Power Supply Undervoltage?

Hello Gentlemen,
We recently lost a mobo, an Asus A7N8X-X. A good board that served us well
for almost 3 years before showing any signs of failure. As some of you might
know, the NF2 chipset boards are getting increasingly hard to find.
So I felt lucky to acquire an Abit NF7S, as this was my 3rd runner-up board I
was hoping to find as a replacement.

While we never noticed a voltage issue with the Asus board, it may have been
there all along.
We have an Allied AL-B450E power supply.

When the software was installed for the Abit board the EQ was beeping, to
which it was reporting the -12V was operating at -13.1V, which is only .1V
below the threshhold.

Upon inspecting the Health Status in the CMOS, everything seems to be running
in close tolerance, except the -12V is showing -13.11V and the -5V is
bouncing back and forth between -5.05V and -4. :0V (yes, "-4. :0V")

Rundown of PC Health Status in CMOS:
CPU Core Voltage: 1.65V to 1.67V
VCC Voltage (+2.5V) : 2.64V to 2.66V
I/O Voltage (+3.3V) : steady 3.36V
+5V : steady 5.16V
+12V : 12.10V to 12.16V
-12V : -13.11V to -13.19V
-5V : -5.05V OR -4. :0V
3.3V Dual Voltage : steady 3.65V
Standby Voltage (+5V) : 5.68V to 5.70V

The Abit EQ reads the same except is doesn't show the real-time fluctuations,
the +12V is always 12.16, and the -5V always shows perfect -5.0V

If need be I can break out the digital multitester and get readings at the MB
connector.

System Rundown:
Athlon XP 2600+
Corsair TwinX 1024 - 3200LLPT
ATI X700 256mb 8X AGP
SB Live 5.1 sound
CD-Rom drive
CDRW drive
4 fans, no floppy
"Optimal" settings in CMOS, no overclocking, etc etc.

I'm hoping this isn't an issue with the board itself, this board was the very
last NF2 board that the supplier had and it took me a couple of days, off and
on searching, to find this one.
Any ideas? Time for a new Power Supply?
Thanks,
Don

don't know about your particular board but I can tell you that the -5
and -12 volt rails have not been in use on the last several Intel based
boards I have used such as the IC7-G and IS7-G and maybe even my BE7 as
well... monitoring software would report back voltages for those rails but
it would frequently be a bogus reading...

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified



"ICTshark" <u17187@uwe> wrote in message news:59c023f82789e@uwe...
> Hello Gentlemen,
> We recently lost a mobo, an Asus A7N8X-X. A good board that served us
> well
> for almost 3 years before showing any signs of failure. As some of you
> might
> know, the NF2 chipset boards are getting increasingly hard to find.
> So I felt lucky to acquire an Abit NF7S, as this was my 3rd runner-up
> board I
> was hoping to find as a replacement.
>
> While we never noticed a voltage issue with the Asus board, it may have
> been
> there all along.
> We have an Allied AL-B450E power supply.
>
> When the software was installed for the Abit board the EQ was beeping, to
> which it was reporting the -12V was operating at -13.1V, which is only .1V
> below the threshhold.
>
> Upon inspecting the Health Status in the CMOS, everything seems to be
> running
> in close tolerance, except the -12V is showing -13.11V and the -5V is
> bouncing back and forth between -5.05V and -4. :0V (yes, "-4. :0V")
>
> Rundown of PC Health Status in CMOS:
> CPU Core Voltage: 1.65V to 1.67V
> VCC Voltage (+2.5V) : 2.64V to 2.66V
> I/O Voltage (+3.3V) : steady 3.36V
> +5V : steady 5.16V
> +12V : 12.10V to 12.16V
> -12V : -13.11V to -13.19V
> -5V : -5.05V OR -4. :0V
> 3.3V Dual Voltage : steady 3.65V
> Standby Voltage (+5V) : 5.68V to 5.70V
>
> The Abit EQ reads the same except is doesn't show the real-time
> fluctuations,
> the +12V is always 12.16, and the -5V always shows perfect -5.0V
>
> If need be I can break out the digital multitester and get readings at the
> MB
> connector.
>
> System Rundown:
> Athlon XP 2600+
> Corsair TwinX 1024 - 3200LLPT
> ATI X700 256mb 8X AGP
> SB Live 5.1 sound
> CD-Rom drive
> CDRW drive
> 4 fans, no floppy
> "Optimal" settings in CMOS, no overclocking, etc etc.
>
> I'm hoping this isn't an issue with the board itself, this board was the
> very
> last NF2 board that the supplier had and it took me a couple of days, off
> and
> on searching, to find this one.
> Any ideas? Time for a new Power Supply?
> Thanks,
> Don