what kind of psu is it? make/model/amperage on the +12? it's entirely possble that, even if you bought a quality PSU, it's giving up the ghost. If that does end up being the problem, i'd look at your system for a reason. a friend of mine went through 3 psus before we figured out that a fan was shorting itself out and messing them up.. Gigabyte GA-K8NS Athlon64 3000+ Venice E6 Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu LED X800XL 256MB AGP 1GB Corsair PC3200 VS 120GB WD/160GB Maxtor Aspire Chameleon 550W

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I disagree. In the days of 8 bit computing there was no internet - if a company was found to be making poor PS's, it wasn't long before that company went out of business from lack of orders and a bad reputation. Early PS's were several hundred dollars, the quality control was likely to be quite good, and it was rare for a PS to go bad - ones I've had in computers from the early days, and still have a few of, worked/work fine. In fact I can't recall any that failed on me. Nowadays vendors can get away with selling crap PS's a lot easier than they could back then because even if they have a bad reputation they can still sell enough PS's to suckers to stay in business - some even periodically change their brand on the PS, or sell them under OEM to others who re-sell them under brands which change over time. It seems quite evident to me the number of these poor PS's greatly increased about the time Super Socket 7's and PIII's came out, when the numbers of people using the internet was surging, and it's gotten worse since.

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broncodeuce: The following URL goes to a picture I took of the label on my PSU. As you can see, it is completely generic and doesn't even have a UL number! I SOOO got ripped off... http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n231/kkishkon/PowerSupply.jpg Unfortunately, I cannot tell you my current amperages because my multimeter is some 20km away at the moment. However, I can tell you the voltages that SpeedFan is reporting: Vcore: 1.65 +3.3: 3.15 +5: 5.00 +12: 11.80 -12: 1.21 -5: 2.29 +5VSB: 5.54 VBAT: 0.03 A couple of those numbers are really, really scary looking... Tubesandwires: I understand what you're saying...true, older power supplies rarely fail. HOWEVER, what I was saying is that there was practically no demand on them like in today's components. Yes, quality has definitely dropped. No question about that. Though, that is not the only factor. -Kevin ASRock K7S41GX AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton 1850MHz 512MB DDR333 WD 160GB IDE HDD ATI Radeon 9200 128MB AGP8x

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The meter in ammeter mode must be connected in series, so that all the current passes through the meter. It's difficult measuring amperage of a mboard circuit without having to cut wires and connect them together again afterward unless you rig up some adaptation or adapter that allows you to sever a circuit and insert the meter leads between the severed ends, such as at the main connector from the PS. Finding out the current voltages is relatively easy and does not require cutting of wires or the use of an adapter, and is a fairly good indicator or whether you have problems with the PS. However, like I said in that info I pointed you too, if the voltages don't seem that bad, sometimes you must use a program such as Speedfan in Windows set to constantly monitor and warn you if there are problems in order to figure out when you are having problems as they happen to get the true picture. Programs like Speedfan must be able to auto detect or be set to the actual correct hardware reading chip(s) on the mboard, and they assume the inputs are connected the way the chip designers intended. You should also examine the current voltages in the bios Setup - if Speedfan has got it right the readings will be the same or very similar - if the readings are different the Setup readings are more likely to be correct, especially if the mboard sensor inputs to the chip(s) were not are connected the way the chip designers intended. The current readings in the bios Setup are usually pretty close to readings you get with a meter, but obviously you have multiple places you can test some of the voltages with a meter. If your Vbat was actually 0.03 volts, the bios/cmos wouldn't be able to retain any user settings including the time and date, and you would be getting a Cmos Checksum error or similar everytime you boot.

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Don't waste your money buying a PS that is a lot bigger than you need unless your plan to use the PS with a newer mboard later. Going by your specs in your posts, 300 watts would be fine if it is a good brand, but you may have a hard time finding any smaller than 350 watts. I've been told by a local place that builds oodles of custom computers that you don't need any more than 350 watts for current mboards unless you have a heavily loaded server or a mboard with PCI-e slots and you are using something in the slots such as a video card or cards. Buy a PS of a brand with a good reputation, that has a warranty of at least a year, or preferably 3 years, and that has anti-short and overvoltage protection built in (it will shut down in those circumstances). Don't rely on a vendor's description - take a look at the specs for the model on the manufacturer's web site. If there is no web site, or if the web site is crummy, look elsewhere. Good brands often have Reviews or Awards their PS's have won listed on their web sites, and/or multiple country certification certificates in their manuals (most good brands have manuals or spec documents for their models available on the web site). You don't necessarily have to order online. Even if you pay more locally, there is no shipping to pay if you pick it up - taking that into account it is often cheaper. Good brands available locally vary in price depending on where you are. Where I am Enermax are a good deal (3 year warranty).

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Well, thanks for the input and suggestions... However, I am having no problems now. None whatsoever. No boot problems, no running problems. Sooo...I'm not going to fix what isn't broken. Or, if it is broken, I will wait until it becomes obvious. Thanks again, Kevin ASRock K7S41GX AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton 1850MHz 512MB DDR333 WD 160GB IDE HDD ATI Radeon 9200 128MB AGP8x

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