Voltage problems

[kalapat]

I have a Soyo Dragon + mobo with an Athlon 1900 XP chip. My Smartguardian software keeps sounding off with an alarm. The VCore will go into the red by dropping down to 10.17v then a few minutes later spike to 14.33v. Those numbers stay consistant. What would cause this? A short? Power supply? The ps is made by Allied, 350 watts. It was running like champ before I made it into a duel boot system (W2K & XP).

Further system info:
80 GB WD hard drive
Yamaha burner
Creative 52x cdrom drive
iomega zip drive int (just added)
56K int modem
GForce 3 Ti200 vc

I hope someone can help.

Thank you,
Shannon Howerton

[embrelleur]

What OS were you running before?
were you running smartguardian before
Is your comp running good even with this

Maybe the PSU or bad probing software...

[kalapat]

I was running W2k with smartguardian before--no problems. Just repartioned the hard drive and added XP. Made the change this past Thursday. The system started sounding off with alarms today.

[Toaster]

Howdy,
This sounds like an error in the monitoring software but may be a failing power supply.
Allied power supplies are pretty much a "Deer" in disguise. If you have a handy replacement, try swapping out the power supply. If you don't have a handy power supply, you mighy try monitoring the voltages with a meter.
The voltages you state look to be the +12volt lines. This power potential runs your disk drives and CD-ROM drives. With a meter, perferrably of the digital type, connect the black meter probe to an open drive connectors black wire. The red meter probe will be connected to a drive connectors yellow wire.
The 12volt line should stay within 10% (perferably 5%) of the nominal 12 volts so your mesured voltage should be between 11.5~12.5 volts.
You may need to watch these voltages until you are notified by your monitoring software of the voltage error(s). If the monitoring software (even if BIOS) and the meter agree, replace the power supply.

Allied power supplies are quite failure prone. Check the fan and make sure it is working. If not, the supply could be overheating and causing your voltage fluctuations. When (if) replacing the power supply, avoid "Deer" , "Allied" and "Austin" power supplies.

[embrelleur]

I would also try an other monitoring software like MBM5 or Hmon
Maybe your's have some bugs...

[embrelleur]

Another thing: are you sure that you did not changed anything in your hardware configuration lately. Because sometimes, we make changes and don't think it can be the problem, and the first thing we know, this little thing that we never had suspected is the cause of a lot of probs...

[kalapat]

Thanks Embrelleur & Toaster! I've been watching the vcore and =12v status in my BIOS and I'm not seeing the drastic voltages on this end. It must be the monitoring software. I'm still going to take your advice and pull the Allied ps for a better one.

Thanks,
Kalapat