Any PS gurus have some advice on my 12 volt line

[Tomsawyer]

I am having problems where if I attempt to play any 3D style games the system either freezes or reboots. I tried to do a benchmark using 3DMark 05 and it froze. I can play 2d games, I can surf, I can defrag. I have tried several drivers for the 9800 pro and currently am using the Omega 5.1's to no avail. Frankly its driving me nuts. Well I have been dreaming of upgrading to a San Diego 3700 and began my research to include power supplies which lead me to the threads about antec's, rail voltage and all that.

Since I use MB monitor I began to wonder if my Antec True Power 430 perhaps is going bad and brought up the dashboard. The 12 volt line is showing 11.61where I have heard solid PSU's like PC&P or OCZ are 11.95 or such.

Could a low 12 volt rail cause this kinda freezing? The 9800 pro does have a molex connector powering it along with what ever juice the AGP slot gives.

As I save my pennies to upgrade can anyone tell me if 11.61 on that rail is too low??

 

[Tomsawyer]

Hmmm

I droped the standard memory and core clock on my 9800 pro to 290.25 each

Launched Doom3 ROE and I was able to get into the game at High settings, 1024 by 768

Something is rotten here........

I have an artic3 rev 3 on that card so if its a heat issue I am going to nuke

 

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Check the 12v with a multimeter to be sure.

Is this an older Truepower 430w, from before the 12v capacity went up? If over 2 years old, you could be affected by the bad capacitor issue these sometimes have. Only way to check for bad caps is to pull the lid off and look for bulging and/or leaking ones, but this of course voids the warranty.

 

[Scrufdog]

what are your system specs...mobo, cpu, ram....

Never trust voltages readings from software or bios, unless you have personally tweaked them in something like MBM5, using a multimeter, they will be wrong. So, grab a multimeter and check voltages at idle and at load to see whats going on.

 

[Electron Chaser]

You are not be the first victim with an Antec Truepower 430 Watt PSU to be affected with the 12V rail sag

 

[Tomsawyer]

Ok system specs

Epox 8rda+ from which I have removed the volt mod, nb is cooled by heatsink and fan
amd xp2800 mobile 35w cpu cooled by a Mach1 phase cooler
ATI 9800pro 128mb video card with arctic rev 3 cooler, omega 5.1 drivers
twin mos pc3200 (2) 256mb matched
2 120gb WD HD's 8mb cache
NEC DVD Burner
antec 430w true power (about 1 1/2 years old hmmmmmm)
winxp pro with all service packs and updates
only one system fan (rear exhaust) pulls from the PSU, the other 120mm fan is a 120 volt fan controlled by a rotary switch up front for some serious air input as needed
Inwin Q500 full tower that has been modified more times than I can recall lol

currently the system is overclocked to 2500mhz with a 12.5 multiple, FSB of 200mhz. I have ran that way for at least a year no problems. About 1 month ago I formated the C: drive and reinstalled Win XP and all updates. I use Adaware, Spybot, Zone Alarm and Norton anti virus 2005. For everything non 3D I have no problems. Launch 3D mark or Doom ect ect at normal stock speeds on the 9800pro and it just locks up. But if I run the card at 290/290 and I can play Doom at High 1024/768 with no problems. Should have nothing to do with it but when ever I run defrag it allways recommends to defrag the C: drive. I checked for mal and spy ware, viruses with nothing found but maybe something is flaky there too......

I need to get my hands on a good multi meter and see if this antec is sagging. Maybe a fresh reinstall of the C: drive is in order.......

 

[mirko_3]

Lol, my antec TP430 shows 11.2 on my 12v line and is rock-stable... I'll see with a multimeter as soon as it arrives...

 

[Tomsawyer]

Well I think either I had some sort of glitch or freaky spyware.

A multi metter hooked to the 20pin showed rock solid voltages well above what MM5 was showing. I ran Prime 95, I even ran for the first time in a while Doom3 and Swat4.

If this problem comes back its time to upgrade