Thread: Acceptable Voltage Output Ranges

I'd say that the PSU has a problem, to be certain. It could also be the software reporting inaccurately. What software are you using to monitor voltage?

Well you PC is obviously still working on the PSU, so I see no problem. It might be inacurate measuring from the montoring software or the voltages you see are still within ATX specs!

That's true, but if the output voltages are dropping, it could be an indication that the PSU is going bad.

I agree that the softweare can report inaccurately. I know Motherboard Monitor 5 can address many types of motherboards with different chipsets, and if you select the wrong one, you can get substantially different readings.

The surefire way to verify is to break out the ol' multimeter, trick the PSU to providing output power and seeing what the output voltages truly are at the 20-pin ATX connector....

The voltage reading is within ATX spec so the PSU is okay.
Whether the PSU is on it way going south or not, no one know because no one know what was the output reading on the PSU 4 years ago.

Hell, my home build sproggy output reading and DSATX output reading is about the same as yours, does that mean my PSUs are on it way to the south? I don't think so.

Just cross your fingers and smile .... dam my 4 yrs old PSU still working

ATX specs are +/-5% on all lines except -12v. the 12v, 5v, and 3.3v minimum limits are 11.4v, 4.75v, and 3.14v, respectively... so your 12v line is barely at the minimum, 5v is just barely over it, and the 3.3v line is quite a bit below it.

If it works, then I guess keep your fingers crossed... just because it's not ideal by ATX specs doesn't necessarily mean your computer won't work properly with it (although I would expect it to cause issues on SOME systems). I agree that you should check the voltages with a multimeter to get more accurate readings.

Thanks guys.

I am using motherboard monitor 5 and have the proper mobo selected. I would like to test the lines with a multimeter. Whats the trigger pin on the ATX connector to turn the power supply on? How do I do that exactly, ground it out, jump it to another pin, or put + on it?

Im not ready yet to give up on the PSU yet. Almost 3 years ago I made This thread and its still alive!

It seems to be getting worse now. my 12V dips into the 10.9x range sometimes, 3.3 has been as low as 2.9...definately not within spec.

My PC has been freezing up alot, sometimes it works flawlessly for days at a time and other times I cant even get to a functional desktop from a bootup without restarting it 3 or 4 times, then it might last a few minutes and freeze. Its frustrating as hell. Ive taken it inside my house and used a AC/DC PSU and it works better, but still locks sometimes. Cant figure out why. I thought the PSU might be the culprit, but the fact it freezes inside makes me think otherwise.

Can anybody tell me how to trip the PSU to power up without a motherboard attached so I can test the pins directly?

Originally Posted by blazinlow

Ive taken it inside my house and used a AC/DC PSU and it works better, but still locks sometimes. Cant figure out why. I thought the PSU might be the culprit, but the fact it freezes inside makes me think otherwise.

Well, it could be that at such low voltage for an extended period of time could have damaged your motherboard. But I would guess hard drive corruption.

You say it freezes when booting. It is loading important system files. If it freezes, and you hard-off it, then possibility of corrup data. Do that a couple of times an hour for a week or two, and you're going to probably lose some sectors. If it thinks that a file is there for certain and can't find it, could be no good. I've had it happen before, and in that case, it was an underpowered PSU causing all the poop to happen. Had to reformat. Worked well after.