One More Question for Chewy

[Chewy]

looks like a bad power supply

[UncasMS]

i agree with chewy:

the psu does not seem to be capable of delivering sufficient power
but that's another story - no system crashes so far?

in order to test if another fan blowing from bottom to top MAY help you might try removing parts of your case and maybe use a ventilator for testing before buyng and mounting another (larger; i.e. 120mm) fan to your case

in case a ventilator does not cool down your cpu by a couple of degrees than installing a fan wont change much either

so remove the case, let your pc run for a couple of minutes, measure the temps and only then activate another ventilator to see if temperatures change

dont just shutdown the pc, remove case and find a lower temperatures when using a ventilator immediately because the lower temp may simply be the result of the removed case!

[MystDrg75]

no I havent had any system crashes at all yet. What would you recommend for a power supply wattage then. I have a 350 now so goto a 400-450?

[Chewy]

this part of the summary report will give a clue as to how much wattage

Motherboard:
CPU Type AMD Athlon XP, 2166 MHz (13 x 167) 2700+
Motherboard Name Soyo KT880 DRAGON 2 (5 PCI, 1 AGP Pro, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset VIA Apollo KT880
System Memory 512 MB
BIOS Type AMI (09/07/04)

Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 460 (64 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce4 MX 460
Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB] (12321)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter VIA AC'97 Enhanced Audio Controller

Storage:
IDE Controller VIA Bus Master IDE Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller VIA Serial ATA RAID Controller
Disk Drive ST312082 7AS SCSI Disk Device (120 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Optical Drive _NEC DVD_RW ND-3520AW (DVD+R9:4x, DVD-R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/24x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
Optical Drive BENQ DVD DD DW1620 (DVD+R9:2.4x, DVD+RW:16x/4x, DVD-RW:16x/4x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:40x/24x/40x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4163B (DVD+R9:4x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-RAM:5x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:40x/24x/40x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:
C: (NTFS) 14998 MB (11138 MB free)
D: (NTFS) 99472 MB (72159 MB free)
Total Size 111.8 GB (81.3 GB free)

[MystDrg75]

here is my report for those sections:

<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3>Motherboard: <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>CPU Type <TD>Unknown, 1833 MHz (11 x 167) 2600+ <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Motherboard Name <TD>PCChips M848A (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR, 3 DDR DIMM, Audio, LAN) <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Motherboard Chipset <TD>SiS 748 <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>System Memory <TD>1536 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM) <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>BIOS Type <TD>AMI (07/15/04) <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Communication Port <TD>Communications Port (COM1) <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Communication Port <TD>ECP Printer Port (LPT1) <TR><TD> <TR><TD><TD><TD colSpan=3>Display: <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Video Adapter <TD>NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000 (128 MB) <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>3D Accelerator <TD>nVIDIA GeForce4 MX 4000 <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Monitor <TD>Proview 777(N) / 786(N) [17" CRT] (FBUL34098928U) <TR><TD> <TR><TD><TD><TD colSpan=3>Multimedia: <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Audio Adapter <TD>Creative SB PCI128 (Ensoniq ES5880) Sound Card <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Audio Adapter <TD>SiS 7012 Audio Device <TR><TD> <TR><TD><TD><TD colSpan=3>Storage: <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>IDE Controller <TD>SiS PCI IDE Controller <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Floppy Drive <TD>Floppy disk drive <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Disk Drive <TD>ST3200826A (186 GB, IDE) <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Disk Drive <TD>WDC WD400BB-32CLB0 (37 GB, IDE) <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Optical Drive <TD>COMBO IDE5232CO (DVD:16x, CD:52x/32x/52x DVD-ROM/CD-RW) <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Optical Drive <TD>DVDRW IDE 16X <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>SMART Hard Disks Status <TD>OK <TR><TD> <TR><TD><TD><TD colSpan=3>Partitions: <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>C: (NTFS) <TD>131061 MB (123015 MB free) <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>D: (NTFS) <TD>38162 MB (37949 MB free) <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>E: (NTFS) <TD>59702 MB (59480 MB free) <TR><TD><TD><TD><TD>Total Size <TD>223.6 GB (215.3 GB free)
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


Dont know why it say CPU type says unknown but it an AMD Sempron

[Chewy]

the sis chipset and pcchips mobo may be a large part of the problem,
after running for a while reboot into bios and check your temps there, and your 12 v power rail, if voltage is still low(10%) then I would go with a quality
400-450Watt PS, marginal ones like your 350 wear out quickly, ram uses power too!

