6.85 volts on the 5volt line?!?!!?

resently my video card told me it wasnt getting enough power so i opened the case pulled the power cable (in bios) and used a multi tester on it. to my suprise it was running 6.85 volts on the supposed 5 volt line, and all the status programs in windows and the bios tell me its running at 5.18. im not that big into the actual electronic make up of computer componets so how big a deal is this? (i also checked one of the other lines to make sure it wasnt just that one. they both were 6.85v)

 

Usually the motherboard voltages are out but in this case I think your testmeter might be out see if you can get hold of another for a second test,your psu may be a cheapo thats causing the reading so post the brand and model,did you do these tests with the pc on,under load or just the psu on its own

may I ask what provoked you into testing the voltages

 

I no the tester is good. the powersupply i have is a thermaltake 480 watt (not cheap) and i tested it cause my video card poped up and said it wasnt getting enough power so i tested it. (sry for the long time my internet screwed up)

 

Don't forget that you have tested your voltage without a load... therefore it will probably measure higher than with a load. Ok your tester IS a load in a way but a very small one.

In basic terms, if you test say a battery with a basic multimeter, it will usually register a higher voltage than when that battery is under load.

I wouldn't worry about it to be honest.. it sounds about right for a +5v supply not under load.

You COULD measure it with the card attached and power on which would give you a closer reading but if all is working ok then I wouldnt bother to be honest...

 

As has been said I wouldnt worry about it,if your video card is the problem post your specs maybe someone can help

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/announcement.php?f=22


Is the card a 6600 GT agp by any chance,do you have the extra molex power connected to the card

 

Faulty Basil has already pointed out that if you measured the voltage with no load (other than the meter itself), the voltage may read higher than it would with the appropriate load on the system.

The "real-life" load can be critical to an accurate measurement. If, for instance, the card was drawing too much power, the voltage could be drawn down to a point that was too low for the load. A properly-regulated PSU can deliver a consistent voltage on any rail only as long as the load on that rail is within the PSU's design parameters. If the load exceeds the design parameters, the voltage will drop below specs. If the load is less than the rail was designed for, the voltage on that rail may rise above the nominal value. PSUs for computers are NOT designed to operate in a no-load condition.

Some PSUs (the cheaper ones, usually) react badly to being powered up with no load whatsoever. They may shut down to avoid self-destruction, or they may overheat. Even if it has adequate protection circuitry, firing up a PSU with no load attached is not a good idea.

 

there was some load on it and it is by no means a "cheap" psu i paid bout 90-110 dollars for it. the load on it was a high speed cd+-rw drive and 6000 rpm turbine fan. i also noticed that the fan cable had gotten pulled off so i reattached it u think maybe the unplug fan made it say that? (maybe it judges the power by fan RPM) o yeah its a PNY card nVidia chipset 5900 its also overclocked)

 

I'll agree that Thermaltake makes a good PSU, but even the good manufacturers can screw up once in a while.

However, a fan and an optical drive don't present much of a load for a 480w PSU. If that load was not within the PSU's design parameters, the reading you got isn't indicative of very much. I'd guess that anything less than 10% of the PSU's capacity wasn't contemplated by the designers -- and the load you applied may be closer to 5% of the PSU's capacity.

I'd suggest that you retest the voltage with something like a real-life load on the PSU. Install it as you would normally, and test the voltages by sticking the probes into the back of a Molex connector that's hooked to a drive. Any red lead should be carrying 5 volts.

A voltage that departs from nominal by more than 10% of nominal is usually considered a fault.

 

ill just start playing f.e.a.r. multiplayer with high graphics so its super laggy that aoughta be a load for it. then ill test it

 

That would do it -- but I think you've confused the electrical load on the PSU with the computing load on the CPU.

 

No, my video card has a power outlet for a molex 5v cable so if i get the card really working its going to pull one hell of a load off the PSU (I have not yet come across a game able to over power my CPU. the video card bottlenecks it so the 3.0 ghz cpu runs over everything that gets to it.)

 

That being the case -- let us know what voltage you get on the 5v line with that load on it.