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ARGH!



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 13th 03, 12:18 PM
philo
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Posts: n/a
Default ARGH!


"Some One" wrote in message
. ca...
I swear... computers are spying on us.

Not 60 seconds after I post about my wife's PC acting up my own PC
freezes. Upon reboot it complains about CMOS settings and crashes
within seconds after getting booted into Windows XP. I've reset my
CMOS to what it should be and the PC is fine now. BLECH.

Looking at my BIOS and MBM readings, my 12v seems high at 12.91v.
Other voltages a
5v = 4.93v
3.3v = 3.29v
-5v = -4.85v
-12v = -11.79v
Core0 = 1.79v (CMOS set for 1.77 and I can't change it)
Core1 = 2.58v and I don't recall what the CMOS reported (or if it was
even there)

PSU is a decent quality brand (which I can't remember at the moment).

CPU Temp is showing 54'C in MBM. CPU is an AMD TBird 1300.

It was quite warm today, but I did not use the PC at all while it was
hot outside, so that shouldn't make a difference.

Mainboard is an ESC K7VTA3 that I've had for months and have never had
a problem with.

- Is heat a problem for a PSU even when not in use?

- Many PSU's have one or more POTs to adjust voltages. Usually
adjusting one voltage messes up another (ie, if I lower my 12.91v down
to 12v my 4.93v would drop to around 4v - not good). Are there any
components in the PSU that I can replace to do the same the and
compensate for the difference? (ie, different value resistor, or use a
higher wattage or better grade?) I've pulled VLSI chips from
mainboards and resoldered replacements successfully, so soldering is
not an issue here.

...Definately looking forward to Christmas. Wife and I promised that
we'd replace *ALL* the computer gear at the end of the year. Too many
upgrades with old parts, new parts, questionable parts... Where are
they all now?



i've done some benchmark tests and varied vcore voltage and found that a few
hundredths
of a volt don't make any difference...so i doubt if you have a problem with
your ps

since both computers malfunctioned at the same time it's possible there was
a power surge of
some type.
maybe you should put the machines on a UPS


  #2  
Old July 13th 03, 09:55 PM
Some One
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

snip
Not 60 seconds after I post about my wife's PC acting up my own PC
freezes. Upon reboot it complains about CMOS settings and crashes
within seconds after getting booted into Windows XP. I've reset my
CMOS to what it should be and the PC is fine now. BLECH.

Looking at my BIOS and MBM readings, my 12v seems high at 12.91v.
Other voltages a
5v = 4.93v
3.3v = 3.29v
-5v = -4.85v
-12v = -11.79v
Core0 = 1.79v (CMOS set for 1.77 and I can't change it)
Core1 = 2.58v and I don't recall what the CMOS reported (or if it

was
even there)

snip

i've done some benchmark tests and varied vcore voltage and found

that a few
hundredths
of a volt don't make any difference...so i doubt if you have a

problem with
your ps


But the 12v was ONE WHOLE VOLT higher than it should be.

since both computers malfunctioned at the same time it's possible

there was
a power surge of some type.
maybe you should put the machines on a UPS


Wifes PC has been acting up for about a week. My PC had problems just
the one time and seems fine today.



  #3  
Old July 14th 03, 01:20 AM
kony
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 05:19:26 GMT, "Some One"
wrote:

I swear... computers are spying on us.


Let's not be paranoid... it's more likely someone has programmed all
your computers to spy on you, the computer had little choice in the
matter. ;-)


Not 60 seconds after I post about my wife's PC acting up my own PC
freezes. Upon reboot it complains about CMOS settings and crashes
within seconds after getting booted into Windows XP. I've reset my
CMOS to what it should be and the PC is fine now. BLECH.

Looking at my BIOS and MBM readings, my 12v seems high at 12.91v.


Yes that's a bit high, but, still within 10% spec, and 12V
rail/components are the most tolerant of different voltage,
predominantly it powers motors that either reduce in RPM like a fan,
or have RPM monitor funciton to adjust speed to precise RPM. The
major problems with 12V rail are typically when it's UNDER too far,
the HDDs won't have spun up, be ready when the BIOS tries to detect.

Other voltages a
5v = 4.93v
3.3v = 3.29v
-5v = -4.85v
-12v = -11.79v
Core0 = 1.79v (CMOS set for 1.77 and I can't change it)
Core1 = 2.58v and I don't recall what the CMOS reported (or if it was
even there)

PSU is a decent quality brand (which I can't remember at the moment).


Maybe, but I'd expect a decent PSU to be a little more accurate, is it
high enough capacity or perhaps in order to keep the 5V rail up, which
IS monitored, it's raising the 12V rail as consequence. _IF_ this is
the problem, the quesiton might be, why is the 5V rail so loaded? Do
you have very demanding components beyond the processor? After
reading ahead I also supect something else, mentioned next.

CPU Temp is showing 54'C in MBM. CPU is an AMD TBird 1300.

It was quite warm today, but I did not use the PC at all while it was
hot outside, so that shouldn't make a difference.

Mainboard is an ESC K7VTA3 that I've had for months and have never had
a problem with.


Does it have the row of mosfets on the left side of the CPU socket,
right next to and doing a great job of heating up a row of
potentially-defective Luxon capacitors? I've seen a few ECS boards
with those caps blown. Replacing them resolved the problem, but it's
hard to make this kind of speculation without visable signs of
venting/residue/swollen/etc.


- Is heat a problem for a PSU even when not in use?


If it's VERY hot, and the PSU isn't turned on, it's 5VSB rail is still
producing a bit of heat, so possibly this heat could build up and
accelerate the PSU's demise, but I'd expect it to take quite a while
for this to happen, would look elsewhere for a problem first.


- Many PSU's have one or more POTs to adjust voltages. Usually
adjusting one voltage messes up another (ie, if I lower my 12.91v down
to 12v my 4.93v would drop to around 4v - not good). Are there any
components in the PSU that I can replace to do the same the and
compensate for the difference? (ie, different value resistor, or use a
higher wattage or better grade?) I've pulled VLSI chips from
mainboards and resoldered replacements successfully, so soldering is
not an issue here.


Sure, there's a fairly simple way to do it, but likley not an easy way
to implement it on the circuit board. You could just put a diode or
two (of adequate amperage) in the circuit after the inductor. There
isn't an easy way to accomplish this on most tightly-packed power
supplies, and it's not something I'd suggest doing, instead the PSU
should be replaced or whatever other problem resolved.



...Definately looking forward to Christmas. Wife and I promised that
we'd replace *ALL* the computer gear at the end of the year. Too many
upgrades with old parts, new parts, questionable parts... Where are
they all now?

LCD (or OLED!!!), SATA, Gigabyte ethernet (Where do you get a cheap
gigabit switch???), ultra fast video, writable DVD... All looks like
fun! Will CD drives use SATA? ... argh! Keeping up makes a person
dizzy!


I"m sure optical drives will go SATA too, but for now I enjoy the
incredibly low prices when the excess parallel-interfaced drives get
dumped in the US.


Dave
 




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