Candid question: voltage

  • Thread starter Thread starter Charles
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Charles

Hello

a candid question: I have an Asus motherboard and when I launch Asus
probe, it says I have a problem because my +5voltage is at 3.69.
Everything else is ok, and to be honest I don't suffer too much from
this voltage issue.

So what does this voltage thing means? What is the 5v power for? Is it
used by the motherboard or the CPU? The USB cables maybe (I have plenty
of these...but unplugging them doesn't seem to have much impact)

I'm also surprised because I just changed the power unit for a
powerfull 500W.

Is it serious doctor?
Charles
 
Charles said:
I have an Asus motherboard and when I launch Asus
probe, it says I have a problem because my +5voltage is at 3.69.
Everything else is ok, and to be honest I don't suffer too much from
Click to expand...
So what does this voltage thing means? What is the 5v power for?
Click to expand...

Why is it a candid question? I can't imagine voltage ever being a
private issue.

It almost surely means the reading is completely wrong since few, if
any, desktop motherboards can operate without +5V from the power supply
(it is possible to derive this from the +12V, as is done for the < 3V
used for the CPU), and +3.69V is far too low to allow reliable
operation parallel IDE disk drives, keyboards, mice, and some other
logic circuits. Look at the voltage readings with another monitoring
program, the BIOS setup, or, much better, a digital voltage meter.
Only the latter is guaranteed to be trustworthy.
I'm also surprised because I just changed the power unit for a powerful 500W.
Click to expand...

As opposed to a weak 500W? I mean, some supplies advertised as having
500W capacity can't put out even half as much.
 
I think the old one was a 400W but certainly a cheap one. This one is
an EXPENSIVE 500W.... so as any smart buyer knows, expensive means
quality!

Thanks for your answer.
Charles
 
quote="Charles"]I think the old one was a 400W bu
certainly a cheap one. This one i
an EXPENSIVE 500W.... so as any smart buyer knows, expensive mean
quality

Thanks for your answer
Charles[/quote
Click to expand...

Just like the word hi-fi...

Although the PSU is working your computer, there may will be a faul
on the 5V rail, suppose a dodgy decoupling capacitor which smooth'
the 'chopped' supply after its rectification, this would cause a H
ripple voltage on the supply - more ac than DC this would easil
indicate a lower dc voltage in the bios reading and on any DC tes
meter

I recently had problems booting the HDD due to bios corruptio
everything in bios was OK except the 5 V 30 amp rail which was dow
to 4.3V, rebooting the bios cured the 5v problem and the compute
worked normally, when the shops opened the next day I got a new bio
battery, it read 2.5V instead of 3V on a digi-meter with a hig
ohms/volt loading

Was it the battery or a spike (unwanted high voltage pulse) on th
mains power line in my case I'll never know.

Dav
 
Charles said:
I think the old one was a 400W but certainly a cheap one. This one is
an EXPENSIVE 500W.... so as any smart buyer knows, expensive means
quality!
Click to expand...

Rolls Royce owners will tell you otherwise, and your 500W may be the
Rolls Royce of power supplies
 
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