Nexus NX-3000 12v rail at 11.6v Too low to be stable?

yatz · Post by **yatz** » Thu May 01, 2003 10:49 am

I'm thinking about overclocking my system:

P4 3.06
P4G8X (7205)
2 Gigs Corsair PC2700 ram
WB800JB
WB2000JB
Liteon CDRW

Right now the voltage monitor reports very stable voltages for everything BUT +12v. Which is at 11.6v.... thats still within 96%...

I'm wandering if it will hurt system stablility when overclocked?
Will dropping the WB800JB bump up my +12v up?

Post by **MikeC** » Thu May 01, 2003 7:36 pm

Contact resistance in the ATX connector could be responsible for that. If you have a multimeter, measure the voltage across the black and yellow pins on any unused 4-pin power connector. If you get significantly higher than 11.6V (say 12V), then contact resistance is a definite possibility. Try "cleaning" the ATX pin contacts by removing/inserting it from the mobo a few times (scrapes off oxidation) -- with the system unplugged from the wall. Might make a difference. If it oc's ok anyway, don't worry about it. Sensors could be misreporting, too.

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Fri May 02, 2003 12:42 am

I don't know though Mike,
My Antec TruePower 380S (sonata) was giving me all kinds of wacky voltage readings and the first time I powered up the system it would crash at the WinXP boot screen. It wasn't until I swapped in my Allied 350W PSU that true system stability returned.
I'm working with the Antec rep to get an RMA sorted out but here's what I was able to find out.

Measuring the Volts on the Antec at any molex plug (and the ATX plug) showed stable volts within +/- 0.1%. However, the motherboard sensors were reporting volts jumping all over the place (ie. 12V reported as low as 11.1V, 5V reported as low as 4.3V, 3.3V reported as low as 2.98!!):shock:
These are with all new components too. Reseating the ATX connector did not help and there was no corrosion present. Voltage readings with a digital multimeter can be misleading sometimes because they don't show the fluctuations like an analog (still my favorite) meter would.

On the other hand, my old Allied 350W (pretty quiet BTW) was reporting volts almost spot-on (12V was between 11.96 and 12.05, etc.) with the motherboard sensors.

Hopefully a replacement PSU will solve everything but if not, I'll be trying out a Fortron instead.

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Fri May 02, 2003 1:17 am

digitalix wrote:Just comes to show Antec doesn't always mean the product will be great

I love the Sonata case! Maybe I just got a dud PSU? Who knows, I'll conduct testing if I get a replacement (no word yet from Antec tech support).

Off topic-
Too bad the other side of the Sonata (and top/bottom) is riveted. I'll have to drill out the rivets to install my melamine foam this weekend.