I would watch and see if it gets worse. But you should probably try a good brand PSU (people seem to like antec).