Diagnose my rails please?

Bios and Sandra report almost the same voltage,3.22 4.89 11.43
I have no multimeter. Is this safe or what?
Edit: I've also tried a codegen 300w and got basically the same readings.



Sempron 2200 1.5ghz with stock cooler
256 ram
40 gig hdd
1 cdrom
1 floppy
1 case fan
Onboard video
Antec SL350

+12v is very low. Almost beyond tolerance level. I wouldn't trust the software reading. Borrow a DMM and test. That Antec should easily handle your system, whether it is the older version (16A on +12) or the newer version (21A on +12). I've run both (see sig) and no issues.

It is a bit suspect isnt it. You think I should leave the pc off untill I can get a true reading or get a new psu?

what are the rails like on load?

You really are running nothing. I'd be a bit worried about something. I doubt it's the PSU, could be faulty sensors. have you updated the bios on the board yet?

While it is low even for a BIOS reading (generally they are not that low or they are so low as to be impossible). you just can trust the readings from your BIOS and of course they would both be the same since where do you think Sandra gets it's readings from. Borrow a meter if possible or go buy one since it is a good investment to have one anyway.

As far as leaving it off is it showing a signs of a problem. Random reboots? Disappearing drives on startup? Lockups? Etc.. If not then don't worry about it and run it until you can get a meter. If you are experiencing problems then go get a meter immediately.

Generally you will start to see problems at around 11.5 to 11.6 volts on your 12 Volt rail. If you are not having any of the above issues or something similar then you should be OK.

Funny the rails are pretty much the same idle and load.I switched to yet another psu and I'm getting better readings.I will try and update the bios and get a multi soon.
TX guys.

Odd reading but my dads mobo shows the same readings on the 12v as yours, but in actuality the psu is putting out 11.85v or so. Which is a tad low, but from my experience if your rail is slightly low, it is amplified(looks worse than it is) when reading from the motherboard, same goes for it being slightly high.

schismspeak said:

Odd reading but my dads mobo shows the same readings on the 12v as yours, but in actuality the psu is putting out 11.85v or so. Which is a tad low, but from my experience if your rail is slightly low, it is amplified(looks worse than it is) when reading from the motherboard, same goes for it being slightly high.

Click to expand...

Yeah I hear ya.Well I put in the one thats showing the best readings for now and I'll be ordering a Fortron shortly.

OK I just ordered this one.TX guys.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-104-963&depa=0