PruritusAni

I've just installed a new graphics card into mom's compy and I noticed that HWMonitor was reading an astounding 3V tops on the +12V rail!!!



So quite naturally I didn't believe it at all, as the computer shouldn't even be on at 3V. I go into the BIOS and read the following from the HWMonitor there:
+3.30V 3.376
+5V 5.184
+12V 12.566

while this is a lot better than the above 3V it's still over by a significant amount. Should I worry? What sort of things should I try?

Mom's compy now has the following:

AMD Phenom II X2 555 (no overclock, no unlocked cores)
AsRock M3A785GMH
Galaxy GTX 430
Corsair 400W
GSkill Ripjaws 2X2Gb DDR3 1600MHz (running at 1333 8-8-8-24)
Windows 7 64bit SP1

Tyrsonswood

CPUZ hardware monitor misreads voltage quite often..... trust what BIOS says. (those BIOS voltages are okay, a'bit high but I wouldn't worry if I saw those here) Several of my systems are "way off" if I were to trust HW Monitor, but are rock solid and read correct in the BIOS.

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PruritusAni

Thanks! That's exactly the answer I wanted to hear. I think I may be in a paranoid phase as far as hardware is concerned.

Tyrsonswood

I know...... That's why I lied.



Just kidding.


If you were handy with a volt meter, that's the best way to verify and I have done so various times. The BIOS is usually pretty close to a meter, so now I just check that (the BIOS) and go with it.

Interesting side note about CPUZ HW Monitor. On both of my ECS A880GM boards the 5V and 12V readings are swapped...... so it's really not to be trusted on all boards. I'm sure some brands are correct, but not all.

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synthesis204

Bios readings are often inaccurate - -get a volt meter or a PSU tester to verify. Likewise, I believe a +/-10% variation is safe with an accepted variation (from manuf.) of +/-5%.

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PruritusAni

I may have to borrow a voltmeter from the lab one of these days, as oddly enough I don't own one of my own. I may have to change that! Do you guys have any recommendations for voltmeters?

synthesis204

Someone else will have to answer, as I just use this:

Amazon.com: Coolmax LCD Power Supply Tester PS-228: Electronics

In it's defense, for the price it can't be beat

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Tyrsonswood

Good price for that, but it is limited to a single purpose. Of course the OP is testing this exact thing........

For meters, Fluke is always the top dog but unless you are using it every day, all day, hard to justify the price.

Seeing as you are in the US, my main "go to" bench meter before my basement flooded was one I got at Radio Shat for about $30-$35 or so.... (this was back in 2005, so not sure of availability or pricing now) It was the one just below their highest priced model. Not the best, but adequate for general use.


Stay away from the $8 analog meters you see at WalMart......

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PruritusAni

Thanks for the speedy replies! While I do want to test mom's PSU I may also want to have the general multimeter functionality for future use. Those fluke multis are indeed far too expensive, so i'll have to look around for something more advantageous. Maybe I'll even ask the guy that stocks the physics dept's labs if he knows of any deals.

Judas

wtb volt meter reading..


If your 12v was running 3v.... your computer would either not start.... fry.... smoke....

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