Unstable Voltage

[JesseLactin]

I got my old Enermax Noisetaker used from a friend. Now that I've added a second HDD, the CPU voltage goes a little crazy. The Phenom II X4 955 I'm using goes from 1.4V to 1.42V randomly (higher voltage is about the same. 1.45V in BIOS equates to 1.464V in CPU-Z). The system also doesn't POST if I overclock it (even a little) in BIOS. Is it the motherboard's (a budget Biostar A880GU3 I'm regretting) VRMs not being good enough or is it the PSU itself? I'm going to replace the thing that's the problem.

 

[JesseLactin]

I woke up to "HyperTransport Sync Flood Error." I read that this is caused by bad power supply or not enough voltage to the CPU.

 

[S_I_N]

sounds like a bad psu to me

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Ask your mates if anyone has a spare mobo and/ or PSU to test with.

I'd say it's your board, as a PSU would be having problems at stock if it was responsible for not enough juice to hydrate an overclock - being as the wattage increase is so dainty (if even tiny overclocks won't work, like you say)

 

[JesseLactin]

Ouch. I'll leave it at stock for now. My PPD will take a hit though. I've been folding for about a week or 2. I've got 23 WUs done since my HDD failed (I think I've done 10 on the old HDD). I'll wait for BD and see the numbers. If it's better than SB, I'll get an AM3+ board, otherwise, I'll pick up an 1155 board. Not sure which board for either socket. Can anyone suggest a AM3+ board and an 1155 board?

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Ouch. I'll leave it at stock for now. My PPD will take a hit though. I've been folding for about a week or 2. I've got 23 WUs done since my HDD failed (I think I've done 10 on the old HDD). I'll wait for BD and see the numbers. If it's better than SB, I'll get an AM3+ board, otherwise, I'll pick up an 1155 board. Not sure which board for either socket. Can anyone suggest a AM3+ board and an 1155 board?

AM3+ > Crosshair V

 

[JesseLactin]

Thanks. The CHV is nice. Just saw S_I_N's response. It may be the PSU. Nothing was wrong w/ the mobo (other than being cheap and looking the part). My PSU may be on it's last legs. I found out that the PSU splits amps between GPUs on one rail and the motherboard and CPU on the other. Since I'm running a IGP, nothing is on the 2nd rail, so the first rail can deliver its full 18A. Is that enough (bearing in mind that it's 4 to 7 years old)? I'm running 2 HDDs (probably .5A each), 5 120mm SickleFlows (0.35A each), 1 stock (red LED) MegaFlow 200 (0.30A) and a Phenom II X4 955. I can't tell how much the 955 is pulling on the 12V though. I'm guessing 10 to 12A.

 

[S_I_N]

thing here is a catch 22 actually if the psu is going bad then it cant supply needed POWER thereby the vrms and well everything is taking a power hit. If its the mobo you'd see similar issues as well becaue well the mobo also delves out power to the various parts

 

[JesseLactin]

I think that it may very well be the PSU. Old capacitors, etc + new processor = bad (It's labelled "Pentium 4 Ready"). That's old ('00 was when Intel release the P4, and Enermax released this PSU in '04). I'm pretty sure that the HT sync flood error I got this morning was a result of the PSU. $40 for a decent PSU was too hard to pass up. It was a good deal at the time. I don't regret it.

 

[JesseLactin]

I think my thread on my CPU fan shutting down and causing a system crash is related. I think the PWM header lost power for a moment. Is it possible to measure how many amps the 72mm fan on the stock cooler pulls? I think I'm redlining a dying PSU. I'm probably pulling 13 or 14 A.

 

[JesseLactin]

My system just shut down. No BSOD. It turned off and I flipped the on / off switch and hit the power button. I'll be buying a Corsair HX850 soon.

 

[Scoob]

My system just shut down. No BSOD. It turned off and I flipped the on / off switch and hit the power button. I'll be buying a Corsair HX850 soon.

I think a new PSU will sort you out, the HX850 will be a good unit. I currently use an HX750 with a 2500k @ 4.6 and SLI'd 570 @ 800 core and it's working very well so far.

Good, stable power from your PSU is critical for any sort of stability - years ago, after adding an up-rated Graphics Card to a PC, I saw quite a catestrophic PSU failure with just a tiny bit of extra power draw. We noticed some light reflecting off the wall from the back of the PC - the light was from FLAMES, the PSU had caught fire...yikes. Luckily rest of system was fine and new PSU sorted it.

Cheers,

Scoob.

 

[JesseLactin]

I think a new PSU will sort you out, the HX850 will be a good unit. I currently use an HX750 with a 2500k @ 4.6 and SLI'd 570 @ 800 core and it's working very well so far.

Good, stable power from your PSU is critical for any sort of stability - years ago, after adding an up-rated Graphics Card to a PC, I saw quite a catestrophic PSU failure with just a tiny bit of extra power draw. We noticed some light reflecting off the wall from the back of the PC - the light was from FLAMES, the PSU had caught fire...yikes. Luckily rest of system was fine and new PSU sorted it.

Cheers,

Scoob.

