-12v rail, is this bad?

[A-Dub]

I've been trying to figure out the cause of my random freezes and have been paying more attention to temps/voltages lately. I've measured the +12v, +5v and +3v rails with a volt meter and they are all solid/stable and agree with HW monitor. What I have noticed is that my -12v rail is all over the place. The reading is constantly fluctuating, even when my computer is idle, ranging from -10.6 to -13. Should I rma this power supply?

[Oklahoma Wolf]

-12V is irrelevant for today's systems... don't worry about it.

You really need to check voltages with a DMM... software and BIOS is always wrong.

[A-Dub]

So it doesn't matter that -10.6 is out of spec? What's the -12v used for then?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX
−12 VDC ±10% (±1.2 V) –10.8 V to –13.2

Oh well, worth a shot replacing the power supply. Its the only piece of hardware I haven't replaced and my system is still freezing up once every couple of days.

[Oklahoma Wolf]

COM ports and ISA devices. Honestly it should have been deep sixed from the spec when the -5V rail went bye-bye.

[A-Dub]

Yeah, just double checked the -12v with a DMM and it was a steady -12.6. Seems odd that that's the only one that HW Monitor disagrees with my DMM on. I still need something to replace my current psu with to see if that fixes the problem. Thanks for the good deal!

[Mpegger]

The -12 in one of my PCs shows up as around -6 via the software method (HWMonitor by the same programmer as CPUID). I disregard it cause as Oklahoma Wolf stated, the software method is always off.

[Bobnova]

I have yet to see a motherboard sensor that wasn't way out in left field on the - voltages.