[rescue] x86 power question

[Chad McAuley]

On 11/13/06, velociraptor <velociraptor at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm still wrestling my x86 box...and have another question.
>
> I actually got out the DMM and measured my +12V and +5V rails under
> load.  I discovered the +5V was low enough to be out of spec.  (+12V
> is rock solid.)  I'm pretty surprised, as the PSU is a higher end
> Antec True Power 550W, so I have a query in about a warranty repair.
>
> Anywa, my question...could sagging power damage the motherboard and/or
> disks?
>
> I ripped the power hog ATI 9800 video card out and put in the older
> one I had, and the +5V stabilized and came into spec, but I am still
> seeing boot disk issues.  Oddly, the disks connected to the RAID card
> (both powered by the same PSU) are showing zero problems, so I am
> wondering if the low voltage damaged the on-board IDE chip set rather
> than the disks.
>
> CPU seems ok, machine posts even in the low voltage condition.
>
> I don't have another x86 box I can use to run the bootable Seagate
> tools to test the disk directly connected to an IDE chain, and I don't
> think the Windows based Seagate tools will work on drives connected
> via a USB or FW bridge.  I should probably just bite the bullet and
> buy a new mobo, given the age of the system but my SA gene wants to
> know the root cause.



Not sure about disks, but I have seen flaky power do all sorts of wonky
things to other x86 hardware, so I'd guess it's possible.  It is kind of odd
that you're having these issues with an Antec, but IME their support has
always been top notch.