12v at 11.13v

[GT]

Asrock 4CoreDual VSTA
e6400
2 DDR modules
7600GS passive (no extra power connector)
2 hard drives
1 DVD (rarely used)
3 fans on 5v rail.

Is 11.13V too low for a 12v rail in the above? What is the biggest 12v power
drain above - the graphics card?

 

[kony]

Asrock 4CoreDual VSTA
e6400
2 DDR modules
7600GS passive (no extra power connector)
2 hard drives
1 DVD (rarely used)
3 fans on 5v rail.

Is 11.13V too low for a 12v rail in the above? What is the biggest 12v power
drain above - the graphics card?

More info required:

Where and how was this 11.13V reading taken?
Take at connector to the load with a multimeter, or you will
have large inaccuracy to deal with from software/bios.

In general, a reading as low as 11.13V is a likely indicator
of a problem. Many systems would run fine from a _stable_
12V level of 11.13V, but most often when a 12V level is that
low it is not clean power, is a sign of a problem and might
even dip below that 11.13V momentarily. What
make/model/wattage of PSU? What is the 5V voltage reading
when 12V is at 11.13? If you have not used a multimeter to
read it yet that would be a good start, as well as
re-reading the 12V level when the system is under CPU full
load if this was at idle.

The video card is pretty efficient and miserly, around 2A
when gaming and less at the desktop. By far the largest
power consumer is the CPU (nearer full load), seconded by
the motherboard (but not 12V rail for it), then video card,
and hard drives next (they'll be 2nd largest consumer of 12V
power when the system is first turned on, as they spin up).

 

[GT]

More info required:

Where and how was this 11.13V reading taken?
Take at connector to the load with a multimeter, or you will
have large inaccuracy to deal with from software/bios.

Thanks Kony. The reading was idle CPU and measured by software in XP -
Everest. I have a multimeter, but no time at the moment. PC has been stable
for ages, but I will investigate when I'm next in there - where should I
test - a hard disk connector sufficient?. Full voltage (Everest) readings
are:

CPU Core 1.26 V
+3.3 V 3.28 V
+5 V 4.97 V
+12 V 11.13 V
-12 V -0.02 V
-5 V 0.68 V
+5 V Standby 4.99 V
VBAT Battery 3.14 V
Debug Info F FF 65 FF
Debug Info T 25 34 255
Debug Info V 4F 00 CD B9 B7 B5 A7 (01)

 

[kony]

Thanks Kony. The reading was idle CPU and measured by software in XP -
Everest. I have a multimeter, but no time at the moment. PC has been stable
for ages, but I will investigate when I'm next in there - where should I
test - a hard disk connector sufficient?.

Take the reading at the most loaded connector on each rail.
If for some reason you can't access that connector (probes
through back of connector while plugged in) then at last
confirm the alternate connector is on same rail (would've
been nice to know the PSU make/model to know if it had
multiple 12V rails).

Full voltage (Everest) readings
are:

CPU Core 1.26 V
+3.3 V 3.28 V
+5 V 4.97 V
+12 V 11.13 V
-12 V -0.02 V
-5 V 0.68 V
+5 V Standby 4.99 V
VBAT Battery 3.14 V
Debug Info F FF 65 FF
Debug Info T 25 34 255
Debug Info V 4F 00 CD B9 B7 B5 A7 (01)

I could guess why, that the psu is inappropriate because
it's designed to largely, primarily track (regulate) from
the 5V rail instead of 12V, but really the info like actual
PSU needs considered to determine this... (my) guesses are
not good to make, going to be wrong a certain % of the time
which is why I'd asked about PSU make/model already so we
have as much of the context as possible. For all we know it
might just be a psu failing or a bad PSU design or ???

 

[DaveW]

The accepted tolerance on PSU voltages is 10%. So the 12V voltage could
safely be as low as 10.8V. It's OK.

 

[Pen]

The accepted tolerance on PSU voltages is 10%. So the 12V voltage could
safely be as low as 10.8V. It's OK.

That's not correct. The tolerances for the 12V line is 5%, or 0.6V.

 

[Plato]

Asrock 4CoreDual VSTA
e6400
2 DDR modules
7600GS passive (no extra power connector)
2 hard drives
1 DVD (rarely used)
3 fans on 5v rail.

Is 11.13V too low for a 12v rail in the above? What is the biggest 12v power
drain above - the graphics card?

5% above or below 12 volts in the standard tolerance.