PSU prob ? or not

unsuspected · 02-11-2008, 03:39 AM

Hi i got a Corsair PSU TX750 , my pc freeze from time to time i went to check the voltages in my bios and it tells me that my 12v is giving 11.396volt im using a Asus m3a32 Deluxe mtb , Sapphire Ati 3870 video card and ocz 4x1g 1066mhz reaper rams (all set whit latency and good voltage) could low 12v from psu be reason for the time to time freeze ?

Jose Luis

PC eye · 02-11-2008, 04:08 AM

Voltages seen like that are common. The amperage and regulation are the things to look at while Corsair is one of the top makes for supplies. A little more information on the types of freezes being seen would help while often they turn out to be video drivers if no memory faults are found or you have an overheating problem.

Gaming, ocing, wrong set of video drivers, dust buildup on fans and the board, lack of good air flow are all things to consider besides hardware faults.

unsuspected · 02-11-2008, 04:24 AM

first of all my DVD drive dosnt load normally its kinda glitched had some trouble installing windows vista 64 it was rather very slow to load from cd and that came in whit a freeze on installation, i tried my DVD drive on another of my PC and it runned just fine, my case is very well ventilated my cpu is at 42degree my mtb at 33degree my rams got a cooling system also so not overheating, i didnt overclock my PC and when it freeze my mouse stop moving and it get stuck on image. I need to push reset button to put it on roll again. Now if it freezed on installation i guess video card drivers got nothing to do whit it. i did a memtest86 and it looped no prob so my rams are fine, that leaves my cpu Phenom 9600 , my mtb asus M3A32 deluxe and my PSU. kinda hard to tell i would say if you tell me that its common for PSU to run at 11.396 volt. Any tip on how to diagnose the prob would be really apriciated thx

PC eye · 02-11-2008, 05:12 AM

Corsair supplies have their own energy saving feature built into them there. Your mention of seeing problems with the dvd drive during installation points at the need to replace a cable. Vista comes for the most part on dvds not cds like XP did being a larger version now seen.

With 4gb of memory instaled even the 64bit editions run into problems where the MS advice is remove 2gb until after Windows is up and running to that reinstalled. 42C for an idle cpu temp is still high.

For testing a supply a load is placed on it when using a watt meter to meaure the output. There you can see if a supply is wimping out due to a lack of regulation when a good load is placed on it.

Seeing the cursor stuck in an image however points at a display problem more then a half volt variance. If the supply was wimping the initial bootup is where the heaviest load through the post tests and hardware detection process takes place. A bad cap or transformer would be obvious there more then at any other time except for when ocing or running addon devices.

SirKenin · 02-11-2008, 05:33 AM

The 12V is way too low. Your CPU runs off 12V. It's probably crapping out, causing the computer to lock up. Replace the PSU and see what happens.

PC eye · 02-11-2008, 06:03 AM

Another things besides the supply seeing a problem would the board itself. If any caps are starting to give out that will effect what the voltage readings are seen as. Besides replacing supply trying it first on another similar build would show if it is seeing a problem.

If you do end up needing a replacement you couldn't have picked a better time for a different make and model in the 700w range. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341002

SirKenin · 02-11-2008, 06:19 AM

Why you never take computer advice from PCeye:

Capacitors do not regulate voltage. They filter it. Voltage on a motherboard is controlled by voltage regulators.

What ACTUALLY happens is that bulging capacitors (capacitor plague) decrease capacitance while increasing resistance. The PSU will apply more voltage, perceiving the increased resistance as greater load. What happens, then, is that you will be reading MORE voltage, and not less, than spec.

Of course a visual inspection of the board will tell you right away if caps were a problem.

Some symptoms you can expect to see with blown caps:

Failure to boot or post, pressing the power button several times to power up the computer
CPU core voltage and temperature rising
BSODs
Increasing frequency of memory errors
etc.

PC eye · 02-11-2008, 07:16 AM

BSODs caused by blown caps? Give us all a break! Most blue screens are commonly attributed to driver errors or faulty dimms!

A weak supply however will see problems when going to startup a system. Meanwhile a corrupted bios will give off all kinds of information. Capacitors don't regulate voltages?

They regulate current flow by first charging up and then reversing current in order to discharge. This is done in milliseconds. The amps drawn effects voltages. The more amps you pull the lower the volts.

**ceewi1** · 02-11-2008, 08:52 AM

Those voltages are below spec, and if your PSU is actually providing voltages that low it's defective. Software voltage readings are not trustworthy, though. If you have a multimeter, I'd use that to check the voltage on the +12V rail. If not, I'd buy a cheap one before going to the effort of RMAing the PSU.

PC eye · 02-11-2008, 09:54 AM

You're thinking along the same lines that something else is likely pulling the power down rather then rushing for new supply. voltage = current(amps) x resistance Or the bios simply isn't providing accurate information.

A quick look in the bios here shows 12.69v to 12.75v fluxuating while PC Wizard 2008 shows 12V Voltage: 11.33v as seen as in the capture here.

