M2 ATX 160 Power supply acting funny - Page 2

archaic0 · 04-04-2007, 09:08 PM

I was considering the switching to a controller only option and saw that the CarPC EZ v2.5d has a "Power Pulse Mode" for those who want their CarPC running before they get in the car.

What exactly does that do?

sporty_drew · 04-04-2007, 09:37 PM

I can't tell you what it does, but if you do end up wanting to get rid of your m2-atx i'll take it off your hands.

archaic0 · 04-05-2007, 08:20 AM

I'll keep that in mind. I'm waiting for the P4 cable to come in to see if that's all it takes but if not, then I'm moving on to a stand alone controller and going back to my original PSU and power inverter.

What are you willing to pay for it?

sporty_drew · 04-05-2007, 12:25 PM

of course i'll pay lol, as long as you make sure everything works on it.

archaic0 · 04-05-2007, 04:08 PM

No, not ARE you willing to pay, I assumed that. WHAT are you willing to pay? *smile*

Not that it's that important right now since I'm not done troubleshooting, but it's got a weeks worth of use on it and at the moment I have no reason to believe that there is a problem with it. I'm just trying to make it do too much.

As an update on that point, this morning it was especially quiet and I noticed that the CPU fan on the PC is staying on long after the car is off. So either the controller isn't sending the shutdown command either, or the PC is ignoring it.

I'm going to hook up the case power button so I have another way to shut the PC down, but for the CPU fan to be on, that tells me that the 5V rail is staying on, but maybe not the 12V?

sporty_drew · 04-05-2007, 04:17 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by archaic0

No, not ARE you willing to pay, I assumed that. WHAT are you willing to pay? *smile*

Whatever you think is fair when/ if you get to that point.

jaw4322 · 04-10-2007, 09:08 AM

I have the same exact issue with the M2-ATX. In the morning the thing just wont post. I have to remove the 12V cable, then reattach. After that it works the rest of the day, but same issue every morning. I have tried to cut the 12v with a switch before i let the car set for the night (no luck). I have removed all usb, dvd, etc (no luck). I just cant see the M2 not being able to handle a Via C7 and 3.5" HD. I have seen posts stating there is a defect in the M2 that causes this. Can anyone confirm this?

Jetway VIA C7 1.5GHz Mini-ITX

archaic0 · 04-10-2007, 09:52 AM

Well I've gone back to the standard PSU that came with my case and am using a power inverter again to power the system. I plan on just running a switch up to the front of the car for now instead of messing with controllers.

I'm going to focus on mounting my screen in it's final position and hiding cables for now and re-visit the power situation once all that's done.

I believe at this point I'm leaning towards getting a stand alone controller that will power on/off my inverter and PC instead of a full blown PSU. I KNOW my inverter has no problem powering my PSU and PC, so why take a chance trying to find the right DC PSU when I don't have any problem with the inverter route...

sporty_drew: if it is a defect, and they fix it for me, I'll still sell it once it's fixed. If they offer a refund then I'll just have to do that.

sporty_drew · 04-10-2007, 12:03 PM

ok sounds good

knightmare007 · 04-22-2007, 03:06 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by archaic0

That was my thought exactly, but that evidently is not the case.

Well as for "everything else" that's the rest of the main board, optical drive, and a hard drive. The optical drive is rated at 1.5A on the 5V rail and 2.5A on the 12v rail so another 30 watts on the 12V. The hard drive is rated at .7 on the 5V and .75 on the 12V. So another 9 watts on the 12. So we're up to roughly 129 Watts on the 12 rail. That doesn't sound like I'm pushing the 160 all that far to me.

Never said it did. You're missing what I said. My focus was case size and not power output. My case size went from an itx, to a micro-atx because of cpu power needs but no bigger than a micro-atx because I've hit a size limitation.

As I explained above, what I meant by 'minimal power' was to describe a situation where every watt counts. Not that I was USING minimal power, but that the smallest change in power draw can hurt. This is my first time operating on a budget when it comes to power. Like Apollo 13 I guess...

My Micro-atx case is just over 3 inches tall (the CPU fan touches the case top) and the power supply space is only 2 inches wide while it's about 4 inches deep. The M2 fits exactly in this space with no room to spare other than height. The other power supplies looked like they were modeled after a typical ATX power supply and would by far not fit. For example, the dimensions of the opus 150 is 4 inches by 5 inches and I'd have to make some kind of external enclosure for it to use it.

Advanced programmability doesn't have any place in my setup. I need an on/off with the car controller and any old capasitor/relay trigger setup will do. Others may need it complicated, but I do not.

