Power Issues

[BobtheCkroach]

Hey, I have a question. Lately, when I start playing games on my computer, PC Alert 4 will pop and and go nuts with this silly alarm, and when I check it, the meter for "3.3V" has dipped too low (usually around 2.9 or so)...after a second it will return to normal, but then it does it again as soon as I return to the game...what's going on? How do I fix it?

[JIMINATOR]

if your system doesn't reboot or crash, then turn it off & don't worry about it, otherwise probably a problem with the psu. look at the warranty... unfortunately I don't know what the specs are, or how much fluctuation under load is allowable.

[JIMINATOR]

oh, if you want to fix it and are good with a soldering iron, you can pop the cover off the psu and go to town.... :thumbs:

[Caged Anger]

don't be so hasty Jim! lol, before popping lids, both your's and the PSU's, think some things over and check on them.

How big is your power supply? What kind of Video Card do you have? What type of CD drive do you have?

IS THE TOTAL NUMBER OF WATTS BEING DRAWN BEFORE PLAYING ALMOST MAXXING OUT YOUR POWER SUPPLY????

Just a thoughtful thought

[BobtheCkroach]

The power supply is 420 watts.

My specs are:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-391&depa=1)

Mobo: MSI K7N2 Delta (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K7N2_Delta2-LSR&class=mb)

RAM: 1 Gig PC3200 Corsair Select (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-440&depa=1)

Vid Card: GeForce FX 5600 256mb (don't have a link)

HDD 1: Western Digital 80 gig 7200rpm 8MB
HDD 2: Seagate 40 gig (not sure of the other specs, came w/ the stupid gateway)

CD-RW: 24x
DVD-ROM 16x

Anything else you guys need?

Here's one other thing...the seagate has been slowly dying...every once in a while it will cause a reboot and windows will partition one sector as bad...could this drive all around be crappy and maybe i should just dump it?

[JIMINATOR]

That's a joke. PSU have some big damn capacitors and will probably shock anyone foolish enough to go mucking about in them. And if you want a really big shock, open up your crt and pull on the cable connected to the top back part of the tube.. ok, don't actually do that either. That would be baaaaad.

[BobtheCkroach]

Oh, as for your question, Caged, about how much wattage i'm drawing prior to the game...how would i figure out how much i'm using?

[JIMINATOR]

a 400 watt PSU should be plenty for what you have. You don't say what type though, but even a cheap one should probably have enough juice. and yeah, backup and ditch the drive. get a dvd burner and put all of your pron there. the 80 gig should be big enough for everything else. see if you are still rebooting without the drive.

[JIMINATOR]

go look at the electric meter outside of your house to see how fast the wheel is spinning, then start the game and take another look? :hmmm:

or maybe he meant that most of that alert stuff does ongoing graphing for each of the voltage rails....

[BobtheCkroach]

a 400 watt PSU should be plenty for what you have. You don't say what type though, but even a cheap one should probably have enough juice. and yeah, backup and ditch the drive. get a dvd burner and put all of your pron there. the 80 gig should be big enough for everything else. see if you are still rebooting without the drive.

Oops! I didn't...it's the one that came w/ the Raidmax case that I have...the raidmax site really doesn't tell much about it...just that it's 420 watts and that it's 12v.

I'm actually darn near used up on the 80, which is the only reason that I'm keeping the 40...but I may give in and ditch the 40 for now and just delete some less-used games.

[BobtheCkroach]

go look at the electric meter outside of your house to see how fast the wheel is spinning, then start the game and take another look? :hmmm:

or maybe he meant that most of that alert stuff does ongoing graphing for each of the voltage rails....

right...but how do i figure out how many watts i'm using based on the voltage?

[Caged Anger]

well, the only way I know of figuring that out takes a heavy load of math. You must run all the spects on your major parts (mobo, procressor, Drives, cards, ect) and see how many you're drawing regularly. But like Jim said...the 420 watt power supply is theoretically big enough for anything you should be doing. However, I noticed you said

"Oops! I didn't...it's the one that came w/ the Raidmax case that I have...the raidmax site really doesn't tell much about it...just that it's 420 watts and that it's 12v"

generic PSU's that come with acses are notoriously inaccurate in their wattage output. So try doing something about the seagate issue and if its still giving you grief, then I'd say you need a new PSU, as unfortunate as that is...

[ME BIGGD01]

many motherboard utilities are so inaccurate it can drive a person nuts.

suggestion---go into bios and look at the voltage readings there and then match them up with what the program you are using says. if they are very close then there is a chance that one of the lines on the power supply is weak.

i am not familiar with this utility you are using but maybe go to company site and see if others are discussing the same problem as you are and maybe there is an update to the program or maybe an incompatibilty.

a good sign of a power supply that is having a hard time keeping up with the system is alot of heat coming from the back of the fans. if you feel really warn air, chances are your power supply is over working and that could be dangerous. power supply watts don't mean squat today. many are poor quality and base their marketing of watts to the actual quality of the product. i always suggest using top quality power supplies because going cheap can cost you more in the end.

have you noticed any lockups during heavy use or gaming? if so, that could be due to the weak power supply. if not chances are the utility is junk and just eating up cpu cycles:down: .

how do all the other line readings look? youknow, there may be a problem with your board also instead of the power supply. i suggest using readings from bios before you consider just replacing the power supply.

[mod]

just to let ya know we have had a lot of problems with the raidmax case
they rate the powersupply at 420 but in reality it only rates at 270

just a mod note..



mod*

[Caged Anger]

270!!!??? How can they do that? If they are giving inaccurate readings, aren't they breaking some kind of code?

[BobtheCkroach]

just to let ya know we have had a lot of problems with the raidmax case
they rate the powersupply at 420 but in reality it only rates at 270

just a mod note..



mod*

Aha....well then, that would definitely explain that...is there any device that i could hook up to the mobo powercord of the psu and find out what kinda wattage I'm really getting?

Also, if it's running everything on 270, would that make my system run hot, by any chance? My CPU has always idled between 45 and 50 C and I've always wondered why, despite the fact that it doesn't seem to have any performance side effects, and if there's something I can do to fix it?

EDIT: I also have been reading reviews of this case and most say that the stock fans are a little weak, so maybe i'll be replacing them soon..

Enlighten me, mod. Please.