02-11-2008, 03:39 AM	#1 (permalink)
unsuspected New Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 2	PSU prob ? or not Hi i got a Corsair PSU TX750 , my pc freeze from time to time i went to check the voltages in my bios and it tells me that my 12v is giving 11.396volt im using a Asus m3a32 Deluxe mtb , Sapphire Ati 3870 video card and ocz 4x1g 1066mhz reaper rams (all set whit latency and good voltage) could low 12v from psu be reason for the time to time freeze ? Jose Luis

02-11-2008, 04:08 AM	#2 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 20,287	Voltages seen like that are common. The amperage and regulation are the things to look at while Corsair is one of the top makes for supplies. A little more information on the types of freezes being seen would help while often they turn out to be video drivers if no memory faults are found or you have an overheating problem. Gaming, ocing, wrong set of video drivers, dust buildup on fans and the board, lack of good air flow are all things to consider besides hardware faults. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

02-11-2008, 05:12 AM	#4 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 20,287	Corsair supplies have their own energy saving feature built into them there. Your mention of seeing problems with the dvd drive during installation points at the need to replace a cable. Vista comes for the most part on dvds not cds like XP did being a larger version now seen. With 4gb of memory instaled even the 64bit editions run into problems where the MS advice is remove 2gb until after Windows is up and running to that reinstalled. 42C for an idle cpu temp is still high. For testing a supply a load is placed on it when using a watt meter to meaure the output. There you can see if a supply is wimping out due to a lack of regulation when a good load is placed on it. Seeing the cursor stuck in an image however points at a display problem more then a half volt variance. If the supply was wimping the initial bootup is where the heaviest load through the post tests and hardware detection process takes place. A bad cap or transformer would be obvious there more then at any other time except for when ocing or running addon devices. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

02-11-2008, 06:03 AM	#6 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 20,287	Another things besides the supply seeing a problem would the board itself. If any caps are starting to give out that will effect what the voltage readings are seen as. Besides replacing supply trying it first on another similar build would show if it is seeing a problem. If you do end up needing a replacement you couldn't have picked a better time for a different make and model in the 700w range. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341002 __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

02-11-2008, 06:19 AM	#7 (permalink)
SirKenin banned Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 4,711	Why you never take computer advice from PCeye: Capacitors do not regulate voltage. They filter it. Voltage on a motherboard is controlled by voltage regulators. What ACTUALLY happens is that bulging capacitors (capacitor plague) decrease capacitance while increasing resistance. The PSU will apply more voltage, perceiving the increased resistance as greater load. What happens, then, is that you will be reading MORE voltage, and not less, than spec. Of course a visual inspection of the board will tell you right away if caps were a problem. Some symptoms you can expect to see with blown caps: Failure to boot or post, pressing the power button several times to power up the computer CPU core voltage and temperature rising BSODs Increasing frequency of memory errors etc. Last edited by SirKenin; 02-11-2008 at 06:24 AM.

02-11-2008, 04:24 AM	#3 (permalink)
unsuspected New Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 2	first of all my DVD drive dosnt load normally its kinda glitched had some trouble installing windows vista 64 it was rather very slow to load from cd and that came in whit a freeze on installation, i tried my DVD drive on another of my PC and it runned just fine, my case is very well ventilated my cpu is at 42degree my mtb at 33degree my rams got a cooling system also so not overheating, i didnt overclock my PC and when it freeze my mouse stop moving and it get stuck on image. I need to push reset button to put it on roll again. Now if it freezed on installation i guess video card drivers got nothing to do whit it. i did a memtest86 and it looped no prob so my rams are fine, that leaves my cpu Phenom 9600 , my mtb asus M3A32 deluxe and my PSU. kinda hard to tell i would say if you tell me that its common for PSU to run at 11.396 volt. Any tip on how to diagnose the prob would be really apriciated thx

02-11-2008, 05:33 AM	#5 (permalink)
SirKenin banned Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 4,711	The 12V is way too low. Your CPU runs off 12V. It's probably crapping out, causing the computer to lock up. Replace the PSU and see what happens.

02-11-2008, 07:16 AM	#8 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 20,287	BSODs caused by blown caps? Give us all a break! Most blue screens are commonly attributed to driver errors or faulty dimms! A weak supply however will see problems when going to startup a system. Meanwhile a corrupted bios will give off all kinds of information. Capacitors don't regulate voltages? They regulate current flow by first charging up and then reversing current in order to discharge. This is done in milliseconds. The amps drawn effects voltages. The more amps you pull the lower the volts. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

02-11-2008, 08:52 AM	#9 (permalink)
ceewi1 Moderator Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 21 Posts: 5,300	Those voltages are below spec, and if your PSU is actually providing voltages that low it's defective. Software voltage readings are not trustworthy, though. If you have a multimeter, I'd use that to check the voltage on the +12V rail. If not, I'd buy a cheap one before going to the effort of RMAing the PSU. __________________ CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 / MOBO: Gigabyte 965P-DS3 / GPU: Gigabyte HD4870 RAM: 2GB G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK / HDD: 2TB Total HDD / PSU: Antec NeoPower 480W Cheap PSUs - 2% of system costs, responsible for 28% of system deaths As Sealed Stick was removed, lost or damaged, it shall be out of warranty validity. - The "Warranty void if removed" sticker on numerous CoolerMaster PSUs. Useful PSU Guides

02-11-2008, 09:54 AM	#10 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 20,287	You're thinking along the same lines that something else is likely pulling the power down rather then rushing for new supply. voltage = current(amps) x resistance Or the bios simply isn't providing accurate information. A quick look in the bios here shows 12.69v to 12.75v fluxuating while PC Wizard 2008 shows 12V Voltage: 11.33v as seen as in the capture here. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1 Last edited by PC eye; 02-13-2008 at 07:27 AM.

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