Tracking voltages

[Hard_Boiled]

I just put a new system together using an Epox 8KDA3J with an Athlon 64 3000. My old PSU didn't have a 4 pin connector so I had to go buy an Antec True Power 430.

It's a little disturbing reading the voltages in Motherboard Monitor 5, which says my 12V line is at 9.98V. I have my doubts about whether that is accurate or not. Is there another program that I can use to get a second opinion on the voltage?

 

[Navid]

The best way to make yourself feel better is to use a volt meter and measure the voltage on the 12-V line. I can only speculate that you may have picked an incorrect motherboard when you set up MBM5, or MBM5 is not working preperly with your type of motherboard. 9.98V is too low.
Alternatively, something may be very wrong with your power supply, which you will find as soon as you measure the voltage with a meter.

Have you checked on the wesite of the manufacturer of the board to see if they have a utilit for the board to monitor voltages and temperatures?

 

[Hard_Boiled]

Thanks for the help, I went to Epox and downloaded their monitoring program. However it doesn't seem to measure the 12V line. I'm going to chalk this up to an error on MBM's part, since like you say that is just too low. Better hunt down my ancient voltage meter to be safe though.

I'm a newb when it comes to measuring the voltage like that manually. Would I just use one of the 4 pin connectors to measure the 12V line?

 

[Navid]

Yes, use one of the 4-pin connectors. The two black wires are both ground (0V). So connect the negative input of your volt meter to one of the pins that goes to one of the black wires.
Then, the other two wires are 5V and 12V. So, measure them both while the PC is on.

 

[Odeen]

Check hardware monitoring screen (usually called "PC Health") while in the BIOS.

If 12V is not listed there, then the sensor chip simply doesn't measure it, and MBM is going nuts trying to make sense of the information it sees. For example, on my Leadtek K7NCR18D Pro II Deluxe Limited, the sensor that usually measures +12V is hooked up to either vDIMM or vAGP. As a result, I can monitor that voltage, but not +12V, since nothing is measuring it.