[MystDrg75]

i just checked my bios cause my machine has been running for about 3 hours or so and this is what bios said:

CPU VCore Voltage : 1.568V
DDR Memory Voltage : 2.544V
CPU Temp : 62

I really dont know what those voltage readings mean?

[Chewy]

+12 V 8.19 V
CPU Core 1.55 V

that's what everest said

If bios confirms your 12 volt is that low, your power supply is going out

[MystDrg75]

Can somebody give me a run down on how to flash my bios? There is a bios update for my Motherboard but i dont know how to flash it and don't want to mess anything up. I tried using the how to flash link on the website but it just brings me back to the download page and doesn't say how to do it. I have never flashed bios before.

[UncasMS]

provide us with the link so we may take a look at it

it will be way different with pcchips than asus for example - i can do a bios update while running windows downloading the bios via internet through an asus applications

you may have to go the hard way via floppy

BUT a bios update will not change the fact that everest reported ~8v for what should have been ~12v with your psu and that is very critical

it simply means your psu is not providing sufficient power on the 12v line no matter if the psu is labelled: 350 or 500 watt

[MystDrg75]

http://www.pcchips.com.tw/PCCWeb/Downloads/ProductsDetail_Download.aspx?DetailID=251&DetailName=BIOS&DetailDesc=M848ALU(V2.1)&MenuID=35&LanID=2

thats the link to the bios download. I know this won't help with the power problem. Im going out today to see if I can find a new power supply for my system. This will help me with another problem that pops up from now and then where im getting a wrong processor reproted now and then. Sometimes it will say i have a amd 3d now or an amd athlon xp processor when i actually have a sempron 2600+. I just don't want to do something that i'm not sure on how to do it and mess somethiing up.

another thing I have actually gotten my cpu to drop some in temp I think. I found that I had my heat sink on backwards. Luckily I didn't damage the chip any. Checked it over real good. No scratches, nicks or breaks anywhere. Anyways when I switched it around my bios is reading it at 50 C so its dropped from 63 C but Everest is still reading it at 63 C.

[UncasMS]

I found that I had my heat sink on backwards

that is exactly what i thought about when posting one picture of a ventac cooler, which definitely needs correct fit but the one you use looked to me that it could be mounted either way

[MystDrg75]

alright i need some more help here. I got a new power source today. I got it from a place called Milwaukee PC don't know if you ever heard of it but it a supply and repair store here in Wisconsin. When I went in there I told them my case type, motherboard, processor and everything I was running in side the system. They were alright and sold me a 450 power supply and said that should more than what I need for what I have in the system. Well I got home put it in, got everything hooked up and according to Everest my 12 v readings are still fluxuating from 5.0V to 10.00V which is no different than my 350 power source. What am I doing wrong here? There is no reading for my 12v in bios so I cant check it there just readings for my cpu and ddr memory. Is there a bios setting that is wrong maybe I realy don't know?

And the reason I was thinking of flashing bios cause i was reading on the sempron support boards that alot of people with this processor and board were getting incorrect readings of cpu temps until they flashed there bios then it read right.

[UncasMS]

hmm

i hope you just didnt spend money for nothing

from what everest stated it absolutely looked like your old psu was insufficient for some reason

in case your mainboard is to blame then maybe you should try to sell your old psu (keep the newer one)


++++++++++++


concerning the biosflash:
you will have to download the flashutility and the bios rom

start the flashutility and see what it tells you to do - we cant simulate that as the utility checks whether or not it may start depending on your mainboard and bios

[MystDrg75]

alright i downloaded both and when run the flash utility it just opens a cmd window for a sec and then closes it and that it. It doesnt ask to do anything in the cmd window at all.