Voltage fluctuations

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

(3rd time i've written this post as its keeps on vanishing:rant: )

Our video editing PC at work is having stability issues and i think its down to either overheating or voltage problems. The PC freezes during DVD buring or video capture/export.

Will a fluctuation on the 12v rail between 11.997v and 12.036v be enough to make a PC unstable?

Whats an acceptable temp for a non OC'd 2.8Ghz P4? The PC thats having stability problems seem to be getting to 50C+. The air from the case fans feels cool while the air from PSU fan is VERY hot in comparison.

Spec of PC in question is:

Antec 1080AMG case with 5*80mm fans.
Antec 430W TruePower PSU
P4 2.8
1Gb Corsair XMS
4* 120Gb HDD in Raid
1 60Gb System HDD
DVD burner
DVD drive
Matrox XT100 video capture card
Matrox cheapy Video Card
Soundblaster Audigy Platinum
Adaptec RAID controller card.


Sorry for the briefness of this post but i've written 2 long ones on this already and lost them both so 've stripped this one down the bare minimum. ;)

[fivecheebs]

I'd say that the Voltage fluctuation is nothing to worry about. There will be a small amount on any PSU. My crappy qtech PSU's 12V line runs at around 11.6V and it only effects the stability when i'm heavily overclocked. Possiubly worth trying a different PSU as youve got a load of stuff there, all being used at the same time in the situations you quote. Maybe your overloading it slightly?

As far as temps are concerned im not sure how cool you should be with that p4 i'm afraid, but you could allways open up the case and point a desk fan inside to see if that makes a diff.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

I've done some experimenting and have been recording some of the temps and i'm now pretty sure the hard drives are overheating. I put a temperature probe between the C: drive and one of the RAID disks during a DVD rip and recorded a temp of 42.3C and thats with the side panel off. i also measured the temp of the air coming out of the PSU and it was at 40.6C.

All temps recorded with a digital rectal thermometer lmao! :lol:

[Starbuck3733T]

IIRC the ATX spec says 5% or 10%, and those numbers are fine.

I have a 120GB maxtor in goliath that likes to sit around 40 to 39*C, and its quite happy (this is with the case on). Not much I can do about it short of buying another silentstar.

[mrplow]

My hard discs run waayyy hotter than that.
The power fluctuations seem pretty insignificant.

Sure it's not just software problems?

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

Definetly hardware. Random crashes and lock-ups are 99% of the time hardware. If you can replicate a crash or BSOD then it tends to be software.


I definetly think its the drives overheating thats causing the problems. We were doing some video captures today and one of the RAID disks failed and it was so hot i burnt myself on it. :rant: I have bastardised another case and taken the HDD caddy from it and attached it to the bottom of the case infront of one of the intakes. I'll move the RAID disk and C: drive down there and see how they get on.

Mod on! :lol:

[Starbuck3733T]

Do you know of any HDD stress test utilities? Ones that can be performed on a drive letter so I can beat the ever living crap out of the 1600GB raid setup on a server here at work. Crashes & Random reboots, nobody on the dell forums can figure it out. Poweredge 4400 if anyone cares.

And like I said, those voltage flucuations are fine.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

I just tend to either defrag or use sisandra to stress the drives. I'm sure if you google you'd get something.

I've always been told that 70% of system crashes are down to bad RAM and PSU problems and tbh i beleive that theory holds true from my experience. The worst stability problems i've ever had was due to a bad stick of OCZ RAM and it did exactly what your describing Star. :huh:

What happens when it cashes? Does it just completely lock up?

[Starbuck3733T]

Reboots itself afaik, i've only been here for a week. might have to hang around some night and run memtest86 on it...