Curious about voltages

I just wondering if the if these voltages are ok or if something is maybe starting to go?
I have no idea about PSUs, i know the one in my sig is not great, but if its going then i get to upgrade and i now know to do my homework before buying lol (Shiney isn't an indicator of quality)

They're fine - tolerance on the 12v rail is +/- 5%, so 11.4v to 12.6v. But software voltage readings aren't always accurate. The software readings on the 12v rail on my PSU say it's at 8v, which is waaay out of wack, but it's still running fine. If you want the "true" voltage readings, it's better to check the sticky in this section.

It depends on whether those numbers are accurate or not (HWMonitor, as well as all other software voltage readings (including the BIOS page!) need to be taken with at least one grain of salt). That's still within spec, but a wider swing than I'd rather see personally.

What I would do is grab a multimeter and test the voltages. There's a guide in my sig if the link still works.
If you don't have a multimeter, hit up Harbor Freight or whatever the canadian equivalent is and grab a $10 flavor, they're plenty accurate for this.

The motherboard's monitoring hardware and any monitoring software can't be trusted unless they've been verified with an accurate meter, but if the software readings are reasonable and not bouncing around rapidly, they're generally OK for measuring CHANGES in voltage, and your readings show only a 3% change.

Multimeter is your best friend here like Bobnova mentioned.

My -12 Volt rail reads -4 Volts and the 12 volt rail? 3.5 Volts
The PSU stickies will show you how it's done, it what I did.
Easy to follow

Cool i'll have to check those out and go buy me a multimeter, or vice versa lol.
That reminds me i want a dremel tool too, hmmmmm maybe a trip to home depot is in order

Sounds like it!

You don't need to get anything special voltmeter wise. Many of them actually have the same chip inside from $10 through $80.
I have a $6.89 meter from harbor freight that matches the shop's Fluke 88 (>$400 meter) to within 0.01v.

good to know thanks bob

At the voltage screen in your bios you could try and jiggle the main atx plug until the numbers get closer to what you'd like. I've seen mine go to 11.2v if I jiggle the wrong way and it shuts off..

why bother, if mine are within 10% i ignore them.

if your going to clock the pee out of it then its another kettle of monkeys.

freeagent said:

At the voltage screen in your bios you could try and jiggle the main atx plug until the numbers get closer to what you'd like. I've seen mine go to 11.2v if I jiggle the wrong way and it shuts off..

Click to expand...

Your PSU's ATX24P connector pins need tightening. That is Not Good.

SubPar said:

Cool i'll have to check those out and go buy me a multimeter,

Click to expand...

Buy??? If there are Harbor Freight stores in your area, they often have a decent one that's free with any purchase, if you have the right coupon, and recently HF has been mailing out coupons that waive any purchase requirement.

However I wouldn't use any cheap meter on high voltage because the leads may be junk. Check the leads by connecting them together and setting the meter to its lowest ohms scale. They should read less than an ohm, but I've seen some read 40 ohms until I reseated them 5-10 times in their sockets. If you want something for checking high voltage stuff, Sears has a simple Craftsman meter that's well built and is sometimes on sale for $10 w/ free delivery to the store. It's normally $20 but not worth that price. I think most Craftsman electronic instruments are Ex-Tech, which is owned by FLiR, the company that makes infrared weapons sensors for the US military.

Multimeters are much better than PSU testers because you can use them to check switches, the CMOS battery, and lots of stuff in your car, like the battery, alternator, and some of the computer sensors and actuators.

Yeah some of the lead to body connections on the newer HF meters are terrible. They're still within a tenth of a volt at PSU voltages, but trying to read ohms is hopeless.
I've been meaning to crack one open and glob solder all over where the plugs hit the PCB to see if it helps, as it's not the leads themselves that have issues, I've been using some of the new ones on my old meter and they work fine.

Definitely get a multimeter if you don't have one, they're useful for a ton of stuff.