p4 voltage not stable

[slo]

Today i turned on my old pc : p4 3.2 on s478; msi neo-s 848 mobo; x700 pro vid card; 1gig ram; and a generic psu and noticed the Vcore isnt stable. It ranges from 1.3 to 1.5 changing every second (seems that thats the refresh rate). WTF???
Is it a problem with the volt regulators of the mobo or it is the PSU? I also had a fried mobo some time ago on that pc with the same psu. unfortunatly i dont have a spare psu atm to try. any help would be appreciated

 

[slo]

just saw it going up to 1.657. Somthing is def. wrong with it...

 

[mi1ez]

sounds like a schiz PSU

 

[dagoth_ur]

or the motherboard. Check the capacitors, if they seem to be leaked, thats it. However, I wouldt care, until the system becomes unstable.

 

[slo]

the system sometimes restarts before loading windows but once it loads up it's stable even under full load. The moboo is relatively new, the capacitors seem fine. but the Psu makes a funny noise. Doesnt seem like a fan. I updated the bios to the newst version and there is some improovement in the readings. but still not stable enough.
now its 1.36 -1.46 and averages at 1.41. i'll get a new psu and see what happens.

Thanks for the input.

 

[nukemaster]

How old are we talking about? Do you have speed step?

Speed step changed the cpu speed and voltage to save power and heat....there is another intel feature C1E that also changes voltage based on load(someone can explain it better....come on in zorg ).

1.36 - 1.46 sounds ALLOT better....its almost within a 5% tolerance.

Get cpu-z and see if the cpu speed is also changing.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

post your results

 

[slo]

its a 90nm prescott on 478 mpga. Am not sure if it supports speedstep but am sure its dissabled.
am not sure about C1E but the voltage changes at idle so that mustnt be it.
I hope its not the MoBo cz am not willing to go through the trouble of finding a socket 478 for prescott (only 865 and 848 intel chipsets are s478 and support prescotts).

 

[nukemaster]

hmmmm, i would say if its stable and not over heating, just keep on running it.

For all we know its just a bad voltage sensor reading(well misreading)....after all if it made it to 1.65 volts you should have seen a massive heat jump....

 

[slo]

The processor runs relatily hot, too. about 50c idle but its on stock cooler and we all know prescotts, espsecially high clocked ones aint the coolest chips around. By next week i should me able to get a new PSU so no prob if thats it.

Thanks for you'r help guys