Diagnosing reboot under load

Bill Schoolcraft bill at wiliweld.com
Mon Nov 7 17:44:50 GMT 2005


At Mon, 7 Nov 2005 it looks like Micah composed:

> Alex Zbyslaw wrote:
>> Bill Moran wrote:
>> 
>>> Bill Moran <wmoran at potentialtech.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> Micah <micahjon at ywave.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> I'm running the i386 version of FreeBSD with 1gb ram.  Didn't think to 
>>>>> check this before, but I'm getting ~112-113 volts into the PSU from the 
>>>>> surge strip.  I'm probably going to get a new PSU today.  The parts 
>>>>> store has a couple of 400 watters in the $50 range (a fortron and a 
>>>>> thermaltake).
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Cheap power supplies are a near guarantee that your computer will be
>>>> unstable.  Unfortunately, $cheap doesn't always == quality cheap.
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> I recommend the more recent one as a guage for what manufacturers you
>>> can trust.  Frankly, if you're only spending $50 on a 400W, you're
>>> probably getting a piece of junk - although Fortron has been rating
>>> well in Tom's tests.
>>> 
>> A PSU actually capable of 350W *ought* to have done you fine, but many 
>> cheap PSUs, as Bill says, just don't cut it.  I'd personally recommend a 
>> Seasonic, which won't be cheap, but will be quiet and reliable if mine is 
>> anything to go by.  Antec also seem to have a reasonable rep.
>> 
>> There's a nice wattage claculator here: 
>> http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/Power_Supply_Calculator.php?
>> 
>> --Alex
>
> Thanks for the link.  I actually used that calculator when I pieced this 
> machine together.
>
> I'm really beginning to doubt it's the PSU.  Why?  I cannot get the output 
> voltage to drop no matter what load I throw at it.  I plugged in four 
> additional hard drives and ran a system stress test and still the voltages 
> remained rock steady at the values I stated earlier.  I ran it for an hours 
> with the high-low monitor on a Fluke multimeter.  The +5 stayed near 5.1 with 
> 5.08 as the bottom, and the +12 stayed near 11.89 with 11.84 as the minimum. 
> I even had one of the "random segfaults" and the +12 voltage never dropped 
> below 11.84.  I'm not sure how I can get the load any higher without using 
> resistors which most certainly does not simulate the load I'm generating 
> while compiling.

Hello,

How were you using the Fluke meter to test amperage?  I was not
aware that it would work with a ground line embedded inside the
power cable?

I currently have a Fluke-T5-600 and I'm curious about the above
test.  http://www.tequipment.net/FlukeT5-600VoltageTester.html

Thanks




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