Knowing my luck, It'll scorch my carpet, then burn my appt. down. I got the worst luck with pretty much everything. I'm also a klutz. I managed to to cut my hand about 7 times during my build (ended up slicing a finger removing on the empty motherboard IO area the HAF 922 from the box).

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Knowing my luck, It'll scorch my carpet, then burn my appt. down. I got the worst luck with pretty much everything. I'm also a klutz. I managed to to cut my hand about 7 times during my build (ended up slicing a finger removing on the empty motherboard IO area the HAF 922 from the box).

I'd put the rig on a desk/ table until you get your new PSU if I were you then

 

[Scoob]

To be fair the PSU that caught fire was a very cheap "came with the case" one, so really poor. I'm sure most PSU for the past several years actually cut out when nearing overload rather than let the overload happen & catch fire! Well, I'd hope so!

Scoob.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

To be fair the PSU that caught fire was a very cheap "came with the case" one, so really poor. I'm sure most PSU for the past several years actually cut out when nearing overload rather than let the overload happen & catch fire! Well, I'd hope so!

Scoob.

Better to be safe than sorry though. Wouldn't want to leave a rickety old unit next to a floor full of tinder

 

[JesseLactin]

Better to be safe than sorry though. Wouldn't want to leave a rickety old unit next to a floor full of tinder

I know what you mean. My rig is on the floor on some books to avoid picking up what's on the carpet (dust, cat hair - don't own a cat, but the neighbours' cats are welcome in the appt.). I'm kinda sad that I'm not folding right now, but it's better to be rigless for a little while, and get it working in a week, than for it to fail catastrophically, and need to buy a whole new rig. Right now, it's in my sister's room plugged into the wall (static protection) until I get a new PSU. I'll probably pick up a few dust filters and fan guards, if NCIX allows me to price match from $5.49 to $0.41.

Edit: would you recommend flipping the PSU so it pulls out air from the case?

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

I know what you mean. My rig is on the floor on some books to avoid picking up what's on the carpet (dust, cat hair - don't own a cat, but the neighbours' cats are welcome in the appt.). I'm kinda sad that I'm not folding right now, but it's better to be rigless for a little while, and get it working in a week, than for it to fail catastrophically, and need to buy a whole new rig. Right now, it's in my sister's room plugged into the wall (static protection) until I get a new PSU. I'll probably pick up a few dust filters and fan guards, if NCIX allows me to price match from $5.49 to $0.41.

Edit: would you recommend flipping the PSU so it pulls out air from the case?

Personally, no. The PSU would end up intaking warm air from the graphics card rather than cool air from outside.

 

[Scoob]

Hi,

The whole PSU orientation thing is fairly subjective - I know Tom likes to see the fan of the PSU in his build, which is fine if it's your preference.

Personally I've always had my fans facing up (with PSU at bottom) mainly because none of my cases had a floor grill - until now.

My CM 690 II Lite has a floor grill and is designed so the PSU can take in cool air from below. In my particular situation it would be daft to have the fan facing up as that would take some very warm air from my pair of GTX 570s, so not an option in my view. Also, I don't think a PSU really adds much to the air-flow if it is extracting internal air - at least not compared to a proper 120mm fan.

However, these floor vents really do attract an awful lot of dust, quite shockingly so. Now my PC is floor standing but it's on a large piece of clear perspex so it's not directly on the carpet. Despite this the filter was quite dusty when I cleaned it the other day. A desk standing PC might not attract so much dust, but I've never stood a PC on my desk so I don't know. Of course, all you have to do is clean it every few weeks, no big deal really.

So, I guess PSU orientation really depends on the build as a whole, what particular look your prefer and/or what's right in regards air-flow. I've not run any scientific tests with a PSU sucking hot air vs. the same PSU getting a cold air feed, maybe it makes bugger all difference to anything overall

Cheers,

Scoob.

 

[SmoulderingCircuits]

Hi,

The whole PSU orientation thing is fairly subjective - I know Tom likes to see the fan of the PSU in his build, which is fine if it's your preference.

Personally I've always had my fans facing up (with PSU at bottom) mainly because none of my cases had a floor grill - until now.

My CM 690 II Lite has a floor grill and is designed so the PSU can take in cool air from below. In my particular situation it would be daft to have the fan facing up as that would take some very warm air from my pair of GTX 570s, so not an option in my view. Also, I don't think a PSU really adds much to the air-flow if it is extracting internal air - at least not compared to a proper 120mm fan.

However, these floor vents really do attract an awful lot of dust, quite shockingly so. Now my PC is floor standing but it's on a large piece of clear perspex so it's not directly on the carpet. Despite this the filter was quite dusty when I cleaned it the other day. A desk standing PC might not attract so much dust, but I've never stood a PC on my desk so I don't know. Of course, all you have to do is clean it every few weeks, no big deal really.

So, I guess PSU orientation really depends on the build as a whole, what particular look your prefer and/or what's right in regards air-flow. I've not run any scientific tests with a PSU sucking hot air vs. the same PSU getting a cold air feed, maybe it makes bugger all difference to anything overall

Cheers,

Scoob.

My rig is on a drawer unit and the grill needs cleaning every month if you're fussy but every 3 months will keep dust from causing any problems