Like it says – J. Troutman
I recently (just this evening) discovered a fix for a problem that I have
been having with my system voltages.
I have a decently OC’d Barton (2.5 Ghz x
200FSB @ 1.775V) and I have been experiencing problems with my 5V rail
dipping below the tolerable levels. Two days ago, my levels were reading
normal for my system (4.85-4.83). Then after doing some minor reorganizing
in the case, the next day I was getting BSODs in windows.
I checked my
voltages and found my 5V rail measuring below 4.7V.
I ran into the problem a
few weeks earlier where I was only getting 4.6V but it seemed to fix itself
after a full 24 hour power down.
While doing my standard troubleshooting of checking the PSU voltages from
the molex connectors, I found that the voltages started to dip right in
front of me when I wasn’t applying good pressure to the probes.
I then
checked the ATX connector to find that a few of my pins had been overheating
and discolored the connector (of course – bad connection). After using some
pliers to make the connection tight again and powering on the system, my 5V
rails went right back up to the regular levels, and even a bit higher.
The reason why I bring this up is that
I am wondering just how many people might be replacing MB and PSU due to low
voltages simply because of poor ATX connections.
I do recall an article on Overclockers.com where some one else had an experience like
this (Athlon Tbird 1.4) and what he did to correct it (solder the PSU cables
right to the MB), so this could have been covered already. However, I think
it will be relative to some people if the article or at least the fix was
republished.
Just trying to help out the community with one of my own “DUH!” moments 🙂
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