Voltage Readings

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Thread: Voltage Readings

  1. #1
    Sushi
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    3

    Voltage Readings

    I'm new to this forum. I've read through one thread about voltage readings being too high and I'm wondering if my voltages and reading are within normal specs or if I have a hardware problem.

    I have an asus M2N68AM-Plus motherboard and a Thermaltake W0121RU 600 Watt Power Supply. I've also got 2 2GB Non-Parity DDR2 memory chips installed, an AMD Phenom x3 8400 processor and I'm running a 750 GB Western Digital Hard Drive, a 1 TB Seagate Baracuda Hard Drive and a 320 GB Western Digital Hard Drive.

    I haven't had any problems with this computer until recently when it would start to lock up after downloading and installing all of the Windows 7 Updates from Microsofts website.

    I've swapped out the motherboard with a brand new one of the exact same model, I've checked both of my Western Digital Hard Drives using Western Digital's DataLifeguard tools, and I've pulled the power supply from the computer and tested each lead with a DMM.

    I've also looked at the voltages in bios.

    Bios reports the following.

    CPU Temp 48 C, High Temp 51 C.
    MB Temp 38, 40
    CPU FanSpeed 2800rpm, 2836rpm

    VCore Voltage 1.296
    3.3 Voltage 3.280
    5V Voltage 5.017
    12V Voltage 12.342


    I downloaded and installed both SpeedFan and HWmonitor. HW doesn't show the +5V readings at all, but SpeedFan says that it reads 6.85V.

    What I'm wondering is if my readings are within normal specs or if they indicate a problem with the hardware or power supply.

    The DMM readings that I took (without load) are as follows for the 24 Pin Main connector.


    1. 3.33 Orange
    2. 12.39 Yellow
    3. 12.40 Yellow
    4. 3.97 Purple
    5. 4.96 Gray
    6. Ground
    7. 5.09 Red
    8. Ground
    9. 5.09 Red
    10. Ground
    11. 3.33 Orange
    12. 3.33 Orange
    13. 3.33 Orange
    14. 11.26 Blue
    15. Ground
    16. No reading taken
    17. Ground
    18. Ground
    19. Ground
    20. Empty Slot
    21. 5.09 Red
    22. 5.09 Red
    23. 5.09 Red
    25. Ground

    I included the colors of the wires so that you know what they are on the power supply that I have. As I said I took these readings with a DMM, but with no load applied so at the moment I'm not real sure as to how normal those readings are.

    If someone can tell me if my reading are correct or not then I'd greatly appreciate it as I'm trying to figure out as to how normal my readings are. If they are above or below, then I need to know as to what else I might look at and what the likely culprit might be so that I can fix any hardware problems that my system might have and make it more stable again.

    Both of the Western Digital drives that I mentioned both passed the SMART and extended tests with no problems.

    I've also installed an 80mm fan in the front of the case on the initial premise that my hard drives were overheating and causing the problem. I can't say for sure if the fan is even working at all though.

  2. #2
    Great White Shark
    Join Date
    Nov 2000
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    Alpharetta, Denial, Only certain songs.
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    9,925
    The main voltages on a computer power supply are 12v, 5v, 3.3v, -5v. (There might be -12v too, but I can't remember.)

    ATX specifications required them to be within +/- 10% of these voltages.

    Yours are all within spec.
    Last edited by James; 03-22-2012 at 09:13 AM.

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  3. #3
    Sushi
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    3
    Thank you for letting me know that. I've been struggling with this computer locking up on me and the 750 GB drive intermittently not showing up in Bios foe over a week. I've gone over every inch of the computer that I could think of trying to figure out what the problem was and trying to solve it.

    It took me a while to figure it out, but I finally solved the problem with the computer locking up like it has been doing. It all pretty much started when I took a 320 GB hard drive and installed it into my computer to add extra hard drive space. The 750 GB drive has a default transfer rate of 6 GB's and the 320 has a default transfer rate of 3 GB's.

    It took me a trip to Western Digital's knowledge base to figure out that the two drives were conflicting with each other thereby causing the computer to act so erratically and to lock up to such an extent that I was seriously starting to think that either the power supply or the motherboard were going bad on me.

    Thankfully the problem turned out to be just a simple jumper setting on the 750 GB drive.

    I've seen similar behavior in the past with bad motherboards and power supplies and that is why I was seriously looking at both in an attempt to locate and fix the problem.

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