If the M2 won't power my system, then I'll upgrade it. I don't have any problem with that. I just thought I got the right tool for the job and it seems like I actually did only I didn't set it up right. My cable shipped already so that problem will be resolved soon.

I have my wired in place of the power button and don't use the power button at all.

My situation is that the M2 does not throw it's switch sometimes... or maybe it does, but the PC isn't getting enough juice to respond.

Thanks though, I appreciate the input!

people in these forums miss what you say ALL the time it seems. did you figure out what controller your going with?

im interested to know how it all turns out for you as im running a high power rig as well and my m2 coudlnt handle it i guess. so i went back to my inverter, but i hate having to wait for it to hibernate before i can turn the key off.

blk02si · 04-22-2007, 03:18 PM

Inverter to standard PSU is so inefficient. There are 220 watt DC>DC power supplies available. There is always the notion of using 2 - m2atx power supplies

Also I would try to see if the system boots with the timing jumper removed (rendering the PSU "dumb") It will boot as soon as power is applied to it.

Good luck with your project.

archaic0 · 04-22-2007, 06:42 PM

Oh yeah, I should know better than to put too many words in a post...

I haven't chosen a controller yet. I've been moving to a new city and starting a new business so things have been pretty crazy.

At the moment, I'm still running the power inverter and just going to the trunk to turn the thing on. I've got a shutdown button in the menu though so I can shut it down from the front. It's highly in-efficient I know, but for now it's in place until I have time to re-work things.

drutort · 12-15-2007, 02:51 AM

well im building my carPC, and i hope i dont have such problems with the m2, but my setup uses slimDVD that draws very little power, also using 2.5 sata 5.4k hd, and the cpu is a x2 be 2350 i believe which is the 45W i researched my hd and found the hd to have least power consumption as well since its single disk, other same brand and style but with 2 disks on the HD will draw quite a bit more W, so i want my other comp to use as little as possible in power

my other suggestion is using external cheap 12v power regulators/inverters etc... even a 5v the reason for the 5v is to create 12v to 5v for USB hub to power 1 or 2 of those so that my m2 would not have to draw too much power on the USB hubs on the mobo

im also running a x-fi pci sound card i think thats some place around 10w? or thats what figured reading from generic sound cards.

with going the laptop hd route and lowest power consumption on those i cannot have to worry about HD initial or start up amp draw, even can go in raid with 2 or so

my mobo is also a micro atx tf7050-m2 (biostar) even though it probably has good sound on board, nothing matches the x-fi IMO as far as general sound cards... none of the pro or none popular ones heh as well as price, which they have gone down great deal.

I am also going to build custom case in the trunk for it

other devices im thinking of are wifi, BT, gps, web cam, radar? other stuff and i think most of it will be usb hence why i want to have self cheap powered usb hub which would be one of those 12v to 5v simple enough just has to be rated for the amps total load i believe. For wifi i might go with an old wrt54gs

that would be interesting heh over kill but interesting esp with strong or hi db antenna

ludikris · 03-16-2008, 11:57 PM

my pc won’t boot up cold… It would power up the fan and cpu cause I can hear it.. but it wont post. Works fine on a regular psu but not in the car. I set it up the first time and it was fine… but every morning it takes half an hour or more to boot and it’s not that cold here at the moment.

I have it connected using an external on off switch… and the red acc line and yellow constant are always hot. I don’t use the shutdown / startup controller portion.. Im using it strictly as a jumperless standard psu.

It was fine for a while but its taking longer and longer to boot….

The anti thump doesn’t work at all… and I’m using the on board audio card.

Specs:

Mk35 shuttle mobo / 2.0 ghz intel chip

Two 256 mb ram chips

one 3.5” 40 gig 7200 rpm drive.

No roms

One vga and one usb cable going up to my 7” touchscreen.

My mobo doesn’t use a p4 connector either.

what should I do ??

kostas_lion · 05-11-2008, 04:46 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by jaw4322

I have the same exact issue with the M2-ATX. In the morning the thing just wont post. I have to remove the 12V cable, then reattach. After that it works the rest of the day, but same issue every morning. I have tried to cut the 12v with a switch before i let the car set for the night (no luck). I have removed all usb, dvd, etc (no luck). I just cant see the M2 not being able to handle a Via C7 and 3.5" HD. I have seen posts stating there is a defect in the M2 that causes this. Can anyone confirm this?

Jetway VIA C7 1.5GHz Mini-ITX

me too !!! can someone help ;;;;